'Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill
cannot be hid. 15. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under
a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that
are in the house. 16. Let your light so shine before men, that they
may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in
heaven.'--Matt. v. 14-16.
The conception of the office of Christ's disciples contained in these
words is a still bolder one than that expressed by the preceding
metaphor, which we considered in the last sermon. 'Ye are the salt of
the earth' implied superior moral purity and power to arrest corruption.
'Ye are the light of the world' implies superior spiritual illumination,
and power to scatter ignorance.
That is not all the meaning of the words, but that is certainly in them.
So then, our Lord here gives His solemn judgment that the world, without
Him and those who have learned from Him, is in a state of darkness; and
that His followers have that to impart which will bring certitude and
clearness of knowledge, together with purity and joy and all the other
blessed things which are 'the fruit of the light.'
That high claim is illustrated by a very homely metaphor. In every
humble house from which His peasant-followers came, there would be a
lamp--some earthen saucer with a little oil in it, in which a wick
floated, a rude stand to put it upon, a meal-chest or a flour-bin, and a
humble pallet on which to lie. These simple pieces of furniture are
taken to point this solemn lesson. 'When you light your lamp you put it
on the stand, do you not? You light it in order that it may give light;
you do not put it under the meal-measure or the bed. So I have kindled
you that you may shine, and put you where you are that you may give
light.'
And the same thought, with a slightly different turn in the application,
lies in that other metaphor, which is enclosed in the middle of this
parable about the light: 'a city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.'
Where they stood on the mountain, no doubt they could see some village
perched upon a ridge for safety, with its white walls gleaming in the
strong Syrian sunlight; a landmark for many a mile round. So says
Christ: 'The City which I found, the true Jerusalem, like its prototype
in the Psalm, is to be conspicuous for situation, that it may be the joy
of the whole earth.'
I take all this somewhat long text now because all the parts of it hold
so closely together, and converge upon the one solemn exhortation with
which it closes, and which I desire to lay upon your hearts and
consciences, 'Let your light so shine before men.' I make no pretensions
to anything like an artificial arrangement of my remarks, but simply
follow the words in the order in which they lie before us.
I. First, just a word about the great conception of a Christian man's
office which is set forth in that metaphor, 'Ye are the light of the
world.'
That expression is wide, 'generic,' as they say. Then in the unfolding
of this little parable our Lord goes on to explain what kind of a light
it is to which He would compare His people--the light of a lamp kindled.
Now that is the first point that I wish to deal with. Christian men
individually, and the Christian Church as a whole, shine by derived
light. There is but One who is light in Himself. He who said, 'I am the
light of the world, he that followeth Me shall not walk in darkness,'
was comparing Himself to the sunshine, whereas when He said to us, 'Ye
are the light of the world; men do not light a lamp and put it under a
bushel,' He was comparing us to the kindled light of the lamp, which had
a beginning and will have an end.
Before, and independent of, His historical manifestation in the flesh,
the Eternal Word of God, who from the beginning was the Life, was also
the light of men; and all the light of reason and of conscience, all
which guides and illumines, comes from that one source, the Everlasting
Word, by whom all things came to be and consist. 'He was the true light
which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.' And further, the
historic Christ, the Incarnate Word, is the source for men of all true
revelation of God and themselves, and of the relations between them; the
Incarnate Ideal of humanity, the Perfect Pattern of conduct, who alone
sheds beams of certainty on the darkness of life, who has left a long
trail of light as He has passed into the dim regions beyond the grave.
In both these senses He is the light, and we gather our radiance from
Him.
We shall be 'light' if we are 'in the Lord.' It is by union with Jesus
Christ that we partake of His illumination. A sunbeam has no more power
to shine if it be severed from the sun than a man has to give light in
this dark world if He be parted from Jesus Christ. Cut the current and
the electric light dies; slacken the engine and the electric arc becomes
dim, quicken it and it burns bright. So the condition of my being light
is my keeping unbroken my communication with Jesus Christ; and every
variation in the extent to which I receive into my heart the influx of
His power and of His love is correctly measured and represented by the
greater or the lesser brilliancy of the light with which I reflect His
radiance. Ye were some time darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord.'
Keep near to Him, and a firm hold of His hand, and then you will be
light.
And now I need not dwell for more than a moment or two upon what I have
already said is included in this conception of the Christian man as
being light. There are two sides to it: one is that all Christian people
who have learned to know Jesus Christ and have been truly taught of Him,
do possess a certitude and clearness of knowledge which make them the
lights of the world. We advance no claims to any illumination as to
other than moral or religious truth. We leave all the other fields
uncontested. We bow humbly with confessed ignorance and with unfeigned
gratitude and admiration before those who have laboured in them, as
before our teachers, but if we are true to our Master, and true to the
position in which He has placed us, we shall not be ashamed to say that
we believe ourselves to know the truth, in so far as men can ever know
it, about the all-important subject of God and man, and the bond between
them.
