2018-05-16

Let your light shine

“Ye are the light of the world. ... let your light so shine, …” (Mt 5:14,16).

The keeper of a lighthouse at Calais was boasting of the brightness of his lantern, which could be seen ten leagues IMS at sea. A visitor said to him, “What if one of the lights should chance to go out?” “Never! Impossible!” he cried, horrified at the thought.

“Sir,” said he, pointing to the ocean, “yonder, where nothing can be seen, there are ships going out to all parts of the world. If tonight one of my burners went out, within six months would come a letter, perhaps from India, perhaps from America, perhaps from some place I never heard of, saying, on such a night, at such an hour, the light of Calais burned dim, the watchman neglected his post and vessels were in danger! Ah, sir, sometimes in the dark nights, in stormy weather, I look out to sea and feel as if the eyes of the whole world were looking at my light. Go out? Burn dim? Never!”

Brightly beams our Father’s mercy,

From His lighthouse evermore

But to us He gives the keeping

Of the lights along the shore.

Dark the night of sin has settled,

Loud the angry billows roar;

Eager eyes are watching, longing,

For the lights along the shore.

Trim your feeble lamp, my brother:

Some poor sailor tempest tossed,

Trying now to make the harbor,

In the darkness may be lost.