Eyes Right!

Text — ‘“Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.’ Prov. 4:25.

DIRECTIONS FOR KEEPING THE MEMBERS OF THE BODY. — PERSONS

LIVING AS IF IN SLEEP. — OTHERS STARING AROUND. — HAVE A

‘WAY, AND LET IT BE STRAIGHT. — I. LET CHRIST BE YOUR WAY.

—SEEK TO HAVE HIM. — TO KNOW HIM. — TO OBEY HIM. — TO BE

LIKE HIM. — TO WIN SOULS FOR HIM. — II. SET YOUR EYES ON

HIM. — TO KNOW THE WAY OF LIFE. — AVOID RETROSPECTION. —

AND INTROSPECTION. — AND MUCH CIRCUMSPECTION. — LOOKING

WITH THE EYELIDS. — III. LOOK TO CHRIST ALONE. — NOT TO SECONDARY AIMS. — LOOK TILL FAITH COMES.

THESE words occur in a passage wherein the wise man exhorts us to take care of all parts of our nature, which he indicates by members of the body. “Keep thy heart,” says he, “with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from thee a froward mouth, and perverse ips put far from thee. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyeléds look straight before thee. Ponder the path of thy /ee#, and let all thy ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove thy foot from evil.” It is clear. that every part of our nature needs to be carefully watched, lest in any way it should become the cause of sin. Any one member or faculty is readily able to defile all the rest, and, therefore, EVERY PART MUST BE GUARDED

with care. We have selected for our meditation the verse which deals with the eye. These windows of light need to be watched in their incomings, lest that which we take into our soul should be darkness rather ara

po euies lest the mi el of aie. eye See ent a iniquity, or should suggest foolish. thoughts. Hen

the wise man advises, “Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.” Have — eyes, and use them. Using them, take care to use a them honestly.

Some persons are always as if they were asleep. — is.) They ‘go through the world mooning about, seeing

nothing, or seeing men as if they were trees, with a sight which is not sight, but blindness hidden. The

shadows of this transient life impress them, and that an is all: they have never awakened yet to the true life a & and its solemn realities. ‘They have never seen anything in very truth; for

IT IS FAITH THAT SEES,; and of faith they have none. That which is apart from faith is not visible to the soul, however clear it aoe may be to the eye. We have thousands around us who need to be startled out of that slumber in which: they see the fabrics of their dreams, and the unsub- See stantial fancies of the hour, They say, “We see;” but scales are on their eyes..

. Many others are somewhat awake mentally, but: they are not looking right on, neither do their eyelids fag a look straight before them. They are staring about them, star-gazing, wondering what will be seen next: always ready, like the Athenians, to hear and see some new thing. They have never yet discovered — that this life is a preface to a life of diviner mould.

They do not regard the present as the lowly porch of

THE DOORSTEP OF ETERNITY,

a thing of small account, save that it is linked with

the endless ages; and so they seek after this, and then after that, and then after the other; and always after that which is too poor, too trifling, to be the object of a mind capable of fellowship with God. To

beings who lead such purposeless lives we would

address the words of the wise man, “Let thine eyes

look right.on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee.” Have something to do, and do it. Have something to live for, and live for it. Get to know the right way, and, knowing the right way, keep to it

with full purpose of heart and concentration of faculty,

If a man is to let his eyes look right on, and his eyelids straight before him, then he is to have a way,

and that way is

TO BE A STRAIGHT WAY,

and in that straight way he is to persevere. You cannot see to the end of a crooked way. You can only

see a small part of a way that twists and winds. Choose, then, a direct path which has an end which

you dare think of and look upon. Some men’s lives are such that they dare not think of what the end of them must be. They would not long pursue their present track if they were forced to gaze into that

dread abyss, which is the only possible close of an

evil course. The way of transgressors is hard in itself, but it is hardest of all when we behold their dreadful end.

