Burning and Shining Lights
Paxton Hood. John 5:31-40 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.… Paul, Peter, James, or John — Luke, Mark, Matthew, or Apollos — Andrew, Philip, Barnabas, or Stephen — each would be a burning and shining light: in one the lustre might dart from the pen, in another from the tongue; from one might flash the lightnings of eloquence, from another the more quiet beam of lucid exposition. St. Bernard may illuminate a court, or Thomas a Kempis a cloister; Wickliffe may lighten a rectory or a kingdom; Luther may blaze over an age; Brainerd and Elliott may spend their fiery light in rousing the latent emotions of Indian tribes; or Williams, in identifying Christianity to savages with the arts of life; Whitfield may be the voice of one crying in the wilderness, echoless as soon as uttered; Madame Chantal, the glorious Elizabeth of Hungary, or the lovely Florence Nightingale, may show how the Tabitha and Dorcas spirit is not confined to any age, to cottage, or to court. But the fact about Christianity is, that it turns all its possessors, all its sound-hearted professors, into burning and shining lights. (Paxton Hood.) Parallel Verses KJV: If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true. WEB: "If I testify about myself, my witness is not valid.