Daily Light

Little Book That Shines Through the Dark

Hello everyone. Psalm 119:105 says, “Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.”

From time to time on this podcast, I take a break from methodical Bible teaching to shed light upon an aspect of church history or from the background of our hymnody or from some other item that may be helpful to us Christians. So let’s do that today. I want to tell you the story of a little volume that took four generations to develop and publish. Some of you may be familiar with this book, but many of you will not be. It’s a year-long daily devotional book for morning and evening, a series of remarkable Scripture medleys that have their roots in a man named Samuel Bagster. 

Its story begins in 1772 with Samuel Bagster the Elder, who was born in England the very same year the American colonies rebelled. Samuel was a bright and devout, and he studied under Baptist minister Dr. John Ryland, one of the mentors of missionary pioneer William Carey. Samuel was apprenticed to a bookseller, and he went on to open his own shop in London in 1794. He determined to sell only books that would strengthen people’s minds and souls. As his business grew, he established a publishing house.

His enterprise, which came to be known as Samuel Bagster & Sons, became famous for high-quality Bibles, Bible study aids, and devotional works—all produced with scholarly accuracy and exquisite craftsmanship.

Samuel married Eunice Birch, and together they raised twelve children in a home steeped in Scripture. 

Their tenth child, Jonathan Bagster, inherited his father’s love for the Bible. As a husband and father himself, Jonathan began preparing Scripture readings for his family’s morning and evening devotions. He would select a key verse, then prayerfully search the Bible for passages that echoed or expanded on its theme. Over months of study, he created hundreds of “Scripture chains,” woven together like miniature bracelets of God’s Word.

Jonathan’s son Robert remembered watching his father labor over these selections. He wrote, “Few are able to appreciate the heart-searching care with which every text was selected—the days, nay the weeks, of changes, alterations, and improvements.” Jonathan would keep revising a single day’s reading until it seemed perfectly balanced and complete. He read these Scripture compositions to his family for morning and evening devotions.

After Jonathan’s death, Robert gathered his father’s handwritten collections and, in the mid-1870s, published them under the title Daily Light on the Daily Path. His own daughter, Anne Bagster, assisted with editing and proofreading—making the final product a four-generation collaboration: Samuel the founder, Jonathan the compiler, Robert the publisher, and Anne the editor. Four generations to produce one book.

Why It Endures

The genius of Daily Light lies in its simplicity. It contains no commentary, no devotional essays, no author’s reflections—only Scripture. Each day offers two readings, morning and evening, grouped around a single theme such as faith, courage, comfort, or obedience. The result is a symphony of biblical voices—Moses, David, Isaiah, Paul, and John—harmonizing to proclaim a single truth.

Because it speaks entirely in the language of the Bible, Daily Light feels at once ancient and fresh. A verse read in childhood may strike with new power in adulthood. Many readers testify that its daily arrangement seems almost prophetic—offering exactly the words needed for the moment, as though God Himself arranged the readings for that very day.

Since its publication in the mineteenth century, Daily Light has never gone out of print. It has been translated into many languages and issued in dozens of editions—from the original King James Version to modern translations. 

Years ago our friend, Jonathan Merkh, published a new edition of Daily Light in the New King James Version for a project associated with Anne Graham Lotz. He gave a copy to my wife Katrina. Apart from her Bible, this became Katrina’s favorite book. I watched her read from it night after night as long as she lived, and I’m sure she read from it every morning too.

It did not replace her own study of Scripture, but it was a supplement. She and I both preferred it in the New King James Version rather than in a modern-sounding Bible because some of the scripture medleys are based around certain words or phrases that link together. I once had a copy of Daily Light in the New International Version, but I felt it lost some of its effectiveness. 

A Continuing Legacy

Generations of believers—missionaries in foreign lands, soldiers at war, widows in grief, students in new beginnings—have turned to this little book to steady their hearts. Its endurance rests on one simple fact: it lets the Word of God do the talking.

When Anne Graham Lotz faced a sudden crisis—her son’s unexpected cancer surgery—she reached for a small, time-worn devotional that had steadied her through many of life’s storms: Daily Light on the Daily Path. As she opened its pages, her eyes fell on verses that seemed arranged by divine appointment:
“Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all… We know that all things work together for good… With us is the Lord our God, to help us and to fight our battles. The Lord your God in your midst, the Mighty One, will save.”

Anne later reflected, “God has spoken to me more often through the verses in Daily Light than through any other book, except my Bible.” The little book had been a lifelong companion, first placed in her hands when she was ten years old—a gift from her mother, Ruth Bell Graham, who had cultivated her own love of Scripture and devotion in the quiet mountains of North Carolina.

A Light in Dark Places

The book’s influence extends far beyond cozy devotional corners. It has traveled into prisons, concentration camps, and mission fields—carried in pockets and knapsacks, its words bringing hope where few other comforts could reach.

In the early 1950s, Arthur Matthews, a missionary with the China Inland Mission, found himself trapped under Communist rule. Hostility toward Christians was rising, and foreign missionaries were being expelled or imprisoned. One day, Matthews was summoned by the authorities and told he could earn his freedom if he agreed to spy for the Communist Party, something he would not do. That morning, before leaving for what could have been his final interrogation, he kissed his wife and little daughter goodbye, slipped a small copy of Daily Light into his pocket, and walked out the door not knowing whether he would return. Inside that slender volume were the same words that had strengthened generations before him—Scriptures about courage, endurance, and the sovereign presence of God. They became his hidden companions in the days that followed.

