1 Kings 6

Narrow Lights

Windows of narrow lights (RV “windows of fixed lattice-work”). 1 Kings 6:4.

There seems to be a good deal of doubt as to what these windows were like. In the Authorized Version of the Bible the version most of you have it says they were “windows of narrow lights.” The Revised Version says they were “windows of fixed lattice-work,” and the margins of both say they were “broad within, and narrow without” very much like the windows you may have seen in an old castle. Very probably these windows were formed either of lattice-work or of slabs of stone pierced with narrow slits. They were fixed so that they could not open or shut.

But, whatever their form, one thing seems certain they let in very little light. Artificial light was used in the Temple and so they perhaps served to let in air rather than light, for of course there was no glass in them.

At the present day we do not make our windows with narrow lights, we make them large and wide, and a window that does not let in light is not serving the chief purpose for which it was made.

Now you and I possess two sets of windows each the windows of the mind and the windows of the heart.

And we must see to it that they are broad windows and not narrow windows that let in plenty of light, windows that give us broad views of the world and all that it contains.

1. First there are the windows of the mind. It is through them that we take in impressions, knowledge, ideas.

Now some people have such narrow openings in their mind that they can take in only one or two ideas. And when they have taken these in they stick to them as though they were the only ideas that existed. So their minds are starved for want of light and they never grow any wiser.

There are others who think that certain things can be done only in a certain way; and if anybody else does them in a different way they imagine that that person is altogether wrong.

For instance, you yourselves know how it is at school. A particular teacher has taught you for a year or two and you have grown very fond of her. Then one day she leaves and a new teacher comes. This other has new methods, new ways of doing things, and you don't like it. These methods may be just as good as your old teacher's were, in fact they may be better, but you are not accustomed to them and you rebel. Sometimes you tell the newcomer that Miss So-and-so didn't do this and Miss So-and-so didn't do that. In short you give her a horrid time.

Now if your new teacher has any sense she will just stick to her own methods and not listen to you, and if you have any sense you will come to see that there is more than one good way of doing a good thing. Of course it is a trying experience to have all your notions upset and to have to get accustomed to new ways, but it is very good for you too. It is widening the windows of your mind.

There are other people, again, who think that their opinion is the only right one, and that anyone who thinks differently from them is altogether wrong.

Did you ever hear the story of the six blind men of Hindostan who went to “see” the elephant in order to find out what it was like? It is told in a delightful little poem.

The first blind man stumbled up against the side of the animal, and without examining it any further he called out that the elephant was “very like a wall.” The second seized the tusk. It seemed round and smooth and sharp so he exclaimed that the elephant was certainly “very like a spear.”

The third grasped the squirming trunk and he maintained that the elephant was “very like a snake.” The fourth stretched out a hand and felt all round a leg. He averred that the elephant was “very like a tree.” The fifth chanced to touch the ear and he was convinced that the elephant was “very like a fan.”

The sixth happened to seize the tail, which swung about in his hand. He declared that the elephant was “very like a rope.”

And so these men of Hindostan

Disputed loud and long,

Each in his own opinion

Exceeding stiff and strong,

Though each was partly in the right,

And each was partly wrong.

And so, boys and girls, don't imagine that because somebody thinks differently from you they are absolutely wrong and you are absolutely right. Perhaps that is the case, but it is much more likely that you are both partly right and partly wrong, and it may be that you are quite wrong and they are quite right. There is room for many opinions in the world, and we can all learn something from each other.

2. And then there are the windows of the heart. It is through them that we take in sympathy and love, it is through them that we get our experience of life, our knowledge of men and women and boys and girls, of their ways and their doings, of their troubles and their pleasures, of their sorrows and their joys. And we must take pains to see that these windows are built wide, for if we don't, then we shall grow narrow and self-centered and unsympathetic.

Jesus had a great many windows in His heart. He had a window on every side. And they were so wide that they took in everybody. He sympathized with all our joys and sorrows. He made Himself one with us. And if you want to be truly great, truly noble, truly helpful, you must have wide windows too.

3. And, boys and girls, if we don't try to widen our windows the danger is that they will get choked up altogether so that no light at all will enter.

I wonder how many of you have heard your father speak of a tax which he calls the “inhabited house duty,” and I wonder how many of you have noticed old houses with built-up windows. You can see the mark of where a window once was, but now the space has been filled up with bricks or stones. Did you know that these bricked-up windows and the “inhabited house duty” had any connection? Well they have.

The history of the windows goes back to the year 1697 in the reign of William III. In that year the silver coinage was reminted. Now many of the old coins had been clipped and worn, and in order to pay for the recoining and to make up for the deficiency a tax was put upon windows. Any house that had more than six windows and a rental of more than £5 a year was taxed. Many people were annoyed at the tax, and rather than pay it they built up their windows. If they had two in one room they bricked up one of them.

The tax was continued till 1851, when it was removed, and a tax on the rental of the house, a tax which we call the “inhabited house duty,” was put in its place. It may interest you to know that the window tax existed in France until 1926.

And boys and girls, it is like that with the windows of our mind, it is like that with the windows of our heart. If we don't keep trying to enlarge them they will become bricked up. The light will cease to penetrate and all our soul will be in darkness.

Let us ask the great Master Builder to widen our windows. Let us keep them wide by opening our minds to receive all good knowledge and our hearts to understand and to sympathize with those around us.