MANY OF OUR readers have seen a lighthouse. For thousands of years, men have been building lighthouses to guide ships at sea. Lighthouses are usually tall, round, stone towers, wider at the base than at the top, and set near harbors or dangerous places. Some more modern lighthouses are built of iron or concrete. Lighthouses must be strongly built to resist the force of frequent gales and huge waves. One of the most famous lighthouses was the Pharos light which was built just off the coast of Egypt three hundred years before the Lord Jesus was born; it was considered one of the seven wonders of the world.
Not nearly so many years ago, a man named Winstanley built the first Eddystone lighthouse. On it, he is said to have inscribed: “Blow ye winds! Rise O ocean! Break forth ye elements and try my work!” Satisfied with his work, he settled down in the lighthouse one evening to see how it would weather a good storm. The storm that night was terrible, and in the morning, nothing much remained. The lighthouse and its builder had been swept into the sea.
Rudyard, another builder, erected a new lighthouse in the place of Witanley’s, but it was no better. He died as Winstanley had died—in the work of his own hands.
Finally a man named Smeaton ban to build a new lighthouse. He made his lighthouse of stone and built it right into the rock beneath it. On his lighthouse, he inscribed Psalm 127:11<<A Song of degrees for Solomon.>> Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it: except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. (Psalm 127:1): “Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it.”
Then he wrote two more words, “Laus Deo", which in Latin means “Praise (be) to God.” He was a wise man, and his lighthouse stood.
The Lord Jesus said, “Whosoever cometh to Me, and heareth My sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like: he is like a man which built a house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it; for it was founded upon a rock.
“But he that heareth and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built a house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great.” Luke 6:47-4947Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will show you to whom he is like: 48He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock. 49But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great. (Luke 6:47‑49).
Are you safe, dear reader? Are you built on the Rock, which is the Lord Jesus Christ? If so, are you the steady, bright light you could be?
ML-01/31/1971