Every wise man will conclude that the best way for a man is the way which God has made for him. He that made us knows what He made us for, and He knows by what means we may best arrive at that end, According to divine teaching, as gracious as it is certain, we learn that the way of eternal life is Jesus Christ. Christ Himself says, ‘“‘] am the way, the truth, and the life”; and he that would pursue life after a right fashion must look to Jesus, and must continue looking unto Jesus, not only as the author, but as the finisher of his faith. It shall be to him a golden rule of life, when he has chosen Christ to be his way, to let his eyes look right on, and his eyelids straight before him. He need not be afraid to contemplate the end of that way, for the end of the way of Christ is life and glory with Christ for ever. “It doth not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”

A friend said to me the other day, “How happy are we to know that whatever happens to us in this life it is well!” “Yes,” I added, ‘and to know that if this life ends, it is equally well, or better.” With all my heart I invite any who have never yet begun to live after a right fashion, to take Christ to be the way of life to them; and then I entreat them to let their eyes look straight on, and their eyelids straight before them, and to follow Jesus without giving a glance either to the right hand or to the left, till it shall be said of them, even in glory, “These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.”

I. I shall make my earnest appeals to the heart

—and conscience by beginning with this first exhortation:

LET CHRIST BE YOUR WAY. If Christ be your way, you will begin first to seek

to have Christ. ‘How shall I have Him?” says one.

Dost thou desire Him? Wilt thou accept Him? He is thine. The act of accepting Christ secures Christ to us; for the Father freely gives Him to all who freely accept Him. Some are troubled through ignorant and unbelieving fears, and are saying, “I wish I could lay hold on Jesus! I wish I knew that Christ was mine!” Art thou willing to have Him? Who made thee willing? Dost thou desire Him? Who made thee desire Him? Who but the Spirit of the Lord? Wilt thou now take Jesus to be thy Saviour, to save thee from thy sin? Then depend on it, He is thine. Let your eyes look right on, and your eyelids straight before you, till you find Him. Look nowhere else but to Him and after Him. Shut yourself up in your room; determine not to come out again until you have Him, and it shall not be long before you find Him. Concentrating all your gaze upon the Crucified, light shall come from Him, causing the scales to fall from your eyes, and you shall see Him, even you that could not see; and you shall cry in delight, “He is mine, He is mine.” Remember how David. said to his son, “If thou seek Him, He will be found of thee.”

When you have Christ, the next business of your life must be to know Christ. Seek to know more of Him, to know Him better, to know Him more practice: cally, to now, Him - more a test ie

“That I ma: know Him,” said the apostle, after he had been a

believer in Him for fifteen years. That same man of

God speaks of ‘the love of Christ, which passeth ie q

knowledge,” even his knowledge, which was of the ce fullest sort; so that he meant to go on learning more -and more of Christ, and he did not count himself to

have attained. Christian men and women, you do not know your great Master yet. Here have some of us

been nearly forty years in His service, and yet we could not describe Him to our own satisfaction. In this matter let your eyes look right on, and your eyelids straight before you. When you come to know somewhat of what He is, then go on TO OBEY CHRIST.

Is there anything that He has bidden you do? Do it.

Some Christians have never yet been baptized: how

will they answer for wilful neglect of a known duty? Others have been Christians for years, and yet have never communed at the Lord’s table. Jesus said, “If

ye love Me keep My commandments.” Do they keep His commandments? It was His dying request,

“This do in remembrance of Me,” and yet they will not fulfill it. Even such a tender request they slight, as though it were of no importance whatever, as. if

their Lord was a mere nobody whose wishes might

well be overlooked. What shall I say of many of the biddings of our holy Gospel, many of those sweet

precepts which are to be used in the family, and in the — business, and in the field? What forgetfulness there “He ee Ie ee ORs, 4 7S ee) =

id is of them! Mhav said the ees Virgin a those ae who were at the feast? Note the ord. “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.” It was well spoken of the favored mother, and it remains as a golden precept for us. all — “Whatsoever He saith unto you, do it.”

