Article April 1, 1967 Issue

"And there was light"

ELSA W. MANN

"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light."^{Gen. 1:3;} From the opening verses of Genesis, when the command of divine Mind dispelled the darkness, to the closing chapters of Revelation, light symbolizes the developing understanding of God.

The Biblical writers constantly used the figure of light to express their sense of divine inspiration and spirituality. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai after talking with God and receiving the Ten Commandments, "the skin of his face shone,"^{Ex. 34:30;} so that he put a veil over his face while he talked with Aaron and the children of Israel.

This light of spiritual inspiration continually reappears in the Bible, lifting men's thoughts above the darkness and mist of materiality until it shines forth in cloudless splendor through the Christ-thought of the Way-shower, Jesus of Nazareth. We read that when he took his disciples up into the mount of transfiguration "his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light."^{Matt. 17:2;} As we attain the light of spiritual inspiration, our faces will reflect God's glory so that we shall go to our daily tasks illumined by its radiance and those whom we meet will feel the warmth and comfort of the Christ.

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