The Way of the Seven Fold Secret by Lilias Trotter

II.
THE SECRET OF ILLUMINATION.
We have seen the first of these secrets of the overflow
of the mercy of God to us in the Person of our Lord
Jesus Christ; that is to say, we have seen that "In Him
was life"J Now we go on to another of these secrets, for
the completion of this word tells us "The life was the
light of men." Thus it is written in the ;first chapter of
the Gospel of John, and in several other passages of that
Gospel the same truth is declared, that He is the Light
.of the world.
Now life comes before light, but if light does not
follow life, life will die, as you may see in every buried
seed, that seeks for light as sOliln as life has begun its
work, and reaches forth till it finds the sun. Thus it is
wlth the soul of man. Life needs light whereby to live.
-Christ came to be not only the Life of the world, but the
Light of the world. We will seek the meaning of this
:Saying.
We know that in our outward existence there are
many lights, by which, in default of the sun, the individual
tries to lighten his darkness. When the night falls,
each room in the town has its little lamp or candle. But
when the sun rises there is one light for all, for the sun,
in the order of nature, is the light of the world, and when
he arises, all other lights may go.
Even so, among the nations that are in ignorance,
man tries to lighten the gloom by the lamp of his own
t In Him was life and the life was the Light of men. John I. 4.