With the Children on Sundays: Through Eye-Gate and Ear-Gate into the City of Child-SoulStall, Sylvanus
Religion
With the Children on Sundays: Through Eye-Gate and Ear-Gate into the City of Child-Soul
Stall, Sylvanus
Children -- Religious life; Children's sermons; Moral education
This coal is simply a portion of a tree which grew many, many hundreds
or thousands of years ago, and which, in some great convulsion of
nature, was buried deep under the surface of the earth in what we now
call coal mines. The coal has undergone some chemical changes, but,
nevertheless, all the light there is in the coal is simply that buried
sunshine, which was stored up centuries and centuries ago, in the form
of vegetables and trees. Now, when it burns in the grate or in the
furnace it simply releases that heat and warmth and light, which was
stored up in these trees many, many centuries ago. It is simply buried
sunshine which God has stored up for our use. The same is true of the
light of the candle; if it were not for the light of the sun there would
be no light giving power in any oil or tallow, or in this carbon, which
is used in the electric light; they all derive their light from the sun
itself.
Just so it is with all the truth and righteousness there is in the
world. When you see a man who is good and Christlike, it is not because
that man has the power in himself to be good, but it is because he has
received that power from the Lord Jesus Christ. The light of the Sun of
Righteousness has shone into that man's heart, and the light that goes
out through his daily conduct and character, is only the light of the
Son of God shining out through that man.
All objects which live in the sunlight drink in this light-giving power,
and all people who live daily in the light of the Sun of Righteousness
will partake of His nature and of His character, and then live that
nature and character in their own daily lives. In this way they do as
Jesus commanded, let their lights so shine, that others seeing their
good work, glorify their Father which is in heaven.
You should be careful to note that Jesus does not say that we ourselves
are to shine so that others may glorify us. No, not at all. Many people
try to shine or to attract the attention of others to themselves, but
that is not what Jesus said or meant, but rather the reverse. Neither
are we to attempt to shine, or to attempt to attract the glory or honor
to ourselves. Let not yourself so shine, but let your _light_ so shine
that others seeing your good works may glorify--not you, but your Father
which is in heaven. We must let Jesus Christ shine in and through us.
Whenever you see men or women, or girls or boys who are living beautiful
Christian lives, it is not they that light up the moral darkness that is
in the world, it is Jesus Christ who lives in them and shines through
them, that makes them good and holy, and consequently a source of light
and blessing to all about them.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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