Light

This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

— 1 John 1:5
And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
— John 3:19

There are three kinds of punishment: first, mere retribution, which, since entirely human and not divine, is of evil; second, that which works repentance; and third, that which refines and purifies, working for holiness. But the punishment that falls on whom the Lord loveth because they have repented is a very different thing from the punishment on those who hold fast to their sins. There are also various ways in which the word forgive can be used. A man might say to his son, “My boy, I forgive you. You did not know what you were doing.” Or he might say, “I forgive you; but I must punish you, for you have done the same thing several times, and I must make you remember.” Or again, he might say, “I am seriously angry with you. I cannot forgive you. I must punish you severely, I cannot pass it by.” Or, once more, “Except you alter your ways entirely, I shall have nothing more to do with you. Never, never, till I see a greater difference in you than I dare hope to see in this world, will I forgive you. I would die to save you, but I cannot forgive you. There is nothing in you now on which to rest forgiveness. To say, I forgive you, would be to say, Do anything you like; I do not care what you do.” So God may forgive and punish; and he may punish and not forgive, that he may rescue. To forgive the sin against the holy spirit would be to damn the universe to the pit of lies, to render it impossible for the man so forgiven ever to be saved. He cannot forgive the man who will not come to the light because his deeds are evil. Against that man his fatherly heart is moved with indignation

Commentary

by George MacDonald

Light

        First-born of the creating Voice!
        Minister of God's Spirit, who wast sent
        Waiting upon him first, what time he went
        Moving about mid the tumultuous noise
        Of each unpiloted element
        Upon the face of the void formless deep!
        Thou who didst come unbodied and alone
        Ere yet the sun was set his rule to keep,
        Or ever the moon shone,
        Or e'er the wandering star-flocks forth were driven!
        Thou garment of the Invisible, whose skirt
        Sweeps, glory-giving, over earth and heaven!
        Thou comforter, be with me as thou wert
        When first I longed for words, to be
        A radiant garment for my thought, like thee!

        We lay us down in sorrow,
        Wrapt in the old mantle of our mother Night;
        In vexing dreams we strive until the morrow;
        Grief lifts our eyelids up--and Lo, the light!
        The sunlight on the wall! And visions rise
        Of shining leaves that make sweet melodies;
        Of wind-borne waves with thee upon their crests;
        Of rippled sands on which thou rainest down;
        Of quiet lakes that smooth for thee their breasts;
        Of clouds that show thy glory as their own;
        O joy! O joy! the visions are gone by!
        Light, gladness, motion, are reality!

        Thou art the god of earth. The skylark springs
        Far up to catch thy glory on his wings;
        And thou dost bless him first that highest soars.
        The bee comes forth to see thee; and the flowers
        Worship thee all day long, and through the skies
        Follow thy journey with their earnest eyes.
        River of life, thou pourest on the woods,
        And on thy waves float out the wakening buds;
        The trees lean toward thee, and, in loving pain,
        Keep turning still to see thee yet again;
        South sides of pines, haunted all day by thee,
        Bear violins that tremble humanly.
        And nothing in thine eyes is mean or low:
        Where'er thou art, on every side,
        All things are glorified;
        And where thou canst not come, there thou dost throw
        Beautiful shadows, made out of the dark,
        That else were shapeless; now it bears thy mark.

        And men have worshipped thee.
        The Persian, on his mountain-top,
        Waits kneeling till thy sun go up,
        God-like in his serenity.
        All-giving, and none-gifted, he draws near,
        And the wide earth waits till his face appear--
        Longs patient. And the herald glory leaps
        Along the ridges of the outlying clouds,
        Climbing the heights of all their towering steeps.
        Sudden, still multitudinous laughter crowds
        The universal face: Lo, silently,
        Up cometh he, the never-closing eye!
        Symbol of Deity, men could not be
        Farthest from truth when they were kneeling unto thee!

