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The Desire of Ages
had ascended to heaven, Peter also, writing under the illumination of
the divine Spirit, recalled the symbol Christ had used: “We have also a
more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed,
as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the
daystar arise in your hearts.”
2 Peter 1:19
.
In the manifestation of God to His people, light had ever been a
symbol of His presence. At the creative word in the beginning, light
had shone out of darkness. Light had been enshrouded in the pillar
of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night, leading the vast armies
of Israel. Light blazed with awful grandeur about the Lord on Mount
Sinai. Light rested over the mercy seat in the tabernacle. Light filled
the temple of Solomon at its dedication. Light shone on the hills of
Bethlehem when the angels brought the message of redemption to the
watching shepherds.
God is light; and in the words, “I am the light of the world,” Christ
declared His oneness with God, and His relation to the whole human
family. It was He who at the beginning had caused “the light to shine
out of darkness.”
2 Corinthians 4:6
. He is the light of sun and moon and
star. He was the spiritual light that in symbol and type and prophecy
had shone upon Israel. But not to the Jewish nation alone was the light
given. As the sunbeams penetrate to the remotest corners of the earth,
so does the light of the Sun of Righteousness shine upon every soul.
“That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh into
the world.” The world has had its great teachers, men of giant intel-
lect and wonderful research, men whose utterances have stimulated
thought, and opened to view vast fields of knowledge; and these men
have been honored as guides and benefactors of their race. But there
is One who stands higher than they. “As many as received Him, to
them gave He power to become the sons of God.” “No man hath seen
God at any time; the only-begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the
Father, He hath declared Him.”
John 1:12, 18
. We can trace the line
of the world’s great teachers as far back as human records extend; but
the Light was before them. As the moon and the stars of the solar
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system shine by the reflected light of the sun, so, as far as their teach-
ing is true, do the world’s great thinkers reflect the rays of the Sun of
Righteousness. Every gem of thought, every flash of the intellect, is
from the Light of the world. In these days we hear much about “higher
education.” The true “higher education” is that imparted by Him “in