The day is drawing the cloudy lids from his bloodshot eye,
And the world impatient stirs—a tired old sleeper, waking.
O most unwearying prophet, ever-returning morn!
Thou giv'st new life to a world grown old, and marred in making;
With ever an old faith lost, and ever a pang new-born,
But ever a new, new hope to hearts that were well-nigh breaking. (Text.)
—The Metropolitan.
(1834)
LIGHT AND ACTIVITY
Those who would glow with the brightness of a blest life can not so shine unless they are luminous with activity.
We are passing along a country road on a
dark evening and are arrested by seeing
luminous points in the herbage at the foot
of a hedgerow or side of a lane. We find
on investigation that the beautiful little lights
are emitted by glowworms. At first sight
these appear to be stationary, but we find
by patient waiting and watching that the
little creatures are slowly moving as they
shine and that each glowworm ceases to
emit its lovely gleam directly it stops moving.
And in human life are not the bright lights
of society, of the family, of the Church,
those persons who are incessantly in action?
The sluggard is too dull to shine; the energetic
souls go sparkling on their way and
charm as well as help. (Text.)
(1835)
Light and Darkness—See Blind Guides.
LIGHT AS A CURE
Dr. Hasselbach, of Copenhagen, has become
convinced that the light treatment is
effective in heart disease and affections of
the nervous system. Dr. Hasselbach, after
experimenting on his own perfectly normal
organs, next experimented on two doctors.
Both of these were complete invalids, one
suffering from angina pectoris and the other
from a nervous affection of the heart. This
treatment, which lasted in one case for a
month and in the others for six weeks, resulted
in enabling both doctors to resume
their practise. (Text.)
(1836)
Light, Attraction of—See Suicide Prevented.
LIGHT-BEARERS
Natural science has shown that the transmission
of light to our globe is dependent on
the luminous atmosphere surrounding the
sun; and that light existed originally independent
of the sun, and consisted of the
undulations of a luminiferous ether. The
latest theory maintains that the body of the
sun is simply an irritant, having the property
of setting the undulations of this ether into
motion, but wholly devoid of light in itself.
Such a luminous atmosphere is the
environment of one's life, and capable
of being made the means of constituting
each man a luminary to the world.
(1837)
Annie Winsor Allen is the author of this cheering verse:
Bringers of hope to men,
Bearers of light.
Eager and radiant,
Glad in the right,
'Tis from these souls aglow
Man learns his path to know.
They as they onward go
Bear on the light.
What tho they fight to lose,
Facing the night!
Morning will find them still
Seeking the height.
What tho this stress and strain
Makes all their hopes seem vain!
They through the bitter pain
Bear on the light.
Brothers of all that live,
They aid us all.
May our hearts, touched with fire,
Leap to their call!
Their voices, clear and strong,
Ring like a rallying song,
"Upward against the wrong!
Bear on the light!"
(1838)
LIGHT, BENEFITS OF
If we company with Him who said, "I am the light of the world," our moral natures will experience something corresponding to the physical benefits of light when it is applied in moderation.
Light acts as a stimulant to the bodies of
men as well as of animals. The ability of
the blood to carry through the system oxygen
