Christ as Prism

The fullness of the sun, brought out into the circle of the dependent worlds by radiation, is brought into the knowledge of the creature only by the refractions and reflections to which this radiance is subjected in the worlds themselves.  If we could place ourselves beyond the atmosphere, in the interplanetary space, we would on every side, except that toward the sun itself, behold the whole hemisphere absolutely black, with the stars simply as points without size—themselves visible, but spreading no light around.  If we should turn and face the sun itself, we should see only a dull blue disk of lambent flame.  It is only after we have descended within the volume of the atmosphere and come to the surface of the earth itself, that the hitherto latent myriad-hued beauties of the sun first come out to view.  Refracted by every successive stratum of the earth’s atmosphere, and by the vapours of various densities which canopy our hills and streams this hitherto latent radiance is broken and expanded into the infinitely varied hues of the rainbow and of the imperial retinue of clouds which attend the alternate rising and setting of the sun.  And the whole earth, its hills and vales and plains, and all its innumerable tallies of plants and flowers and birds and beasts, reflect each one a separate colour or shade or tone of light, and by their infinite variety collectively articulate the incalculable beauties latent in the suns radiance which could not otherwise be known.

Thus it is that the radiance of the effulgent Image of the invisible God—that is, the ever-present Spirit of the Son of the Father—exhibits to us the infinite fullness and variety of his grace; not immediately in himself but by refractions and reflections through the intelligent spirits in which he dwells—in no single Church or person, but in all the endlessly varied spiritual beauties and graces of all the saints of all nations and ages, and in the angels of all ranks.  Thrones and dominions, principalities and powers, circle the throne and reflect the first gush of the white light.  But all down the lines of vision, in interminable perspectives, poets and philosophers, artists and musicians, prophets and priests, and all the saints of very various shade and tone, analyze and reflect all the perfections of their Lord, which otherwise no eye hath seen or can see.

A.A. Hodge Evangelical Theology: Lectures on Doctrine (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1967) 114-115