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Chapter 51—“The Light of Life”
This chapter is based on
John 8:12-59
;
9
.
“I am the light of the world: he that followeth Me shall not walk
in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
It was morning; the sun had just risen above the Mount of Olives,
and its rays fell with dazzling brightness on the marble palaces,
and lighted up the gold of the temple walls, when Jesus, pointing
to it, said, “I am the light of the world.” These words were long
afterward reechoed by the apostle John in that sublime passage, “In
Him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in
the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” “The true light
that enlightens every man was coming into the world.”
John 1:4, 5,
9
, RSV. 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,
moon, and star. As the sunbeams penetrate to the remotest corners
of the earth, so does the light of the Sun of Righteousness shine on
every soul.
“That was the true light, which lighteth every man that cometh
into the world.” Men of giant intellect and wonderful research, whose
utterances have opened vast fields of knowledge, have been honored
as benefactors of their race. But One 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
[314]
back as human records extend; but the Light was before them. As
the moon and the stars of the solar system reflect the light of the sun,
so, as far as their teaching is true, do the world’s great thinkers reflect
the rays of the Sun of Righteousness. The true “higher education” is
that imparted by Him “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom
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