(1) “God is Light.” “In Him is no darkness at all.” He is the Light of truth, and the Light of holiness, and the Light of direction, and the Light of comfort. Where He, who is the Light, shines not, or shines only in some dim reflection—of Nature, or reason, or conscience, or tradition; not directly, not personally, not in Christ as the Saviour, not in the Holy Ghost as the Comforter—there is darkness; darkness four-fold, like the light—the darkness of ignorance, and the darkness of corruption, and the darkness of error, and the darkness of misery. “God is Light,”—and the purpose of Light is to shine: but the light itself may be set under a bushel, or the thick walls, the opaque windows, of the soul’s dwelling may shut it out. Vice, superstition, false religion, cowardice, indifference, law itself, may bar the entrance of Him who is the Light. Such power is the mystery of mysteries in the present: how God should be Light, and yet the darkness may refuse to let the Light in. “God is Light”—first and before all else. They who would know God must know Him thus. No other attribute, no other manifestation, can be substituted for this or prefixed to it. Attempts have been made to displace it. To put, for example, the second text first—love before light; or something else—obedience, docility, humility, patience. It will not answer. The transposition bewrays itself by the failure. “God is Light,” and he who would know God must first come to Him as the Light. Some have said, A half-light is better than none. Better twilight than thick darkness. So far we agree with them. But when they have gone on to recommend an acquiescence—temporary at least, prudential, deferential—in the half-light; when they have spoken of the necessity of preparation for the full light, of the peril of precipitating illumination, of the duty of forecasting probable consequences—such as a disarrangement of existing habits and systems, an exposure of errors, an unmasking of superstitions, before we have the machinery ready for the education and for the fostering of the man isolated by the very enlightenment—then we say, God is Light, and there is no communion between light and darkness. Prudence is out of place where the question is of the Divine self-manifestation. At all risks God must shine, and God must be trusted to take care of His shining.