Evangelist Vance Havner, whose homespun sermons blessed thousands across America, also found in Daily Light an anchor during his deepest sorrow. When his beloved wife Sara fell terminally ill, Havner turned to the day’s reading and found, astonishingly, “This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby.” When she died, he remembered that Lazarus had also died, though Christ’s words about glory still held true. Havner later wrote, “I felt that God would be glorified in her passing—and He was.” Through his grief, the book helped him translate pain into praise.

During World War II, Russell and Darlene Deibler (later Darlene Deibler Rose) were missionaries in the South Pacific when Japanese troops invaded. The couple was captured and separated—Russell sent to a concentration camp where he would die, and Darlene confined in harsh conditions, often near starvation. On the night of his arrest, she turned to her Daily Light and read the evening portion for March 13:
“O my God, my soul is cast down within me… Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee… Cast thy burden upon the Lord.”
She later wrote, “For me in my need, the Lord had directed in the arrangement of the verses.” Those pre-chosen Scriptures became, for her, a daily lifeline.

Even in peaceful homes, the book has quietly shaped faith. Missionary and author Elisabeth Elliot grew up in a household where her father read the evening portion aloud after dinner. She would later say that those rhythmic gatherings—Scripture read without comment, letting the Word speak for itself—formed the foundation of her own devotion and trust in God’s sovereignty.

Amy Carmichael, missionary to India, wrote, “Have you ever noticed this? Whatever need or trouble you are in, there is always something to help you in your Bible, if only you go on reading till you come to the word God specially has for you. I have noticed this often. Sometimes the special word is in the portion you would naturally read, or in the Psalms for the day, or in Daily Light, or maybe it is somewhere else; but you must go on till you find it, for it is always somewhere. You will know it the moment you come to it, and it will rest your heart.”

Let me tell you of two times Daily Light has factored into my life. Recently I took my grandson, Owen, to the San Diego Zoo. When we returned to our car, it was dented. Another guest had bumped it and left a note on the windshield. I went back to the hotel discouraged, and I had to preach that evening. No one wants to return a rental car that has been damaged, and I tried to shake off my frustration so I could preach at Shadow Mountain.

Lying on the bed, I closed my eyes. Suddenly I heard Owen reading aloud. He was reading the scripture for the day from his Daily Light, and the last verse said, “In this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, for I have overcome the world.” 

I can’t tell you how my heart leapt at hearing a then-nine-year-old voice reading 2,000-year-old words telling me to be of good cheer.

But here is my other story. I hope you know how much I loved Katrina, but she wasn’t a perfect woman, and sometimes she could have a very sharp and unfiltered tongue. That problem worsened somewhat as she continued to battle Multiple Sclerosis. 

One evening she was lying in her bed in the Intensive Care Unit at Vanderbilt Medical Center. I was sitting there with her when the nursing shift occurred. A new nurse—a young man named Stephen—came in and introduced himself. 

Katrina, who was weary with tubes and needles and exams, lit into him like a blowtorch. “Now I want you to know,” she said, “that I’m tired of having blood drawn. There’s no need for it. And I’ve got a cold and I need you to go down to the pharmacy and get me some of the cold medicine they keep behind the counter.” Then she chastened him for not readily giving her a sleeping pill, for taking her blood pressure too often, and for about a dozen other infractions. She was angry and adamant, and at some point it turned a bit ridiculous. Sitting in my chair in the corner, I was stifling the giggles, and I could tell Stephen was trying not to laugh too. 

After he left, I said to Katrina, “You were kind of fired up, weren’t you?” Katrina said something about being sick and tired of life in the ICU. “Well,” I said, “I’m tired. Let me read your Daily Light for you, and I’m turning in.” I turned to the bedtime reading for October 30, and it said: 

The tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

The look on Katrina’s face was priceless, and she said something about “That Daily Light….” By that point, I just burst into uncontrollable laughter, but the reading continued:

No human being can tame the tongue; it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 

And then the kicker:

Let your speech always be with grace, seasoned with salt.

I read that last line with tears running down my cheeks, doubled over with laughter; and when I looked at Katrina – tubes in her nose and all – she was laughing despite herself, the first time she had laughed since her surgery.

We had a prayer together, with a few involuntary giggles, and I wrapped up in my blanket and was almost asleep when Stephen came back into the room. I overheard Katrina say to him, “Stephen, I’m glad you’re back. I need to apologize to you for the way I spoke….” 

“Oh,” he said, “you don’t need to apologize. You should hear some of the other patients in ICU! I get a lot worse than that.”

He was charitable! 

By the way, I often recommend Daily Light to newly married couples as a way to begin shared devotions. It takes only a few minutes either in the morning or evening—or both. And it’s an easy way to begin sharing the Scripture together.

As countless believers have found before us, Daily Light will indeed shed light on your daily path. Just today I ordered another batch of them from Anne Graham Lotz’s website. For other resources for your daily Bible study, visit my website, Robertjmorgan.com. However you do it, remember to read the Bible every single day, for His Word is a lamp for our feet and a light on our pathway.

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