In the oxy-hydrogen lantern the operator first lights the
hydrogen burner, and it burns like any other gas-light. Then
he turns slowly upon it a little jet of oxygen, under which
at first the flame seems dying down. But presently the lime
candle kindles, and its flame, concentrated by the condensers
to a small jet, begins to glow with a brilliancy that darkens
everything else and can not be endured to look on. So in the
movement of the world--in the “coming age”--there is high
character and grand heroism, and as one studies it he sees
that it is not Stephen’s face that shone like an angel, or
Moses’ which had to be veiled, but the ineffable Spirit that
shone out in them both. The power of the coming age is not the
power of any man, but the power of the God who made all things,
and whose glory here glows and burns brighter than the sun,
bringing out the littlest worthiness of human character in the
concentrated light of love.--FRANKLIN NOBLE, “Sermons
in Illustration.”
(1842)
=Light, Excess of=--See ADVICE DISREGARDED.