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Thoughts from the Mount of Blessing
Joseph was a light bearer in Egypt. In his purity and benevolence and
filial love he represented Christ in the midst of a nation of idolaters.
While the Israelites were on their way from Egypt to the Promised
Land, the true-hearted among them were a light to the surrounding
nations. Through them God was revealed to the world. From Daniel
and his companions in Babylon, and from Mordecai in Persia, bright
beams of light shone out amid the darkness of the kingly courts. In
like manner the disciples of Christ are set as light bearers on the way
to heaven; through them the Father’s mercy and goodness are made
manifest to a world enshrouded in the darkness of misapprehension of
God. By seeing their good works, others are led to glorify the Father
who is above; for it is made manifest that there is a God on the throne
of the universe whose character is worthy of praise and imitation. The
divine love glowing in the heart, the Christlike harmony manifested in
the life, are as a glimpse of heaven granted to men of the world, that
they may appreciate its excellence.
[42]
It is thus that men are led to believe “the love that God hath to
us.”
1 John 4:16
. Thus hearts once sinful and corrupt are purified
and transformed, to be presented “faultless before the presence of His
glory with exceeding joy.”
Jude 24
.
The Saviour’s words, “Ye are the light of the world,” point to the
fact that He has committed to His followers a world-wide mission.
In the days of Christ, selfishness and pride and prejudice had built
strong and high the wall of partition between the appointed guardians
of the sacred oracles and every other nation on the globe. But the
Saviour had come to change all this. The words which the people were
hearing from His lips were unlike anything to which they had ever
listened from priest or rabbi. Christ tears away the wall of partition,
the self-love, the dividing prejudice of nationality, and teaches a love
for all the human family. He lifts men from the narrow circle that their
selfishness prescribes; He abolishes all territorial lines and artificial
distinctions of society. He makes no difference between neighbors
and strangers, friends and enemies. He teaches us to look upon every
needy soul as our neighbor and the world as our field.
As the rays of the sun penetrate to the remotest corners of the
globe, so God designs that the light of the gospel shall extend to every
soul upon the earth. If the church of Christ were fulfilling the purpose
of our Lord, light would be shed upon all that sit in darkness and in