Brethren, Christ says of Himself: " I am the light of the world." He is the light that enlighteneth every man that cometh into this world. Previous to His coming, the light of faith was dim and uncertain, for darkness covered the earth and a mist the people. Spiritually man was then like a helpless ship flying before the storm through inky darkness. It was the period of the world's triumph and of time's crudest sway. True, the faithful, the earthly Jerusalem, never wholly disappeared, but oh! so few they were, so small the city of God. God's light shone earthward then as frequently does the sun in springtime, illumining one small patch of earth and leaving all around in shadow. Ignorance and idolatry hung like mists over the Gentile world, but a still blacker cloud, obstinate unbelief, enveloped the Jews. They had seen the patriarchs and heard the prophets; the Scriptures were their own; angels had visited them, and often had they had audience of their King Jehovah; they were God's very own, and yet when He came unto His own, His own received Him not, but denied and crucified Him. Nor is their perverse obstinacy lessened as time goes on. They have seen the prophecies fulfilled in Christ, the miracles He and His followers wrought, the pagans Christianized, the miraculous frustration of the Apostate Julian's attempt to rebuild Jerusalem, themselves without a nation, temple or priesthood, dispersed, despised, and subjugated — all this they have seen and yet thick darkness covers them. Less dense by far the mists that overhung us Gentiles, which lifted quickly when
