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II

GOD THE UNSPOTTED SUN

"God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all.”—1 JOHN i. 5.

"Oh send Thy light forth and Thy truth,

Let them be guides to me,

And bring me to Thine holy hill,

Even where Thy dwellings be."

His Lord and Master authorised the Apostle John to announce to his fellow-men this message concerning the Heavenly Father, that "God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all." The words are not an expression of the Apostle's own opinion, nor an inference from his own reasonings; but a revelation of the nature and character of God, from "Him who was the brightness of His glory, and the very Image of His person,' whose mission was to reveal the compassion and love of the Divine Father. In closely similar words the Son says of Himself "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." The light of His Father shone so clearly through His Son's teachings and obedience that He could say, "He that has seen me has seen the Father"-"I and my Father are one.

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St John's message brings before our minds the most illuminating method in which we can contemplate God, viz., in His own light. By the aid of light as a symbol, He brings God

before our mind, not only as the source of mental and moral enlightenment to one race, or nation, or world; but absolutely to the whole universe of intelligent beings. God is thus self-revealing. He makes Himself known in all His works

around us. Also in the moral and spiritual nature He has given us. Light as a symbol enables us, in a rational and profitable way, to form conceptions of the divine nature and character, more apt, more vivid, more just, and more instructive, than we could by the use of any abstract terms, which we might employ.

We desire humbly to invoke the spirit of light and truth to so illuminate our minds that we may clearly apprehend both God's gracious character and disposition towards us, and our own spiritual condition and relation to Him, as revealed in the text, that so we may have communion with Him in that light, which is both the element of His own nature, and of our fellowship with Him.

I. In meditating on God under this symbol, let us first consider what is affirmed and denied concerning Him in the text.

1. The designation applied to Him was given to the first thing created on the day God made the Heaven and the earth. It was also the first word uttered in the record of Creation. We read in the first chapter of Genesis that God said "light" be, or "let there be light, and there was light." At the command of Him, of whom it is affirmed in the text, that He is light and without any spot or darkness at all, the cosmic light of creation came forth. The Hebrew monosyllable (i) or, translated light, enters into all the ancient lan

guages, even as the light it sets forth does into all things that live. It is in all of them the sign of beginning, origin, or source of productiveness. Thus we find the syllable or appearing in our English word origin; in the earlier Latin word orior; in the yet earlier Greek word (opaw) horao; as in the still older Hebrew word (is) or. This little word or, which means light, whether separately or in composition, always conveys the idea of beginning origin or productiveness. Our great poet Milton, who always expresses his thoughts in the choicest language, in his "Paradise Lost," thus salutes light, the first formed of God's fair Creation

"Hail, holy Light! offspring of heaven, first born,

Or of the Eternal, co-eternal beam,

May I express thee unblamed? Since God is light,
And never but in unapproached light

Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate."

Now while our text affirms that "God is light," we must not suppose that it means to define Him, and in the terms of logic to make subject and predicate equal and convertible. For while it is true, God is light, it is not true that light is God. He is infinitely more. Moreover, light is a physical and created thing, and therefore cannot set forth all the attributes of the uncreated God. It is not more true that God is light, and in Him is no darkness at all, than that God is Almighty, and in Him is no weakness at all; or that He is Omniscient and in Him is no ignorance at all; or that He is a Spirit and has no bodily parts at all; or that He is holy and has no unrighteousness at all. All these expres

sions are equally true, as they are equally scriptural. But the affirmation God is Light gives us a grand and illuminating view of the moral excellence of the divine nature and character. He possesses all wisdom and knowledge, all truth and righteousness, life and grace, beauty and holiness, goodness and love.

To the affirmative statement God is light, is added a strengthening and emphatic denial of its opposite, viz., in Him is no darkness at all. As darkness in the natural world is the absence of light, so darkness in the spiritual world is the absence of God. There is no trace of deceit, guile, falsehood, impurity, error, evil, untruthfulness, or sin in Him. Nor is there any defect, imperfection, change, seed of decay, or admixture of anything alien to perfect purity. No trace of evil or shadow of death. In Him there is no darkness at all. He is the unspotted Sun.

Now, in these moral excellences which He possesses, He is imitable, and we should therefore strive to be like Him, to possess His positive goodness, as well as freedom from even the traces or remains of evil, that there be no darkness at all in us.

We see how the light of the sun reveals physical things to us; so may we how the light, which proceeds from God, reveals spiritual realities. Has He not revealed Himself in His benevolence, as well as His wisdom, in the things which He has created and made? Does He not show forth His goodness, as well as His intelligence, in His control and government of the world? do not His love and grace illuminate every page of His written word? He made

Himself known to the patriarchs through visions, voices, theophonies, dreams, and the visits of angels. Later, He spoke to the fathers by the prophets, but in these last days has spoken to us by His son, who was the brightness of His glory and the very image of His person. That son revealed His wondrous love for the world, in the light of that expedient to which He had recourse to restore it to His favour and to happiness.

2. But not only is God the light of a revelation of Himself and spiritual things; but He is the fountain of spiritual life and growth.

The light of the sun is both the quickening principle and necessary condition of all kinds of terrestrial life and growth. Were his light cut off from the animal or vegetable world, growth and prosperity would cease. Disease, feebleness and death would ensue. Were winter to continue, instead of yielding to the increasing light and heat of spring, life and growth would not return to gladden nature. In like manner were God continually to withdraw from men instead of shedding the light of His word, spirit and grace upon them, they would sink into deeper night and darkness. Hence Christ urges men to believe in Him while it is day. Says He, "While ye have the light, believe in the light, that ye may be the children of light." "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life." The rising of His light dispels darkness of every kind from the soul-ignorance, misery, vice and love of the world. It likewise diffuses knowledge, peace, purity, happiness and joy. "Light is sown,'

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