The Building of a Lighthouse

"You said, ‘No, we will get our help from Egypt. They will give us swift horses for riding into battle.’ But the only swiftness you are going to see is the swiftness of your enemies chasing you! One of them will chase a thousand of you. Five of them will make all of you flee. You will be left like a lonely flagpole on a hill or a tattered banner on a distant mountaintop.” Isaiah 30: 16.17

       Isaiah is talking here about a lighthouse. They had lighthouses, or something very like them, in the time of the prophet twenty-five hundred years ago. One of the most famous lighthouses of history was built three hundred years before Jesus came to earth at the mouth of the River Nile, along the Mediterranean Sea. The historians ought to know, and they tell us that this lighthouse was one of the seven wonders of the world, and that it cost over two millions of dollars to build.
       In these days we have a great many lighthouses along the coast. They are put there to guide the ships at night. We have two at the entrance to the Virginia capes. You have many of you seen the one at Cape Henry. There are really two there. One was erected over two hundred years ago, during the presidency of General Washington. After it had been used for over a century it was worn out and the government built a new one, which every night sends its great beam of light far out over the waves.
       There are many things about lighthouses that remind us of boys and girls.

"Arise, shine; for your light has come,
And the glory of the LORD has
risen upon you." Isaiah 60:1

       First, the foundation must be very strong. It never would do to build the lighthouse on the sand. The first storm that came along would wash the sand out from beneath it and then where would the lighthouse be? It must be built on the rock or on strong piles that will not move.

       The Eddystone light, on the coast of England, is one of the most famous in the world. They built three lighthouses and they were all washed away by the storms. And then the engineers came and they went down below the sand and anchored the building to the solid rock, and it has never been shaken.

      When we are building our characters it is very important that they should be fastened to the rock. We must be careful about the foundation. Paul said, "Other foundation can no man lay other than that is laid, even Jesus Christ" He is the best foundation that any young man or woman can have for character. If the life is built on Him and anchored to Him there will not be much danger of the character failing when the times of storm and trial come.

       Next they are very careful about the kind of material they put into the lighthouses. The big tower at Cape Henry is made of steel, and every piece is riveted carefully to the piece next to it. The whole structure must be of the very best material. If there were one poor piece of steel in it the whole building might fall some night when the wind was blowing a gale along the coast.

       Every day we are busy building our characters, and sometimes we are tempted to put in bad habits and easy, lazy ways. If we do, the character we are erecting will never stand the tests of life that are coming.

       But there is something else that is even more important. What is the lighthouse for? It is there to give light. There are ships out there on the sea every night in danger of running on the rocks or the shoals. The light is there to show them how to avoid the dangers.

       In the same way our characters are being built, not for our own glory or our own pleasure, but to give light to the people that are about us. We are to live so that they will want to do better and be better. If we are selfish, and do not let the light of life shine, they may become bewildered and lost, like the ship along a coast where there is no lighthouse.

       There was a man once who was being taken over a lighthouse by the man who kept it. While they were looking at the light the man said to the keeper, "Suppose some night you should forget to light it?" He answered, "Sir, that is impossible. I could not forget it. If there were no light tonight, in a few days I would hear from the North and the South and everywhere, that there were ships that went astray tonight. I dare not forget it."

       So we must not forget our lights. Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven."