"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all."1 John i. 5.-See also Luke ii. 32; John i. 9; 1 Tim. vi. 16. LIGHT was the first created, and is the purest of all God's visible works. It has been chosen by God as the emblem of Himself. Its purity is the image of His holiness; its brightness, of His glory and happiness; its usefulness, of His infinite beneficence. What would be the state of the world without light? There could be no beauty, nor 2 B order, nor cultivation of any useful arts. Things would soon return to that original chaos when the earth was without form and void, while darkness the face of the deep.1 was upon We learn thus the state of any soul that is without God. It has no knowledge of the way to happiness and virtue; no inward order and beauty of holiness; nor any real comfort under the troubles of life. The Lord alone can be its light and its salvation." As light to one who sits in darkness and the shadow of death,3 so is the knowledge of God to the soul of man. Whatever else is looked to for comfort or growth in virtue, will prove only like the sparks which flash brightly for a short season, and soon go out.1 And as the eternal God is said to be "light, and in him is no darkness at all;" so, also, we read of the Lord Jesus Christ, that He is "the true light, that lighteth every man that cometh into the world." So scriptural is the confession of the Church in her Creed: being "God of God," He is " Light of Light;" from all eternity begotten of the Father, with whom He is of one substance, power, and eternity. 8 And thus also the children of God are said to be "children of light." Being born of water and of the Holy Ghost, they are partakers of a Divine nature. And they are commanded to walk in light, even "in the light of the Lord." As God is light without darkness, so Christians, also, are to be "full of light, having no part dark." 10 "If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth : but if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, II.-DARKNESS THE EMBLEM OF EVIL. "Men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were As light is the emblem of the blessed God, it Truly," says the Preacher, "the light is sweet, 11 John i. 6, 7. 2 Eccles. xi. 7. congenial to us, and unpleasing. We feel ourselves helpless in darkness, and sigh for light; we cannot exercise our powers, nor enjoy the beauties of creation. In giving us a lesser light to rule the night," and in spangling the heavens with all those glorious constellations which render a starlight night so beautiful, God has consulted our natural repugnance to darkness; and as we feel this natural dislike to darkness, so should sin excite in us the feelings only of repugnance and abhorrence. It is in darkness that the creatures most loathsome, as well as most terrible to man, come forth, for the most part, from their secret places, as if they shrank from the pure light of day. Works of moral evil, also, shroud themselves under the shades of night, and are called "unfruitful works of darkness.' They shrink from being made manifest; and thus the darkness in which they seek concealment, is the emblem of their own loathsomeness and baseness. As "whatever makes manifest is light," he who is the prince of darkness would keep the soul in ignorance and error; and our frequent prayer should be, that God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, would shine in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ. And, remembering that as light and darkness cannot exist together, so there can be no concord between God and Satan, or between good and evil; may we stedfastly "eschew those things that are contrary to our profession, and follow all such things as are agreeable to the same." The collects for the first Sunday in Advent and the third Sunday after Easter, are suitable prayers 1 Gen. i. 16. 2 Eph. v. 11. See Job xxiv. 16. 66 after such reflections as these; and none more so than the collect for St. John the Evangelist's day: Merciful Lord, we beseech Thee to cast Thy bright beams of light upon Thy Church, that it being enlightened by the doctrine of Thy blessed Apostle and Evangelist St. John, may so walk in the light of Thy truth, that it may at length attain to the light of everlasting life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen." III.-THE GOOD SHEPHERD, AND THE HAPPY FLOCK. "I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine."-John x. 1--30.-See also Ps. xxiii.; Isa. xl. 11. THE shepherd has just led his flock into a fresh pasture. He had a lamb in his bosom, as he |