The traveler to the heavenly country will often set in contrast to the
conditions described below, the time and scene in which “they need no
candle, neither light of the sun, for the Lord God giveth them light”
and “the Lamb is the light thereof.”
In any large city the small hours of the night, while most
people are asleep, is the time when the bread is made and baked,
the great newspapers printed, the food products, such as milk
and vegetables, prepared and brought into the city. If we were
obliged to dispense with our modern systems of illumination the
world would be set back in its civilization beyond our power to
imagine.
(1830)
* * * * *
Jesus stated long ago the philosophy of the paragraph below when He
said “Neither cometh to the light lest their evil deeds should be
reproved” and “men love darkness ... because their deeds are evil.”
The municipality had better take the cue, less light, more
crime, more light, less crime. There are still dark spots to
be found at night within the city limits where a few powerful
arcs would wield an immediate influence. It is easy to see that
arc-lights are cheaper than police officers and a brightly lit
city the greatest imaginable offset to criminality in any stage
or form. (Text.)--_Electricity._
(1831)
* * * * *
An English writer has this to say about the phosphorescent light cast
by the sea-fish called the smelt:
Anybody desirous of seeing the sort of light which it emits
may do so very easily by purchasing an unwashed smelt from
the fishmonger, and allowing it to dry with its natural slime
upon it, then looking at it in the dark. A sole or almost any
other fish will answer the purpose, but I name the smelt from
having found it the most reliable in the course of my own
experiments. It emits a dull, ghostly light, with very little
penetrating power, which shows the shape of the fish, but casts
no perceptible light on objects around.
Here the light is so dim that it gives no illumination beyond outlining
the fish. Many men are like that. They have a little light, but it
never shines beyond themselves. It merely outlines their own lives and
sometimes scarcely that. (Text.)
(1832)
* * * * *
It has been a long stride forward from producing light and
heat by means of flint to producing it by matches. What would
civilization do without matches? Few realize the immense labor,
capital and material used to produce this tiny article of
commerce. As a matter of fact, thousands of men are employed,
millions of dollars invested and vast forests cut down to meet
the demand in America of 700,000,000,000 a year. One plant alone
on the Pacific coast covers 240 acres and uses 200,000 feet of
sugar-pine and yellow-pine logs in a day. The odds and ends will
not do. A constant search is in progress for large forests of
perfect trees to meet the future need.
If such labor and pains are necessary to keep at hand the means
of lighting that which at best is only a temporary flame,
what should measure our diligence to keep our spiritual light
burning? (Text.)
(1833)
See SHINING AS LAMPS.