Matthew 5:15

How To Be A Lamp

A lamp. Matthew 5:15.

Would you like to know how to be a lamp? Boys and girls can all be lamps. They can't be electric arc lights or incandescent burners they must leave that to the grown-ups but they can all be lamps.

Jesus once told His followers to be lamps, and to let their light shine out into the dark world around them. If you have what is called the Authorized Version of the Bible, and if you turn to Matthew 5:15, you will find that the word is “candle.” This is really a slight mistake in translation, and the Revised Version has called it by its right name a lamp.

Have you ever seen one of those odd Eastern lamps to which Christ referred? Some of them are just like shallow earthenware saucers pinched in one place to form a sort of peak. The saucer is filled with oil and the wick is inserted at the pinched end. Other lamps are like two saucers fastened together, the top one being turned upside down. Towards one side the lamp is narrower, and in the narrow part a small hole is made to contain the wick. Another hole is made in the center of the lamp to let in the oil. Some of these lamps are quite plain, others are beautifully ornamented, others bear inscriptions.

Now, how can boys and girls be lamps? Just by being happy. You have all heard of Robert Louis Stevenson the boy who, like Peter Pan, “never grew up” because he always kept the heart of a child. He was as full of fun and frolic when he was a man as when he was a child, and he kept happy even when he was very, very ill. Some of you have read his stories Kidnapped and Treasure Island and some even of the tiniest can understand his poems, for he wrote a whole book of poetry specially for children.

Well, Stevenson says in one of his books that “a happy man or woman is a better thing to find than a five-pound note; their entrance into a room is as though another candle had been lighted.” He tells a story about a ragged, barefoot boy, who went running down the street chasing a marble. He looked so happy that he put everyone he passed into a good humor. He chased away such black thoughts from one man that he stopped the boy and gave him some money with the remark: “You see what sometimes comes of looking pleased.”

1. I want you to remember in the first place that God wants you to he happy. Some people seem to have an odd idea that it is wrong to be happy. They pull a long face and look solemn, but I don't think the world is very much the better of them. God made the kittens to catch their tails, and the puppies to worry things, and the little lambs to gambol in the fields, and He made the children full of fun and frolic too. Just be as merry as you can, only don't buy your happiness at the expense of other people.

2. The world would be a great deal poorer without the laughter of little children, and that brings me to the second point in being happy we make other people happy. There is an old Eastern story about a king who owned a very precious gem called a beryl-stone. This stone was most beautifully cut and polished; but the wonderful thing about it was that when it was set upon the Royal Standard, it shone like the sun and gave light for miles around. By its rays the king's army could march for miles during the dark hours, and the people could work at night just as if it were day. You see what a lot of good the stone did just by shining; and so we can do a tremendous lot of good just by being happy.

I should like to tell you what a sunbeam did by shining. One morning in February, a little sunbeam was sent by its mother to pay a visit to the earth. The Sun was just rising over the eastern sea when it set out. “Good-bye, little one,” said she; “be happy, work well, and come back to me in the evening.” “All right, Mother,” cried the sunbeam, and away it went, skipping and dancing over the waters. The ocean laughed beneath its glance, and a lazy boy who was just yawning his way out of bed said, “Oh my, what a ripping day! I must buck up, and get out to the garden before school.”

That gave the sunbeam an idea, for it had overheard the word “garden.” It peeped into the garden, and saw a poor little frozen snowdrop struggling into life. It kissed the snowdrop and the flower blossomed beneath the touch of its warm lips. Then it played among the branches of a tree where a shivering thrush was standing on one leg. “Too-ee-too, too-ee-too,” sang the thrush. “Why, I do believe spring has come! Perhaps I'll find a worm this morning. It seems warmer than usual.” So he shook his feathers, and off he flew to look for his breakfast. And a weary invalid, who for many dark days had hovered between life and death, smiled, and all unwittingly repeated the words of the thrush “I do believe spring has come!” Then he added, “I think I should like to get better.”

The sunbeam danced along till it came to a great city. It peeped in at an office window where a man sat worried with the cares of business. It smiled in his face and smoothed out the wrinkles. Then it visited a room where a weary woman worked for husband and children, and her work seemed lighter for the glint of sunshine. It looked in upon two people who were just starting a quarrel. And they laughed and said, “One can't be cross on a day like this.”

Next it visited a slum. It glanced upon the cobwebs in the corner of a room, and a woman exclaimed, “I really think I must have a bit of a clean-up here.

It's wonderful how the sunshine shows up things!” And the sunbeam chuckled with glee as it went on its way.

So it travelled until evening. It was very tired, but it had just one more task. It lit up a mountain- peak where the snows lay, and the mountain-top turned to rosy pink. And a man who was dying without hope and without faith, lifted up his eyes unto the hills, and found rest for his soul.

Then, with a sigh, the sunbeam fell asleep in the arms of the mother Sun. And the Sun was well- pleased with her child, for she knew that it had discovered one of life's greatest secrets that in making others happy is to be found the deepest and most lasting joy.

3. Lastly, the lest way to he happy ourselves and to make others happy is to have our hearts filled with the love of God. There was once a king whose great desire was to make his people happy. So he asked two of his wise men how it was to be done, and he gave them two months to think out the problem. At the end of the time they appeared before him. One carried a parchment on which were written two hundred rules; the other brought nothing. The king grew very tired before the two hundred rules were all read. Then he turned to the other man. “What is thine answer?” he asked. And the man replied in two words “Love God.” “What,” said the king, “I asked thee how I should make my people happy and thou tellest me to love God.” “True,” replied the wise man, “but thou canst not love God without loving thy people also.”

God is the source of all happiness, just as the Sun is the source of all light. The oil in the lamp gives out only as much light as it took in long ago from the Sun; so we must always return to God to have our lamps refilled.

The late Queen of Rumania had a motto which consisted of only two words. Here it is, and I think we might take it as our motto too Give Joy.