THE CHRISTIAN LADY'S MAGAZINE. JULY, 1847. THE TREASURES OF WISDOM. No. X. "I am the Light of the world." Such is the brief and sublime description which our Lord has given us of His own true character. Light, with all its many wonders, as observation and science have revealed them in every field of Nature, is only a type; and He himself is the glorious antitype. Above and beyond this outward world, lit up with the sunbeams, there is a higher and nobler world of thought and reason, of truth and eternal wisdom, of which the Lord Jesus is the Sun and Centre, the one source of true light to the whole intellectual and spiritual universe. Here then, is a still wider field of meditation, in which to explore His unsearchable treasures of wisdom and knowledge. The truth itself meets us, in various forms, throughout the whole course of inspired Scripture. Do we read, in its very opening, the sublime fiat of the Creator? "God said, Let there be light, and there was light." JULY, 1847. B We are told also, that the same God, who then commanded "the light to shine out of darkness, shines into the hearts of men, to give them the light of the knowledge of His glory in the face of Jesus Christ our Lord." The Law and the Prophets, in their last messages, announce the coming of Messiah, as the Sun of righteousness, to arise with healing in His wings. The gospel, in the song of Zacharias, takes up and re-echoes the promise, while it speaks of the tender mercy of God, "whereby the Day-spring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness." When our Lord begins His public ministry, the message is renewed in similar terms. "The people that sat in darkness have seen a great light. They that sat in the region and shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.” Nay, the same truth crowns and completes the last message of Divine love, in the vision of the heavenly glory. "The city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it, for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof." Let us trace this analogy in a few of those many aspects which it will present to a thoughtful mind; and may He, who is the true Light, himself shine into our hearts, and enable us, by the mirror of His outward works, to discern His own goodness and infinite beauty. Science reveals to us an immeasurable abyss of ether, encompassing all the worlds that our eyes behold, and which baffles all her most profound research by its inconceivable subtlety, and elastic energy of secret influence. Every sun and star is bathed with its hidden splendour, and thus becomes a fountain of sensible light, which travels with immense rapidity in all directions, and traverses, with swift waves, this hidden and unfathomable sea. All the communion of eye with eye, and of worlds with worlds, all the rich variety of colouring spread over the face of nature, the lustre of every gem, the beauty of every star, the varied harmony of every landscape, the sparkling brilliance of every planet and star, is due entirely to this hidden and mysterious agency, which alone imparts their unity, life, and splendour, to the visible works of God. And all this is only a type of Christ. He is, to the universe of thought, to the world of spirit, what natural light is to the universe of matter. His wisdom and love are a brighter glory, more wonderful in itself, more various in its forms, more diffusive in its beneficent and cheering influences, than the ether which floods all the lower creation with light, and clothes it with rich and ever-varying beauty. Is the ether, in its very nature, invisible, mysterious, and unsearchable? So also is the nature of Christ an unsearchable mystery. "No man knoweth the Son but the Father." There is a "height and length and breadth and depth" in His love, which "passeth knowledge." His wisdom, like the boundless ether, includes all worlds in its infinite range. He counts the dewdrops, and clothes the lilies of the field; "He telleth the number of the stars, and calleth them all by their names.” His unseen Presence encompasses the wide universe, while He "upholdeth all things by the word of His power." But especially, the higher world of intelligence and spiritual being is embraced, in every part, by His unfathomable thoughts of love. Every spirit, of man or angel, is itself a world; and all these worlds are silently and unconsciously bathed, on every side, by the ocean of His immeasurable wisdom. He knows every thought, and every motive; the secret springs of action, the laws of mental association, the powers and |