We find it hard to believe that our hearts are all dark when G.o.d looks at them; that He finds no love to Himself there; no bright spot anywhere; but G.o.d, who is Light, as He looks straight down to the depths of those hearts, and sees us through and through, has told us the truth about ourselves, as He sees us.
You do not like darkness better than light; the night better than the day, do you?
I remember how sorry I used to be when night came, and how fond I was of saying to myself a verse I had learnt, as I lay awake in the early morning and watched the dawning light--
"I saw the glorious sun arise Far o"er yon mountain grey, And as he rode upon the skies The darkness went away; And all around me was so bright I wished it would be always light!"
Yes, we naturally love the light which is so cheerful, and shows us so plainly all the beautiful things around us.
But that other kind of light which shines from G.o.d into our hearts, do we like it?
No; one sad thing that sin has done is to make us love the dark, because we feel as though there we could hide away from G.o.d. We know quite well that if G.o.d is looking at us He sees us right, just as we are, not as we like to think we are, and this is why we try to forget that He is always looking at us. I know a little boy, who had done something naughty, and had been hiding it all day. No one saw Georgie go to the cupboard and take a piece of sugar. He had eaten it, and had gone back to his play as if nothing had happened, before his grandmother came back into the room. All day long Georgie kept in the dark; a darkness which could not be seen ruled in his heart--but it was a darkness that might be felt, and which made him miserable. At last when bedtime came, and he had said good-night to his grandmother, upstairs in his little room his aunt knelt down beside him and began to pray. Presently something happened which showed that Georgie was praying really himself, while Auntie said the words. He looked up for a moment and said softly, "Tell G.o.d about that sugar."
And then he went to bed, oh, so much happier than he had been all those long hours before he had come into the light, and told the truth about what only G.o.d and Georgie himself knew--n.o.body else in the world!
But while I say this I think I am forgetting what we so often forget when we do wrong. Satan knew about it, and he had tried all day long to keep this little boy away in the dark, hiding from G.o.d, and to make him think it was not worth while to tell the truth about such a little thing as a piece of sugar. If any such thought as that comes into your heart when you have done wrong, do not listen to it for one moment. Remember that the darkness and the light are both alike to G.o.d.
And now I want to tell you about another boy, older than Georgie, who was made very unhappy by the thought that he could not get away anywhere to hide from G.o.d. But why did Johnny want so much to hide from G.o.d? Had he been very naughty? It was not because he had done anything very naughty just then, but because something inside him--that voice that perhaps often seems to speak deep down in your heart--spoke to him and made him afraid.
He did not like that G.o.d, who is Light, should come close to him. When people saw him crying, and said kindly, "What is the matter, my boy?" poor Johnny could only say, "G.o.d is looking at me." He had just this one thought always with him--G.o.d was looking at him, and G.o.d could see what no one else could, the real Johnny, and all the secret things which he could not bear that anyone should know.
But had G.o.d only just begun to look at this boy? No; all his life long--more than twelve years, I think--the eye that never sleeps had been watching him. Johnny had tried to hide himself behind his play and his pleasures, and, as he grew older, behind his carelessness; but now he had learnt that none of the things which may hide us from ourselves and from others, can hide us from G.o.d. He could only feel that G.o.d was looking at him, and in this way Johnny learned something of the meaning of the words "G.o.d is light." That is what G.o.d has to teach us all, and it would be a lesson too terrible for anyone to learn, if that were all G.o.d has been pleased to tell us about Himself. But there is another part of G.o.d"s message to us, and it was when Johnny had learned it that he was not afraid or unhappy any more.
It was because G.o.d was looking for him that He allowed this boy to have that dreadful feeling that there was someone, from whom he could not hide away, who knew him perfectly. Johnny learnt this lesson, and then G.o.d taught him not only that "G.o.d is light," but that he need not be afraid to stand, just as he was, in the light which shows everything, because of this other wonderful little verse which tells us that "G.o.d is love."
And so at last Johnny learned to say to G.o.d what king David said--after he had told G.o.d all the truth about what he had done, and G.o.d had forgiven him--"Thou art my hiding-place." I have heard a very wonderful thing; but I believe it is true. It is said of light that "it conceals more than it reveals"; that there is no hiding-place like light, if it is only bright enough; and the brighter the light is, the more impossible it is to find what has been hidden there!
I remember when I first saw the electric light; it was in the middle of the night, as the boat on board which I had been crossing the sea which divides Wales from Ireland, came in at the pier. All around, the whole scene was lighted up; the dark water shone, and the people came on sh.o.r.e and looked for their luggage, and took their places in the tram, no one thinking of such a thing as a lamp, for all was clear as daylight.