        Thou plaything of the child,
        When from the water's surface thou dost spring,
        Thyself upon his chamber ceiling fling,
        And there, in mazy dance and motion wild,
        Disport thyself--etherial, undefiled.
        Capricious, like the thinkings of the child!
        I am a child again, to think of thee
        In thy consummate glee.
        How I would play with thee, athirst to climb
        On sloping ladders of thy moted beams,
        When through the gray dust darting in long streams!
        How marvel at the dusky glimmering red,
        With which my closed fingers thou hadst made
        Like rainy clouds that curtain the sun's bed!
        And how I loved thee always in the moon!
        But most about the harvest-time,
        When corn and moonlight made a mellow tune,
        And thou wast grave and tender as a cooing dove!
        And then the stars that flashed cold, deathless love!
        And the ghost-stars that shimmered in the tide!
        And more mysterious earthly stars,
        That shone from windows of the hill and glen--
        Thee prisoned in with lattice-bars,
        Mingling with household love and rest of weary men!
        And still I am a child, thank God!--to spy
        Thee starry stream from bit of broken glass
        Upon the brown earth undescried,
        Is a found thing to me, a gladness high,
        A spark that lights joy's altar-fire within,
        A thought of hope to prophecy akin,
        That from my spirit fruitless will not pass.

                        Thou art the joy of age:
        Thy sun is dear when long the shadow falls.
        Forth to its friendliness the old man crawls,
        And, like the bird hung out in his poor cage
        To gather song from radiance, in his chair
        Sits by the door; and sitteth there
        His soul within him, like a child that lies
        Half dreaming, with half-open eyes,
        At close of a long afternoon in summer--
        High ruins round him, ancient ruins, where
        The raven is almost the only comer--
        Half dreams, half broods, in wonderment
        At thy celestial ascent
        Through rifted loop to light upon the gold
        That waves its bloom in some high airy rent:
        So dreams the old man's soul, that is not old,
        But sleepy mid the ruins that infold.

                    What soul-like changes, evanescent moods,
        Upon the face of the still passive earth,
        Its hills, and fields, and woods,
        Thou with thy seasons and thy hours art ever calling forth!
        Even like a lord of music bent
        Over his instrument,
        Giving to carol, now to tempest birth!
        When, clear as holiness, the morning ray
        Casts the rock's dewy darkness at its feet,
        Mottling with shadows all the mountain gray;
        When, at the hour of sovereign noon,
        Infinite silent cataracts sheet
        Shadowless through the air of thunder-breeding June;
        When now a yellower glory slanting passes
        'Twixt longer shadows o'er the meadow grasses;
        And now the moon lifts up her shining shield,
        High on the peak of a cloud-hill revealed;
        Now crescent, low, wandering sun-dazed away,
        Unconscious of her own star-mingled ray,
        Her still face seeming more to think than see,
        Makes the pale world lie dreaming dreams of thee!
        No mood, eternal or ephemeral,
        But wakes obedient at thy silent call!

        Of operative single power,
        And simple unity the one emblem,
        Yet all the colours that our passionate eyes devour,
        In rainbow, moonbow, or in opal gem,
        Are the melodious descant of divided thee.
        Lo thee in yellow sands! Lo thee
        In the blue air and sea!
        In the green corn, with scarlet poppies lit,
        Thy half-souls parted, patient thou dost sit.
        Lo thee in dying triumphs of the west!
        Lo thee in dew-drop's tiny breast!
        Thee on the vast white cloud that floats away,
        Bearing upon its skirt a brown moon-ray!
        Gold-regent, thou dost spendthrift throw
        Thy hoardless wealth of gleam and glow!
        The thousand hues and shades upon the flowers
        Are all the pastime of thy leisure hours;
        The jewelled ores in mines that hidden be,
        Are dead till touched by thee.

                                    Everywhere,
        Thou art lancing through the air!
        Every atom from another
        Takes thee, gives thee to his brother;
        Continually,
        Thou art wetting the wet sea,
        Bathing its sluggish woods below,
        Making the salt flowers bud and blow;
        Silently,
        Workest thou, and ardently,
        Waking from the night of nought
        Into being and to thought;

                            Influences
        Every beam of thine dispenses,
        Potent, subtle, reaching far,
        Shooting different from each star.
        Not an iron rod can lie
        In circle of thy beamy eye,
        But its look doth change it so
        That it cannot choose but show
        Thou, the worker, hast been there;
        Yea, sometimes, on substance rare,
        Thou dost leave thy ghostly mark
        Even in what men call the dark.
        Ever doing, ever showing,
        Thou dost set our hearts a glowing--
        Universal something sent
        To shadow forth the Excellent!

