that is taken from the atmosphere during breathing is increased by exposure to light. The blood is assisted also, by the action of light on it, in giving off the carbonic-acid gas that the body has accumulated, and thus frees the system from the impurities out of the blood.
(1839)
LIGHT, CHRISTIAN
A lighthouse called the Pharos was built
at Alexandria, Egypt. It ascended 550 feet
in the air and sent its light over the sea for
a distance of 100 miles. Its purpose was
as a memorial to King Ptolemy.
An upright character is a lighthouse to this storm-tossed world. (Text.)
(1840)
LIGHT DEVELOPING BEAUTY
The human soul can only develop its full capacities when illumined. Light from without must call out the latent powers of the mind.
The sea-anemone is attractive only when
light reaches them. In gloom or shadow
they fold themselves up on their peduncles
and look withered and repellent. In the
sunshine that plays on the waters in their
pools these strange creatures open out like
blossoms expanding their petals. (Text.)
(1841)
LIGHT, DIVINE
In the oxy-hydrogen lantern the operator
first lights the hydrogen burner, and it burns
like any other gas-light. Then he turns
slowly upon it a little jet of oxygen, under
which at first the flame seems dying down.
But presently the lime candle kindles, and
its flame, concentrated by the condensers to
a small jet, begins to glow with a brilliancy
that darkens everything else and can not be
endured to look on. So in the movement
of the world—in the "coming age"—there is
high character and grand heroism, and as
one studies it he sees that it is not Stephen's
face that shone like an angel, or Moses' which
had to be veiled, but the ineffable Spirit that
shone out in them both. The power of the
coming age is not the power of any man, but
the power of the God who made all things,
and whose glory here glows and burns brighter
than the sun, bringing out the littlest worthiness
of human character in the concentrated
light of love.—Franklin Noble, "Sermons
in Illustration."
(1842)
Light, Excess of—See Advice Disregarded.
LIGHT FOR RESCUE
The recently improved buoy is a remarkable
device now in use in the life-saving
service of the United States. By means of
the signal lights, its position will always be
known to those on shore and on the wreck.
The green light moving toward the vessel
mutely tells the shipwrecked passengers that
help is at hand and encourages them to hold
on until the buoy reaches them.
How many imperiled mariners on the sea of life are lost in the darkness because they see not the helping hand stretched out to save them.
(1843)
LIGHT-GIVING
One of the first lessons that Jesus inculcated in the minds of His disciples who were to become His messengers, was that they should be lights in the midst of the moral and spiritual gloom.
A preacher one dark night lost his way
in a corner of a strange neighborhood.
Meeting a farm laborer and asking his way,
he received for answer, "Follow that light
and you will not have gone far before you
hear the bells of the next village."
(1844)
LIGHT, IMMORTAL
Richard Watson Gilder, who died in 1909, and whose dream is now reality, wrote this beautiful prayer:
O Thou the Lord and Maker of life and light!
Full heavy are the burdens that do weigh
Our spirits earthward, as through twilight gray
We journey to the end and rest of night;
Tho well we know to the deep inward sight,
Darkness is but Thy shadow, and the day
Where Thou art never dies, but sends its rays
Through the wide universe with restless might.
O Lord of Light, steep Thou our souls in Thee!
That when the daylight trembles into shade,
And falls the silence of mortality,
And all is done, we shall not be afraid,
But pass from light to light; from earth's dull gleam
Into the very heart and heaven of our dream.
(1845)
Light in Christ—See Christ the Light.
