n interpretation; ye may all of you
prophesy. The ideal worship becomes the actual when heaven touches
earth, as on the day of Pentecost--they were all filled, and, by
consequence, they all ran over. Who would venture to tell the woman
who had been a sinner, that it was not seemly that her life should
proclaim the _magnolia Dei_, the wonders of God; my lips, she says,
have touched His feet, and are consecrated for evermore. Who shall
tell these prophesying handmaidens of the Lord that their place is in a
different spiritual order: "Are there two inner courts, they will
reply, to the New Jerusalem?"

Whoso hath felt the Spirit of the Highest
Cannot confound nor doubt Him, nor deny;
Yea, with one voice, O world, though thou deniest,
Stand thou on that side, for on this am I.

XIV

MORE LIGHT

"Ye are the light of the world."--MATT. v. 14.

There is a great stir nowadays about improved methods of lighting our
streets and houses. Men began with torches and pine splinters; then
they advanced to candles and oil lamps; after that to coal gas; and now
we are coming to electricity. In Paris they are experimenting with an
electrical system, and we shall have it in England before long, the
unmistakable cry of the natural world being "More light, more light."

A similar experience prevails in the spiritual life, whether we regard
that life in the isolated individual, or fix our attention upon the
dealings of God with the race of which we form a part. We need, in
fact, an improved illumination. It is plain that we do so. The light
of Moses is not enough for us. His face shines indeed, but with a
glory that fades away, so that he must put on a veil lest they should
detect its evanescence. The prophets of old days are like the flight
of meteors across the sky--very bright while they last, but no settled
and abiding glory. John the Baptist is a burning and a shining lamp;
but he says of himself, "I must decrease"; and with the words, "He must
increase," we are pointed on to Christ, the true Light of the world,
which if any man follow he shall not walk in darkness, but shall have
the light of life; who gives His own name and character to those whom
He receives as disciples, telling them, "Let your light shine." And
the individual soul begins with the glimmer of grace and the spark of a
respondent love, and the operation of the Lord improves this little
fitful glimmer, and develops it, until it bec