{"author":null,"canonical_references":[],"database_sha256":"8cfbe7284c6936871d57c02dc6aa63ebbdfd4722422d539dd9f716e46e91112e","date_end":null,"date_start":null,"edition_year":null,"id":"sermonindex-ecf-4321","native_reference":{"book_number":560,"chapter_from":5,"chapter_to":5,"system":"MyBible module coordinates (mapping unverified)","verse_from":8,"verse_to":8},"public_import_allowed":false,"record_kind":"verse-keyed-module-record","review_required":["English edition and exact text","author/work attribution","dating","verse mapping and citation kind","reuse and attribution","split author quotations and deduplicate"],"review_status":"unreviewed","source_html":"<p><b>Clement of Alexandria</b>: As, then, those who have shaken off sleep forthwith become all awake within; or rather, as those who try to remove a film that is over the eyes, do not supply to them from without the light which they do not possess, but removing the obstacle from the eyes, leave the pupil free; thus also we who are baptized, having wiped off the sins which obscure the light of the Divine Spirit, have the eye of the spirit free, unimpeded, and full of light, by which alone we contemplate the Divine, the Holy Spirit flowing down to us from above. This is the eternal adjustment of the vision, which is able to see the eternal light, since like loves like; and that which is holy, loves that from which holiness proceeds, which has appropriately been termed light. \"Once ye were darkness, now are ye light in the Lord.\" Hence I am of opinion man was called by the ancients φώς. But he has not yet received, say they, the perfect gift. I also assent to this; but he is in the light, and the darkness comprehendeth him not.<br/><i>— The Instructor Book 1</i></p><p><b>Desert Fathers</b>: A hermit said, 'When the donkey's eyes are covered it walks round the mill-wheel. If you uncover its eyes, it will not go on walking in the circle. So if the devil succeeds in covering a man's eyes, he leads him into every kind of sin. But if the man's eyes are uncovered, he can more easily escape.'<br/><i>— The Desert Fathers, Sayings of the Early Christian Monks</i></p><p><b>Gregory the Dialogist</b>: Hence also the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day rightly went before the people journeying through the desert. For in fire there is terror, but in cloud there is the gentle comfort of vision; and day is taken as the life of the just, and night as the life of the sinner. Hence Paul also says to converted sinners: \"You were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.\" Therefore by day the pillar was shown through cloud, and by night through fire, because almighty God will appear both gentle to the just and terrible to the unjust.<br/><i>— Forty Gospel Homilies, Homily 21</i></p><p><b>Jerome</b>: The darkness is being turned into light. There is not, as some heretics argue, a nature so alienated that it cannot receive salvation.… Those who receive salvation—the righteous—are \"the light of the world.\" Those who refuse, the unrighteous, are in consequence called darkness.… The difference and distance between one and the other is clearly seen by their own fruits.<br/><i>— Commentary on Ephesians 5:8</i></p><p><b>Tertullian</b>: And if so, the apostle too was in error when he said in his epistle, \"Ye were at one time darkness, (but now are ye light in the Lord: )\" and, \"We also were by nature children of wrath; \" and, \"Such were some of you, but ye are washed.<br/><i>— A Treatise on the Soul</i></p>","source_html_sha256":"eae3e89e7792ba49fce6f4cbd1ab49d9524c48aae27d8b87d179bf8af421f667","source_module":"ECF","source_row_id":4321,"source_url":"https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/ecf/","text_sha256":"504dc46dfbc770b7ef3bf58ce1ed945fad624a6903617364d5c283ddd00a2ae1","translator":null,"work":null}