The Lamp
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Lamp
Scripture Reference:
- John 12 (further images / scripture text)
Description: The man who is stingy with lamp oil—saving the oil to dispel future darkness—sits in the darkness. Similarly, many refuse to give themselves over to the light of eternal life in their efforts to preserve their earthly lives (John 12:24; Mark 8:35). The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649–1712), whose initials are at the lower right, was responsible for drawing and etching this emblem and wrote the accompanying poem.
Motto: Life from death.
Poem:
If someone, intent, on saving
His Oil, for Evening-light,
Did not wish to lose but preserve it,
He would sit in the dark, while gazing.
It would be strange, in the Eyes of many!
But look around in the World sometime,
How many are likewise deceived,
Through Miserliness so blind and dumb,
That they do not want to give up,
The World and what it contains,
To gain the light of Eternal life
In exchange for that Darkness:
For where one is lost,
The other is born.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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