contact with Him, and being fed continually from His stores of
radiance.

I need not say more than a word with regard to the former member of
that contrast suggested here. That unlit Light derives its brilliancy,
according to the Scriptural teaching, from nothing but its divine
union with the Father. So that long before there were eyes to see,
there was the eradiation and outshining of the Father's glory. I do
not enter into these depths, but this I would say, that what is called
the 'originality' of Jesus is only explained when we reverently see in
that unique life the shining through a pure humanity, as through a
sheet of alabaster, of that underived, divine Light. Jesus is an
insoluble problem to men who will not see in Him the Eternal Light
which 'in the beginning was with God.' You find in Him no trace of
gradual acquisition of knowledge, or of arguing or feeling His way to
His beliefs. You find in Him no trace of consciousness of a great
horizon of darkness encompassing the region where He sees light. You
find in Him no trace of a recognition of other sources from which He
has drawn any portion of His light. You find in Him the distinct
declaration that His relation to truth is not the relation of men who
learn, and grow, and acquire, and know in part; for, says He, 'I am
the Truth.' He stands apart from us all, and above us all, in that He
owes His radiance to none, and can dispense it to every man. The
question which the puzzled Jews asked about Him, 'How knoweth this Man
letters, having never learned?' may be widened out to all the
characteristics of His human life. To me the only answer is: 'Thou art
the King of glory, O Christ! Thou art the Everlasting Son of the
Father.'

Dependent on Him are the little lights which He has lit, and in the