I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life

                        "I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk

                             in darkness, but shall have the light of life." (John 8:12)

The combination of three things serve as the basis for my editorial lesson today. One of them is an old, familiar church hymn, another is an historical event and the third is a statement by Jesus seen in the above cited verse of John 8:12. Stay with me here and I'll do my best to link these three together in an understandable way.

First, let's talk a minute about the old hymn. I say "old" because it was written by P.P. Bliss, who wrote many of the hymns found in our songbooks, and he died in a train accident in 1876. This particular hymn he entitled "Let The Lower Lights Be Burning."

Like many of you may do from time to time, I notice a phrase from one of our hymns and wonder just what it means. What is the writer speaking about when he pens a song that refers to "the lower lights? I was curious so I did a little research and found out that this phrase relates to a historical event on Lake Erie at the port of Cleveland, Ohio.

Let me just tell you the circumstances of the event and that will explain both what the "lower lights" are and by knowing that, we can tie them into the statement by Christ that He is "the light of the world."

It was reported that the event happened on a dark, stormy night as a passenger ship was trying to make it into the harbor. The waves on the lake were said to be like "mountains" and no stars could be seen. There was a pilot steering the ship and he knew that in order to safely navigate into the harbor he had to keep two lower lights lined up with the main beacon.

The ship's Captain, watching from the pilot house, could see only one light shining from the lighthouse. He asked the pilot, "Are you sure this is Cleveland?" The pilot replied, "Quite sure, sir." The Captain then asked, "Where are the lower lights?" The pilot said, "They've gone out, sir." The next questions from the Captain was, "Can you make the harbor?" The pilot's answer to that was very terse and carries a great analogy to our lesson. He said, "We must or we perish, sir."

Without being able to see the "lower lights" the pilot turned the wheel and the result was not good. They missed the safe channel into the harbor, crashed onto the rocks and many souls perished that night. I used the term "souls" because the phrase "souls on board" is an old seafaring term relating to the number of passengers on board the ship. It's since been adopted by the FAA and the airlines to indicate the number of passengers on an airplane.

Okay, let's see if we can't tie this old song and some of it's words to the ship wreck at Cleveland harbor with Jesus and His words. First off, Jesus said "I am the Light of the world....." In our little analogy today, Jesus would be the "main beacon." The light from the lighthouse that John 1:9 tells us is "the true Light." The "Light" that "lighteth every man that cometh into the world."

Now that we know and understand Who, and What, the "main Light" is, we can understand just who and what the "lower lights" are. To make a long story short, we, Christians, are the "lower lights." We're not the "main Light." Not the "Lighthouse." We're the "lower lights," the ones who reflect the "main Light."

There are several scriptures that tell us that Christians serve as "lights" in the world. Here's just a few for you to look at: in Eph. 5:8 and 1 Thess. 5:5 we read that followers of Christ are "children of light." And when we read a little further down the page in Eph. 5 we see that it is Christ who gives us our light (vs. 14).

You've probably never thought of it in this way, but we can even see in The Scriptures that John the Baptist was also a "lower light." Look at what it says in John 1:6-9 where, speaking of John the Baptist, that he was "not that Light" but was a "witness of that Light." Aren't we tasked with the same thing? To bear "witness" of the "True Light?" (The answer is yes.)

Now that I think about it, the Apostle Paul and Barnabas were also "lower lights." If you open your Bible to Acts 13:47 you'll read where Paul tells those at Antioch of Pisidia that he had been sent to be a "light of the Gentiles."

I hope that you've taken notice of my using the lower case (l) when referring to John, Paul, Barnabas and us and the upper case (L) when referring to Christ, "the true Light." I do that because that's the way it reads in The Bible and this is very fitting to our discussion of the "lights" and "Light" of our lesson, don't you think?

Here's a couple more scriptural references regarding Christians being the "lower lights" and then we'll wrap up our lesson today. I particularly like something Jesus told His disciples recorded in the 12^th chapter of Luke. He's giving them a teaching on their duties in this chapter and in the 35^th verse He tells them: "Let your loins be girded about and your lights burning." As if saying, always be dressed as disciples and have your light shining.

My second and last reference passage comes from Phil. 2:15 where Paul is saying that Christians are to always be faithful to God and Christ, even though we live in a "crooked and perverse nation among whom ye shine as lights in the world." That is our mission on this earth. To provide "light" or as Paul puts it in 2Cor. 4:4 "the light of the glorious gospel of Christ" to our part of the world.

In closing my thoughts today, I'd just like to remind you of one more thing. We've seen that, as Christians, if we "walk (live) in the light" (of Christ) as we live our lives here on earth "for a season" then I want you to know that in heaven we'll "walk" in His light eternally because Jesus, "the Lamb" is "the light thereof." (Rev. 21:23-24)

And here's some closing words from our song: "But to us He gives the keeping, Of the lights along the shore." The gospel is left in our hands. We are to be the "light of that glorious gospel." Our "lights" are to always be shining. Or as the song says: "Trim your feeble lamp, my brother! Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed, trying now to make the harbor, in the darkness may be lost."

If we let our lights go out, like the "lower lights" by the Cleveland harbor, souls won't be able to see the "true Light" and be saved. If we only learn one thing from this lesson today, let it be - keep our feeble lamps trimmed and burning.

Ron Covey