The Worlds Great Sermons, Volume 1 | Page 6

which hath made us meet to be
partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light." Finally, if the

condemned are sent into outer darkness, evidently those who are made
worthy of God's approval are at rest in heavenly light. When, then,
according to the order of God, the heaven appeared, enveloping all that
its circumference included, a vast and unbroken body separating outer
things from those which it enclosed, it necessarily kept the space inside
in darkness for want of communication with the outer light.
Three things are, indeed, needed to form a shadow: light, a body, a dark
place. The shadow of heaven forms the darkness of the world.
Understand, I pray you, what I mean, by a simple example--by raising
for yourself at midday a tent of some compact and impenetrable
material, you shut yourself up in sudden darkness. Suppose that
original darkness was like this, not subsisting directly by itself, but
resulting from some external causes. If it is said that it rested upon the
deep, it is because the extremity of air naturally touches the surface of
bodies; and as at that time the water covered everything, we are obliged
to say that darkness was upon the face of the deep.
"And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters?" Does this
Spirit mean the diffusion of air? The sacred writer wishes to enumerate
to you the elements of the world, to tell you that God created the
heavens, the earth, water and air, and that the last was now diffused and
in motion; or rather, that which is truer and confirmed by the authority
of the ancients, by the Spirit of God he means the Holy Spirit. It is, as
has been remarked, the special name, the name above all others that
Scripture delights to give to the Holy Spirit, and by the Spirit of God
the Holy Spirit is meant, the Spirit, namely, which completes the divine
and blessed Trinity. You will always find it better, therefore, to take it
in this sense. How, then, did the Spirit of God move upon the waters?
The explanation that I am about to give you is not an original one, but
that of a Syrian who was as ignorant in the wisdom of this world as he
was versed in the knowledge of the truth.
He said, then, that the Syriac word was more expressive, and that,
being more analogous to the Hebrew term, it was a nearer approach to
the Scriptural sense. This is the meaning of the word: by "moved" the
Syrians, he says, understand brooded over. The Spirit cherished the
nature of the waters as one sees a bird cover the eggs with her body and
impart to them vital force from her own warmth. Such is, as nearly as
possible, the meaning of these words--the Spirit moved: that is,

prepared the nature of water to produce living beings: a sufficient proof
for those who ask if the Holy Spirit took an active part in the creation
of the world.
"And God said, Let there be light." The first word uttered by God
created the nature of light; it made darkness vanish, dispelled gloom,
illuminated the world, and gave to all being at the same time a sweet
and gracious aspect. The heavens, until then enveloped in darkness,
appeared with that beauty which they still present to our eyes. The air
was lighted up, or rather made the light circulate mixed with its
substance, and, distributing its splendor rapidly in every direction, so
dispersed itself to its extreme limits. Up it sprang to the very ether and
heaven. In an instant it lighted up the whole extent of the world, the
north and the south, the east and the west. For the ether also is such a
subtle substance and so transparent that it needs not the space of a
moment for light to pass through it. Just as it carries our sight
instantaneously to the object of vision, so without the least interval,
with a rapidity that thought can not conceive, it receives these rays of
light in its uttermost limits. With light the ether becomes more pleasing
and the waters more limpid. These last, not content with receiving its
splendor, return it by the reflection of light and in all directions send
forth quivering flashes. The divine word gives every object a more
cheerful and a more attractive appearance, just as when men pour in oil
into the deep sea they make the place about them smooth. So, with a
single word and in one instant the Creator of all things gave the boon of
light to the world.
"Let there be light." The order was itself an operation, and a state of
things was brought into being than