"Let your Light so Shine."
A SINGLE illustration, happily introduced into a sermon, will sometimes fasten itself on the mind of a person, never to be forgotten. We remember a case in point. The substance of the sermon in which it was introduced is forgotten; but the point to which we refer is permanent. We have thought of it a hundred180times, in connection with religious cosistency The preacher referred to a light house near New York, for illustration. The light, which is a revolving one, had ceased to move by reason of some derangement in the machinery. As soon as the keeper discoverd it, he ran to the proper position, and by manual labor kept steadily revolving the light, until weariness compelled him to call another to his assistance, then another took his turn—and so during the live-long night, and the light kept its uniform revolution. A stranger, astonished at the solicitude of the keeper, inquired the cause. "Why," said he, "There may be a hundred seamen looking out from the darkness and storm below, to catch a glance at this light. If it move not, it will be mistaken for another, and, in their uncertainty and danger, they may lose the channel and be shipwrecked." How many happy hearts passed over Broad-way the next day, all unconscious of the danger to which they had been exposed, but for the faithfulness and consideration of that keeper of the light-house! Christian, the world is looking on you. You may not know who are below in the darkness and storm of life's troubled sea—but you know the sea is stormy, and there are dangerous shoals to be avoided. Let your light give no uncertain gleaming on the gloom. Keep its motion uniform and continued! And when the day of eternity shall dawn, thousands may tread the streets of the New Jerusalem—who, but for the brightness and regularity of your light might have made shipwreck of faith, and never moored in the harbor of eternal safety.—Protestant.