But this light, bright as it was, lighted only a very little s.p.a.ce; as the train moved off we left it behind us, and hurried on into the dark night.
How much more wonderful is the light of the sun which shines night and day, always giving light to some part of the world!
But sunlight, moonlight, and electric light, all these shine upon the outside, upon what we can see. G.o.d, who is Light, shines upon what is within, upon that heart which is by nature so dark that there is not one bright spot there, so that if G.o.d did not shine into it no light could ever come.
Have you ever seen, when the moon has been shining over the sea, making a long, broad pathway of brightness, a ship, as it sails along, suddenly come into that bright track? It is a beautiful sight; just for one moment every mast and sail all stand out with such distinctness that you say, "Oh, I can see her now perfectly!" Then, while you look, she has crossed the shining path, and you can but just trace her dim outline, and know that a ship is sailing there.
[Ill.u.s.tration: CROSSING THE SHINING PATH.]
When the Lord Jesus Christ was in this world He said, "As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world." He showed people plainly that He knew them in a way that no one else could. Some people were glad; one poor woman, who had been in the dark all her life, went and told everyone about Him, and said, "Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did."
Others could not bear that that light should show them to themselves, so we read that one day those who had been with Him, "went but one by one," until they were all gone. Which would you rather be like--the people who went away into the darkness, rather than be found out by the Light, or the one who stayed, and heard those words she could never forget--"Neither do I condemn thee; go and sin no more"?
The only way not to be afraid of the light is to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, who has said of every one that follows Him, that he shall not "abide in darkness, but shall have the light of life."
But hiding--hiding from G.o.d--only means getting deeper into the dark, farther away from Him who is Light.
Now that we have spoken of these solemn and important things--things which I like to speak to you about, but which G.o.d alone, who loves you so much, can really teach you:--I should like to tell you a little about the light as we see it all around us.
Now, what can we learn about it?
First, we learn that it was called into existence by the voice of G.o.d. G.o.d said, "Let there be light; and there was light" on the FIRST DAY, but it was not until the FOURTH DAY that those great light-bearers--the sun and the moon--were made lights to the earth, and set "for signs, and for seasons, and for days and years." But the question, "What is light?" is not one easily answered.
We can all understand that light is that which makes everything visible, but you will perhaps be surprised to hear that it has taken a very long time even to find out how the light comes to us.
It is now generally believed that light, which is one of the strongest powers in the world, is caused by motion; and that it is because every light-giving body is always moving very fast, that it gives out light. But no one can explain how this rapid movement began, nor what that "ether" is through which the "vibrations" travel until they reach a wonderful little screen which we have at the back of each of our eyes, by means of which we are able to see.
We may think of the air around us as a vast ocean, through which waves conveying light and sound are constantly travelling. When a sound-wave strikes the ear, we hear; when a light-wave, moving like a water-wave, reaches the eye, we see. Light comes chiefly from the sun: it is beautiful to think, is it not?--of waves of light streaming always, day and night, from that wonderful sun so far away, and coming, wave after wave, to paint beautiful pictures on our eyes! For if you and I both look at the same lovely view, we have each a picture of it--the mountains, and sea, and green fields, and houses--all to ourselves; and so it would be if, not two people, but two hundred were looking. One thing about light of which we are quite sure is, that it travels very quickly. It makes its noiseless journey all round this great earth eight times in one second--in less time than it takes for my watch to give one tick; and it comes all the long, long way from the sun to the earth in less than ten minutes.
I spoke just now of the light painting pictures upon our eyes. Did you know that if there were no light there would be no beautiful colours? Where the sun shines very brightly, in those parts of the world called the tropics, it is not only very hot, but travellers tell us that there the green of the leaves is darker than we are accustomed to see it, and the colours of the flowers and of the birds" feathers are more brilliant than in our own country, where the sunlight is never so strong.
Then, though the sunlight gives their lovely colours to the anemones and seaweeds, as it shines into their homes in the shallow places near sh.o.r.e, if you could go far down into the ocean depths, where the light can hardly reach, you would find the colours of any creatures, or plants, or sh.e.l.ls that might be there soft and pure, but not brilliant.
But how does the light make the colours? It seems only white, or perhaps gold-coloured, in itself.
This is what I should like to explain to you, for it is a very beautiful lesson, and not difficult to learn.
When I asked the children if they could tell me what we mean when we say that a thing reflects the light, Chrissie said he had often seen the red sunset reflected by the windows opposite, but he could not quite tell how to explain it.
We may read in books this explanation: "The reflection of light is the turning back of its rays by the surface upon which they fall." And while we read this we must remember that the surface or outside of everything has some peculiarity about it, which affects the light as it falls upon it.
