no more exist apart from Him than apart from
the Father. This Word of God is the Light that lighteth every man.
Whatever truth, whatever knowledge of the Divine, anywhere {135} exists
is the result of that illumination. The sparks which shine even in the
darkness of heathendom betoken the presence of that Light, not wholly
extinguished by the folly and ignorance of man. That is the One Sun of
Righteousness which gives light everywhere, though in many places the
clouds are so dense that the beams can scarcely penetrate. Now, if
that Word has become Flesh, if that Light has become embodied in Human
Form, we are still constrained to say, There is no true Light but His,
it is in His Light that all must walk if they would not stray, there is
no Guide, no Deliverer, save Him. Christ discloses, brings to view,
all the saving health which has ever been, all the power of restoring,
cleansing, healing, which has ever worked in the souls of men. The one
Power by which any human being, in any age or in any land, has ever
been fitted for the presence of the All Holy God, is made manifest in
Christ. 'Neither is there {136} salvation in any other, for there is
none other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.'

We need have no hesitation in asserting that all who in any age or in
any land, or in any religion, have come to the Father must have come
through the Son of Man, the Eternal Word made Flesh. We do not
contend, as has too frequently been contended, that beyond the limits
of Christianity, beyond, it may be, the limits of one section of
Christianity, there is no truth believed, no acceptable service
rendered. We hail with gratitude the lofty thoughts and the noble
achievements of some who do not in word acknowledge Christ as Lord. In
the vision of the Light that lighteth every man, we see

How light can find its way
To regions farthest from the fount of day.[2]

'Now,' as is well said by the present Bishop {137} of Birmingham, who
will hardly be accused of any tendency to minimise the claims of
Christianity, 'this is no narrow creed. Christianity, the religion of
Jesus, is the Light: it is the one final Revelation, the one final
Religion, but it supersedes all other religions, Jewish and Pagan, not
by excluding, but by including all the elements of truth which each
contained. There was light in Zoroastrianism, light in Buddhism, light
among the Greeks: but it is all included in Christ