There are four things which always attend the dayspring's visit, or the coming of the morning; and when Jesus came into our world He brought these four things; and when He comes into our souls He brings them there too.
I. The first thing that the visit of the dayspring brings with it is Light. In the very next verse Zacharias goes on to show that this would be the effect of Christ's coming into the world. The object of that coming will be to give light to them that sit in darkness and the shadow of death. When Christ came into the world, He brought light into it; and it is so still wherever He comes with His Gospel. The business of those who are children of light is to scatter the light around them. There are two ways of doing this. One is by our example; the other is by helping to send the Gospel to those who are in darkness.
II. Beauty attends the dayspring when it comes. And when Jesus, "the Dayspring from on high," visited our world, He brought beauty with Him, and spread it around Him everywhere. He was spreading beauty around Him by the miracles He performed every day. When He healed the sick, and raised the dead; when He made the lame to walk, and the blind to see, and the deaf to hear, and the dumb to speak, He was really giving beauty for ashes. When He comes into the souls of His people, He comes to make them beautiful, because He comes to make them like Himself.
III. The third thing that follows when the dayspring appears is Joy. The prophet Isaiah speaks of Christ as appearing to the joy of His people. It was so when He first appeared. And now when He comes into any heart, any home, any neighbourhood, He always brings joy with Him. The Dayspring's coming causes joy in two ways: the first is, by what He does for us; the second, by what He helps us to do for others.
IV. There is one other thing that always follows when the morning comes and the dayspring visits us, and that is Activity. When morning comes men wake from their sleep, and go forth to the labours and duties of another day. And so the dayspring, or the morning, when it comes, leads to activity. It was night in the world before Jesus entered it. And it is night in our souls till Jesus comes into them. But Jesus came, as the dayspring, to waken men out of sleep, and stir them up to activity, in working for their souls and for heaven. When He comes into our souls to dwell there, it is like morning coming after a long night. Then we begin to see what Jesus has done for us. We see His wonderful love, and the thought of that love stirs our hearts and souls to be active in His service.
R. Newton, Pebbles from the Brook,p. 50.