To-day there is need, I think, that Christian men and women should not
be reasoned or sophisticated or cowed out of their confidence that they
have the light because they do know God. It is proclaimed as the
ultimate word of modern thought that we stand in the presence of a power
which certainly is, but of which we can know nothing except that it is
altogether different from ourselves, and that it ever tempts us to
believe that we can know it, and ever repels us into despair. Our answer
is Yes! we could have told you that long ago, though not altogether in
your sense; you have got hold of half a truth, and here is the whole of
it:--'No man hath seen God at any time, nor can see Him!' (a Gospel of
despair, verified by the last words of modern thinkers), 'the only
begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared
Him.'
Christian men and women, 'Ye are the light of the world.' Darkness in
yourselves, ignorant about many things, ungifted with lofty talent, you
have possession of the deepest truth; do not be ashamed to stand up and
say, even in the presence of Mars' Hill, with all its Stoics and
Epicureans:--'Whom ye ignorantly'--alas! not 'worship'--'Whom ye
ignorantly speak of, Him declare we unto you.'
And then there is the other side, which I only name, moral purity. Light
is the emblem of purity as well as the emblem of knowledge, and if we
are Christians we have within us, by virtue of our possession of an
indwelling Christ, a power which teaches and enables us to practise a
morality high above the theories and doings of the world. But upon this
there is the less need to dwell, as it was involved in our consideration
of the previous figure of the salt.
II. And now the next point that I would make is this, following the
words before us--the certainty that if we are light we shall shine.
The nature and property of light is to radiate. It cannot choose but
shine; and in like manner the little village perched upon a hill there,
glittering and twinkling in the sunlight, cannot choose but be seen. So,
says Christ, 'If you have Christian character in you, if you have Me in
you, such is the nature of the Christian life that it will certainly
manifest itself.' Let us dwell upon that for a moment or two. Take two
thoughts: All earnest Christian conviction will demand expression; and
all deep experience of the purifying power of Christ upon character will
show itself in conduct.
All earnest conviction will demand expression. Everything that a man
believes has a tendency to convert its believer into its apostle. That
is not so in regard to common every-day truths, nor in regard even to
truths of science, but it is so in regard to all moral truth. For
example, if a man gets a vivid and intense conviction of the evils of
intemperance and the blessings of abstinence, look what a fiery
vehemence of propagandism is at once set to work. And so all round the
horizon of moral truth which is intended to affect conduct; it is of
such a sort that a man cannot get it into brain and heart without
causing him before long to say--'This thing has mastered me, and turned
me into its slave; and I must speak according to my convictions.'
That experience works most mightily in regard to Christian truth, as the
highest. What shall we say, then, of the condition of Christian men and
women if they have not such an instinctive need of utterance? Do you
ever feel this in your heart:--'Thy word shut up in my bones was like a
fire. I was weary of forbearing, and I could not stay'? Professing
Christians, do you know anything of the longing to speak your deepest
convictions, the feeling that the fire within you is burning through all
envelopings, and will be out? What shall we say of the men that have it
not? God forbid I should say there is no fire, but I do say that if the
fountain never rises into the sunlight above the dead level of the pool,
there can be very little pressure at the main; that if a man has not the
longing to speak his religious convictions, those convictions must be
very hesitating and very feeble; that if you never felt 'I must say to
somebody I have found the Messias,' you have not found Him in any very
deep sense, and that if the light that is in you can be buried under a
bushel, it is not much of a light after all, and needs a great deal of
feeding and trimming before it can be what it ought to be.
On the other hand, all deep experience of the purifying power of Christ
upon character will show itself in conduct. It is all very well for
people to profess that they have received the forgiveness of sins and
the inner sanctification of God's Spirit. If you have, let us see it,
and let us see it in the commonest, pettiest affairs of daily life. The
communication between the inmost experience and the outermost conduct is
such as that if there be any real revolution deep down, it will manifest
itself in the daily life. I make all allowance for the loss of power in
transmission, for the loss of power in friction. I am glad to believe
that you and I, and all our imperfect brethren, are a great deal better
in heart than we ever manage to show ourselves to be in life. Thank God
for the consolation that may come out of that thought--but
notwithstanding I press on you my point that, making all such allowance,
and setting up no impossible standard of absolute identity between duty
and conduct in this present life, yet, on the whole, if we are Christian
people with any deep central experience of the cleansing power and
influence of Christ and His grace, we shall show it in life and in
conduct. Or, to put it into the graphic and plain image of my text, If
we are light we shall shine.
III. Again, and very briefly, this obligation of giving light is still
further enforced by the thought that that was Christ's very purpose in
all that He has done with us and for us.
The homely figure here implies that _He_ has not kindled the lamp to put
it under the bushel, but that _His_ purpose in lighting it was that it
might give light. God has made us partakers of His grace, and has given
to us to be light in the Lord, for this among other purposes, that we
should impart that light to others. No creature is so small that it has
not the right to expect that its happiness and welfare shall be regarded
by God as an end in His dealings with it; but no creature is so great
that it has the right to expect that its happiness or well-being shall
be regarded by God and itself as God's only end in His dealings with it.
