LIGHT.
And God said. Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day.—Genesis, i. 3, 4, 5.
Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun.—Ecclesiastes, xi. 7.
Come ye, and let us walk in the light of the Lord.—Isaiah, ii. 5.
Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.—Matthew, v. 16.
The dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that sit in darkness, and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.—Luke, i. 78, 79.
Every one that doeth evil, hateth the light; neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.—John, iii. 20.
The day that only springeth from on high,
That high day-light wherein the heavens do live:
The life that loves but to behold that eye
Which doth the glory of all brightness give,
And from the enlightened doth all darkness drive:
Where saints do see, and angels know to see
A brighter light than saints or angels see.
In this light’s love, O, let me ever live!
And let my soul have never other love
But all the pleasures of this world to give,
The smallest spark of such a joy to prove,
And ever pray unto my God above,
To grant my humble soul good Simeon’s grace,
In love to see my Saviour in the face.
Nicholas Breton.
Hail, holy Light, offspring of heav’n first born,
Or of th’ Eternal coeternal beam,
May I express thee unblam’d? Since God is Light,
And never but in unapproached light
Dwelt from eternity, dwelt then in thee,
Bright effluence of bright essence increate.
Or hear’st thou rather pure ethereal stream,
Whose fountain who shall tell? Before the sun,
Before the heav’ns thou wert, and at the voice
Of God, as with a mantle, did’st invest
The rising world of waters dark and deep,
Won from the void and formless infinite!
Milton.
He that hath light within his own clear breast,
May sit in the centre, and enjoy bright day;
But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts,
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun:
Himself is his own dungeon.
Milton.
Prime cheerer, Light!
Of all material beings, first and best!
Efflux divine! Nature’s resplendent robe!
Without whose vesting beauty, all were wrapt
In unessential gloom! and thou, O Sun!
Soul of surrounding worlds, in whom, best seen,
Shines out thy Maker!
Thomson.
See, the time for sleep has run,
Rise before, or with the sun:
Lift thy hands, and humbly pray
The fountain of eternal day.
That, as the light, serenely fair,
Illustrates all the tracts of air;
The Sacred Spirit so may rest,
With quickening beams, upon thy breast.
Parnell.
When Israel of the Lord beloved,
Out from the land of bondage came,
Her father’s God before her moved,
An awful guide in smoke and flame,
By day along the astonish’d lands
The cloudy pillar glided slow;
By night Arabia’s crimson’d sands
Return’d the fiery column’s glow.
And present still, though now unseen!
When brightly shines the prosperous day.
Be thoughts of Thee a cloudy screen,
To temper the deceitful ray;
And oh, when stoops in Judah’s path,
In shade and storm, the frequent night,
Be Thou long-suffering, slow to wrath,
A burning and a shining light.
Sir Walter Scott.
O light, thy subtle essence who may know?
—Ask not, for all things but myself I show.
J. Montgomery.
Almighty Framer of the skies!
O let our pure devotion rise
Like incense in thy sight!
Wrapt in impenetrable shade,
The texture of our souls was made,
Till thy command gave light.
Chatterton.
Awake, arise, thy light is come;
The nations that before outshone thee,
Now at thy feet lie dark and dumb,
The glory of the Lord is on thee!
Arise—the Gentiles to thy ray,
From ev’ry nook of earth shall cluster;
And kings and princes haste to pay
Their homage to thy rising lustre.
Moore.
Walk in the light! so shalt thou know
That fellowship of love
His Spirit only can bestow,
Who reigns in light above.
Walk in the light! and sin, abhorred,
Shall ne’er defile again;
The blood of Jesus Christ the Lord
Shall cleanse from every stain.
Walk in the light! and thou shalt find,
Thy heart made truly His,
Who dwells in cloudless light enshrined,
In whom no darkness is.
Walk in the light! and thou shalt own
Thy darkness passed away,
Because that light hath on thee shone,
In which is perfect day.
Walk in the light! and e’en the tomb
No fearful shade shall wear;
Glory shall chase away its gloom,
For Christ hath conquered there.
Walk in the light! and thou shalt be
A path, though thorny, bright;
For God, by grace, shall dwell in thee,
And God Himself is light!
Barton.
“Let there be light!” The Eternal spoke,
And from the abyss where darkness rode
The earliest dawn of nature broke,
And light around creation flowed:
The glad earth smiled to see the day,
The first-born day come blushing in;
The young day smiled to shed its ray
Upon a world untouched by sin.
“Let there be light!” O’er heaven and earth,
The God who first the day-beam poured,
Uttered again His fiat forth,
And shed the gospel’s light abroad;
And, like the dawn, its cheering rays
On rich and poor were meant to fall,
Inspiring their Redeemer’s praise,
In lowly cot, and lordly hall.
Then come, when in the orient first
Flushes the signal-light for prayer;
Come with the earliest beams that burst
From God’s bright throne of glory there;
Come, kneel to Him who through the night
Hath watched above thy sleeping soul;
To Him whose mercies, like His light,
Are shed abroad from pole to pole.
Charles F. Hoffman.
Then moved upon the waveless deep
The quickening Spirit of the Lord;
And broken was its pulseless sleep
Before the Everlasting Word!
“Let there be Light!” and listening earth,
With tree, and plant, and flowery sod,
“In the beginning” sprang to birth,
Obedient to the voice of God.
W. H Burleigh.
Heard as each morn relumes the eastern cloud,
Thy voice of holiest comfort cries aloud,
Bidding us rise, the night-like past above,
And soar on morning’s wing to thoughts of light and love!
Anon.