^ How terrible is the thought of blind darkness, and most of all to a painter, who truly sees ; whereas most men are purblind, while they think they see the glories of this marvellous world. But worse infinitely is the blindness of man's spirit, often wilfully barring out every avenue by which Light might enter. That word I know by experience is true. " The entrance of Thy "Word giveth Light " ; and those who glory in their acquaintance with the dis- coveries of modern Science, and in Literature, Art, Music, and every sensuous pleasure, are feeding on husks, like the Prodigal, if their souls are estranged from God our Father and from the True Light of man, Jesus Christ.^
^ Jesus was the Light of the world, the Eevealer of the Father, and, as the Eevealer, the Giver of life to men. As the Light, He imparts now possibilities of life to those who otherwise were hope- lessly dead in trespasses and sins. The Light of Christ enters the heart; and what is the result? Productiveness of a high and spiritual order in the life that is thus begotten and sustained : all that such a life brings forth is the fruit of that light. No man can keep that light to himself. The ordinary figure of the lamp placed upon the lampstand is a striking one. You do not put it under a bushel but on a lampstand. But that is not the only way in which light shows itself ; you light a candle and it shines forth. But God lights a grain of corn and it grows up into a stalk, and develops an ear, and full corn in the ear; it is the light He has given to that grain of corn that results in its growth and in its development, and the ear of corn is the outshining of that light with which God's sunshine has permeated that grain. As God causes His sun to shine upon every field which bears in it the seed that has been sown by the farmer. He is sowing light into that field so that the seed itself shall manifest that light which it has received in the development and multiplication of its own life, and in the warm glow which imparts wealth and glory to every harvest field. And so in the human heart, when the light of God through Jesus Christ enters it, there is a growth. You cannot conceal that light, it will show itself in fruits of light.^
^ Life and Letters of Frederic Shields, 344.
' D. Daviea, Talks with Men, Women and Children, vi. 378,
232 THE FRUIT OF THE LIGHT
^ When Christ enters any human heart, he bears with Him a twofold light: first, the lij:,'ht of conscience, which displays past sin, and afterwards the light of peace, the hope of salvation. In Holman Hunt's picture, " The Light of the World," the lantern, carried in Christ's left hand, is this light of conscience. Its fire is red and fierce ; it falls only on the closed door, on the weeds which encumber it, and on an apple shaken from one of the trees of the orchard, thus marking that the entire awakening of the conscience is not merely to committed but to hereditary guilt. The light is suspended by a chain, wrapt about the wrist of the figure, showing that the light which reveals sin appears to the sinner also to chain the hand of Christ. The light which proceeds from the head of the figure, on the contrary, is that of the hope of salvation ; it springs from the crown of thorns, and, though itself sad, subdued, and full of softness, is yet so powerful that it entirely melts into the glow of it, the forms of the leaves and boughs, which it crosses, showing that every earthly object must be hidden by this light, where its sphere extends.^
2. The light is antecedent to the fruit. Christ first, conduct second. To begin with what should be second is an anachronism in morals, and will be sure to result in failure in practice. He is not a wise man who tries to build a house from the chimneys downwards. And to talk about making a man's doings good before you have secured a radical change in the doer, by the infusion into him of the very life of Jesus Christ Himself, is to begin at the top story, instead of at the foundation. Many of us are trying to put the cart before the horse in that fashion. The people who, apart from Jesus Christ, and the entrance into their souls by faith of His quickening power, are seeking, some of them nobly, some of them sadly, and all of them vainly, to cure their faults of character, will never attain anything but a superficial and fragmentary goodness, because they have begun at the wrong end.
^ Light is the most essential condition of fruitfulness. With- out light no vegetable or animal growth reaches perfection of colour or development. Eob the plant of its light, and you blanch it ; rob any creature of the light, and you take out of him all colour and stamina. Any gardener will tell you that he may have all the heat that is necessary for an aromatic plant, and that shall enable it to blossom and put on a beautiful garment, so that 1 Riiskiu, "Arrows of the Cliace " ( IForJcs, xii. 329).