Article October 11, 1941 Issue

"I have set thee to be a light"

ELEANOR G. R. YOUNG

The steadfastness of purpose which the great Apostle to the Gentiles expressed when the Jews refused to listen to the Christly message of immediate and eternal salvation has encouraged and inspired many earnest followers of the Master from that remote day until our own time. Realizing the truth, as he did after his conversion, Saul at once "preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God." Later, Saul, "who is also called Paul," and Barnabas turned from the unbelieving Jews, who rejected the message, to the Gentiles, to those who, we are told in the thirteenth chapter of Acts, "besought that these words might be preached to them." Then Paul explained to his opponents, "For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth."

Today, as on that far-off yesterday, those students of the Bible who are endeavoring to pattern their lives after the Master's clear directing in that complete and perfect religious address, the Sermon on the Mount, are frequently reminded that the necessity for letting the light of their spiritual understanding shine steadily forth into the hearts of men is still an active obligation.

As the years have run their eventful course since that day in the temple at Antioch to this day, when the world seems to be torn by conflicting theories, bright spiritual beacons have lighted the way for every earnest seeker after Truth. In the dense material darkness of the centuries the words and works of spiritually-minded men and women have burned with persistent, hope-arousing brilliance, illumining and encouraging human thought. Great and revered names brighten the pages of religious history, devoted defenders of Christianity who visioned something of the wonder and beauty of the Nazarene Prophet's message of universal salvation. Primitive Christian teaching has never been wholly lost, but has appeared from time to time challenging thoughtful men and women to search untiringly for wisdom and understanding.

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