        When the firstborn affections--
        Those winged seekers of the world within,
        That search about in all directions,
        Some bright thing for themselves to win--
        Through pathless woods, through home-bred fogs,
        Through stony plains, through treacherous bogs,
        Long, long, have followed faces fair,
        Fair soul-less faces, vanished into air,
        And darkness is around them and above,
        Desolate of aught to love,
        And through the gloom on every side,
        Strange dismal forms are dim descried,
        And the air is as the breath
        From the lips of void-eyed Death,
        And the knees are bowed in prayer
        To the Stronger than despair--
        Then the ever-lifted cry,
        Give us light, or we shall die,
        Cometh to the Father's ears,
        And he hearkens, and he hears:--

        As some slow sun would glimmer forth
        From sunless winter of the north,
        We, hardly trusting hopeful eyes,
        Discern and doubt the opening skies.
        From a misty gray that lies on
        Our dim future's far horizon,
        It grows a fresh aurora, sent
        Up the spirit's firmament,
        Telling, through the vapours dun,
        Of the coming, coming sun!
        Tis Truth awaking in the soul!
        His Righteousness to make us whole!
        And what shall we, this Truth receiving,
        Though with but a faint believing,
        Call it but eternal Light?
        'Tis the morning, 'twas the night!

                     All things most excellent
        Are likened unto thee, excellent thing!
        Yea, he who from the Father forth was sent,
        Came like a lamp, to bring,
        Across the winds and wastes of night,
        The everlasting light.
        Hail, Word of God, the telling of his thought!
        Hail, Light of God, the making-visible!
        Hail, far-transcending glory brought
        In human form with man to dwell--
        Thy dazzling gone; thy power not less
        To show, irradiate, and bless;
        The gathering of the primal rays divine
        Informing chaos, to a pure sunshine!

             Dull horrid pools no motion making!
        No bubble on the surface breaking!
        The dead air lies, without a sound,
        Heavy and moveless on the marshy ground.

        Rushing winds and snow-like drift,
        Forceful, formless, fierce, and swift!
        Hair-like vapours madly riven!
        Waters smitten into dust!
        Lightning through the turmoil driven,
        Aimless, useless, yet it must!

        Gentle winds through forests calling!
        Bright birds through the thick leaves glancing!
        Solemn waves on sea-shores falling!
        White sails on blue waters dancing!
        Mountain streams glad music giving!
        Children in the clear pool laving!
        Yellow corn and green grass waving!
        Long-haired, bright-eyed maidens living!
        Light, O radiant, it is thou!
        Light!--we know our Father now!

        Forming ever without form;
        Showing, but thyself unseen;
        Pouring stillness on the storm;
        Breathing life where death had been!
        If thy light thou didst draw in,
        Death and Chaos soon were out,
        Weltering o'er the slimy sea,
        Riding on the whirlwind's rout,
        In wild unmaking energy!
        God, be round us and within,
        Fighting darkness, slaying sin.

        Father of Lights, high-lost, unspeakable,
        On whom no changing shadow ever fell!
        Thy light we know not, are content to see;
        Thee we know not, and are content to be!--
        Nay, nay! until we know thee, not content are we!
        But, when thy wisdom cannot be expressed,
        Shall we imagine darkness in thy breast?
        Our hearts awake and witness loud for thee!
        The very shadows on our souls that lie,
        Good witness to the light supernal bear;
        The something 'twixt us and the sky
        Could cast no shadow if light were not there!
        If children tremble in the night,
        It is because their God is light!
        The shining of the common day
        Is mystery still, howe'er it ebb and flow--
        Behind the seeing orb, the secret lies:
        Thy living light's eternal play,
        Its motions, whence or whither, who shall know?--
        Behind the life itself, its fountains rise!
        In thee, the Light, the darkness hath no place;
        And we have seen thee in the Saviour's face.

        Enlighten me, O Light!--why art thou such?
        Why art thou awful to our eyes, and sweet?
        Cherished as love, and slaying with a touch?
        Why in thee do the known and unknown meet?
        Why swift and tender, strong and delicate?
        Simple as truth, yet manifold in might?
        Why does one love thee, and another hate?
        Why cleave my words to the portals of my speech
        When I a goodly matter would indite?
        Why mounts my thought of thee beyond my reach?
        --In vain to follow thee, I thee beseech,
        For God is light.