The light of the sun is made up of seven colours, though G.o.d has so perfectly blended them that we see only white light; but all these colours may be traced in the seven-coloured arch, which is a token to men of His mercy, and a sign that while the earth remains "seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease."
The smallest portion of light which we can speak of is called a ray of light. You have seen, when what you call a beam of light comes in at a hole, before the shutters have been opened, how the little specks of dust glance up and down in it, as if they were at an endless game of puss-in-the-corner. But have you ever seen beautiful colours, like those of the rainbow, dance about the room--now on the ceiling, now on the floor?
You can best see this lovely little rainbow by darkening the room, and letting just one ray of light stream in through a small hole. Then take a bit of gla.s.s, cut so that it has at least three sides--a "drop" of cut gla.s.s from the l.u.s.tre on the mantelpiece will do--and hold it up between you and the light. This little piece of gla.s.s, which is called a prism, because it has been sawn or cut, will do a wonderful thing, as you turn it about in the sunbeam. The ray of light, as it pa.s.ses through the three-cornered bit of gla.s.s, will be turned out of its straight path, and this causes it to be split up into many colours, so that you will have a tiny rainbow, which can be seen beautifully if you allow it to fall upon a sheet of white paper; and the colours are always arranged in the same way.
Look! in the centre of your rainbow there are green and yellow; then comes red, then blue, then violet. You can easily see these five colours; and two more are counted; indigo, or dark blue, and orange. The only difficulty about saying how many colours you can see is this. If you begin with the violet, and count till you come to the red, you will find that the soft hues are so blended, or run into each other, that it is not easy to see where one ends and the other begins.
I want you to make this little rainbow, not only because the colours which it paints upon the ceiling are so pure and beautiful, and it is so curious to see the bright band of red and blue and green dancing from place to place as you turn your bit of gla.s.s, but because you can see in this way how a ray of light spreads itself out when it pa.s.ses through this gla.s.s with three sides. The colours are separated from each other because no two waves of light are of quite the same length; some move slowly and others fast, and the faster a wave travels the more it is turned aside out of the straight road.
This is a difficult subject, but I think you will understand that if all rays were alike, the whole beam would be bent; but as some are more easily bent than others, as they pa.s.s through the prism they are spread out.
Long ago, the great philosopher Newton bought a prism, and thus "a.n.a.lysed"
or broke up the sunbeam, and discovered what is called the "prismatic band"
of colours. He found that what seemed to be white light was made up of tints really infinite in number; for though we count only seven prismatic colours, they are shaded off, one into the other, as you see.
Having thus broken up the beam of light, Newton, by means of two prisms, put together again the rays which he had separated, and the sunbeam was "white" as before. Perhaps you wonder why we do not always see coloured light: the reason is that the waves of light, unless interfered with and turned out of their straight path, all travel together in their rapid, noiseless course, and so remain unbroken.
You will find it very interesting to make the first of Newton"s experiments yourself, and some day perhaps you will hear what wonderful things about the sun and the stars are being learnt in our own time by means of the spectroscope, which is an instrument having a fine slit through which the ray is pa.s.sed before it is allowed to fall upon the prism.
And now what do we mean when we talk of things being of different colours?
When we say of snow that it is white we mean that, as the light falls upon the snow, it is all sent back again. The surface of the snow reflects all the light, and keeps none. The other day, when I was buying some flowers to plant in the garden, the woman who was selling them showed me a black pansy. "I am sure you would like to have this root," she said, "black pansies are so rare."
[Ill.u.s.tration]
I did not buy the flower, for I did not think it nearly so pretty as the purple and yellow pansies, which seemed to look up at me with such knowing little faces; but I was interested to see it, because (and are you not glad that it is so?) black flowers are very rare. But why was this pansy black?
Ah! it was quite different from the snow; it kept all the light which fell upon it, and gave away none. You see that G.o.d has given to some things the power of absorbing light and to others that of reflecting it. If it were not so, our world would be very different from the beautiful world which it is--as different as an engraving is from a coloured picture, with fields, gardens, sea and sky all of varied hue. Almost all the flowers are so beautiful because, while they keep some of the colours from the light which falls upon them, they do not keep all.
Now look at the flowers in that gla.s.s upon the table. The lovely rose keeps part of its ray of light, but gives us back the red; the larkspur gives back the blue; and those pure white lilies, which show so fair beside the roses, give back all the light in its bright whiteness just as it comes to them, so that a poet, who loved them well, calls them "those flowers made of light."
And the water in the gla.s.s, why is it white?