He gives us His grace, His pardon, His love, the quickening of His
Spirit by our union with Jesus Christ; He gives us our knowledge of Him,
and our likeness to Him--what for? 'For my own salvation, for my
happiness and well-being,' you say. Certainly, blessed be His name for
His love and goodness! But is that all His purpose? Paul did not think
so when he said, 'God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
hath shined into our hearts that we might give to others the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.' And
Christ did not think so when He said, 'Men do not light a candle and put
it under a bushel, but that it may give light to all that are in the
house.' 'Heaven doth with us as we with torches do: not light them for
themselves.' The purpose of God is that we may shine. The lamp is
kindled not to illumine itself, but that it may 'give light to all that
are in the house.'
Consider again, that whilst all these things are true, there is yet a
solemn possibility that men--even good men--may stifle and smother and
shroud their light. You can do, and I am afraid a very large number of
you do do, this; by two ways. You can bury the light of a holy character
under a whole mountain of inconsistencies. If one were to be fanciful,
one might say that the bushel or meal-chest meant material well-being,
and the bed, indolence and love of ease. I wonder how many of us
Christian men and women have buried their light under the flour-bin and
the bed, so interpreted? How many of us have drowned our consecration
and devotion in foul waters of worldly lusts, and have let the love of
earth's goods, of wealth and pleasure and creature love, come like a
poisonous atmosphere round the lamp of our Christian character, making
it burn dim and blue?
And we can bury the light of the Word under cowardly and sheepish and
indifferent silence. I wonder how many of us have done that? Like
blue-ribbon men that button their great-coats over their blue ribbons
when they go into company where they are afraid to show them, there are
many Christian people that are devout Christians at the Communion Table,
but would be ashamed to say they were so in the miscellaneous company of
a railway carriage or a _table d'hote_. There are professing Christians
who have gone through life in their relationships to their fathers,
sisters, wives, children, friends, kindred, their servants and
dependants, and have never spoken a loving word for their Master. That
is a sinful hiding of your light under the bushel and the bed.
IV. And so the last word, into which all this converges, is the plain
duty: If you are light, shine!
'Let your light so shine before men,' nays the text, 'that they may see
your good works and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.' In the next
chapter our Lord says: 'Take heed that ye do not your alms before men to
be seen of them. Thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are; for they love
to pray standing in the synagogues that they may be seen of men.' What
is the difference between the two sets of men and the two kinds of
conduct? The motive makes the difference for one thing, and for another
thing, 'Let your light so shine' does not mean 'take precautions that
your goodness may come out into public,' but it means 'Shine!' You find
the light, and the world will find the eyes, no fear of that! You do not
need to seek 'to be seen of men,' but you do need to shine that men may
see.
The lighthouse keeper takes no pains that the ships tossing away out at
sea may behold the beam that shines from his lamp; all that he does is
to feed it and tend it. And that is all that you and I have to do--tend
the light, and do not, like cowards, cover it up. Modestly, but yet
bravely, carry out your Christianity, and men will see it. Do not be as
a dark lantern, burning with the slides down and illuminating nothing
and nobody. Live your Christianity, and it will be beheld.
And remember, candles are not lit to be looked at. Candles are lit that
something else may be seen by them. Men may see God through your words,
through your conduct, who never would have beheld Him otherwise, because
His beams are too bright for their dim eyes. And it is an awful thing to
think that the world always--_always_--takes its conception of
Christianity from the Church, and neither from the Bible nor from
Christ; and that it is you and your like, you inconsistent Christians,
you people that say your sins are forgiven and yet are doing the old
sins day by day which you say are pardoned, you low-toned, unpraying,
worldly Christian men, who have no elevation of character and no
self-restraint of life and no purity of conduct above the men in your
own profession and in your own circumstances all round you--it is you
that are hindering the coming of Christ's Kingdom, it is you that are
the standing disgraces of the Church, and the weaknesses and diseases of
Christendom. I speak strongly, not half as strongly as the facts of the
case would warrant; but I lay it upon all your consciences as professing
Christian people to see to it that no longer your frivolities, or
doubtful commercial practices, or low, unspiritual tone of life, your
self-indulgence in household arrangements, and a dozen other things that
I might name--that no longer do they mar the clearness of your testimony
for your Master, and disturb with envious streaks of darkness the light
that shines from His followers.
How effectual such a witness may be none who have not seen its power can
suppose. Example does tell. A holy life curbs evil, ashamed to show
itself in that pure presence. A good man or woman reveals the ugliness
of evil by showing the beauty of holiness. More converts would be made
by a Christ-like Church than by many sermons. Oh! if you professing
Christians knew your power and would use it, if you would come closer to
Christ, and catch more of the light from His face, you might walk among
men like very angels, and at your bright presence darkness would flee
away, ignorance would grow wise, impurity be abashed, and sorrow
comforted.
Be not content, I pray you, till your own hearts are fully illumined by
Christ, having no part dark--and then live as remembering that you have
been made light that you may shine. 'Arise, shine, for thy light is
come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.'