-Make no reserve, exercise no choice, but obey His.

command. When you know what He commands do. not hesitate, question, or try to avoid it, but, “do it”: do it at once, do it heartily, do it cheerfully, do it to

the full,
That being attended to, remember, if Christ be
your way, you have further to
; SEEK TO BE LIKE HIM,

not only to do as He did, but to be as He was, for

“as He was, so are we in this world.” What a man

does is important, but what a man 2s, is all-important. The ring of the metal is something, but if its ring

could be imitated by a brass coin, it would be nothing. It is, after all, the substance of the metal that decides. its value. “As we have born the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly”; and: we must begin to bear that heavenly image even now..

This, therefore, we must aim at, though as yet we

have not attained it. Here is something to be thought of very carefully, and I charge you, by the Holy Ghost, let your eyes look right on, and your eyelids straight before you, that you may be transformed from glory to glory into the image of the Lord. God grant that. it may be so with each one of us!

Now, supposing that we have attained to all this, if Christ is our way, and our model, there is something

‘more, ores that 4 we ‘seek to ee Ch
to win others to Him. Here is a grand — as FIELD FOR ALL OUR ENERGIES.

Pillow -men are lost or ee Have not some of you, in your families, come to this pass — that you see your Psi brother an infidel, your sister frivolous, your parents — godless, and yet it does not fret you? I think that if I had godless relatives, it would break my nights rest, not now and then, but always. A brother,a father, a child unsaved! What mean ye by taking your ease? We need men and women who live to convert others to Christ. The minister had better quit his pulpit if it be not his one burning desire to bring hearts to Jesus’ feet. If a divine impulse be not upon him, driving him to seek the souls of men, let him go elsewhere with his windy periods. Professors have little right to be in Christ’s Church, unless pA they are passionately in earnest to increase His knee dom by the salvation of their fellow-men. O, my brothers and sisters, on whom is the blood-mark of redemption, I charge you concerning this matter to — “Jet your eyes look Hent on, and let your eyelids look straight before you”! ae Il. Following the text again, only working it a little differently, the second exhortation is, SET YOUR EYES ON HIM as your way. First, that you may know the way of life, let your eyes be fixed on Him. Soul, art thou in the dark? Kneel down and pray, and look Christ- — ward. Saint, art thou bewildered? Go to the way

Wouldst thou be rid of thy burden? Run Christward. Any direction given thee to go anywhere else will misdirect thee. I say not to any one I meet to-night, ““Go to the wicket-gate.” Neither will I bid you go to any light within, and run that way. My only merwirection is, “Go to Jesus!” — “To Christ!” “To ‘Christ!’ “To Christ!” That is the sole inscription upon every finger-post of the road to heaven. Keep ‘to the King’s highway. Look alone to Jesus, and do this to keep your spirits up: Some men’s eyes do not look right on, and their eyelids do not look straight before them, for THEY LOOK BACK upon that part of the road which they have traversed, and grow content with which they have already attained. They live in vetrospection. When you begin to look back at what you have done, and rub your hands, and say with self-satisfaction, “I remember when I did right well,” wisdom warns you that this is not

the right kind of look. What have you to look back,

upon! Poor, weak creature! Forget that which is

‘behind, and press forward to something better. and

higher.

Some spend much of their time in what is called tntrospection. Now introspection, like retrospection, ‘is a useful thing in a measure; but it can readily be overdone, and then it breeds morbid emotions, and creates despair. Some are always looking into their own feelings. A healthy man hardly knows whether

of the Cross, the way of the Crucified, for that is the ja true and sure path. Sinner, art thou burdened? —

Pe he: fas a ee ora wer: it is your s; ws af ‘grows: ‘more sickly by the study of his inward cor it plaints. Too many wound themselves by — ‘STUDYING THEMSELVES.

Every morning they think of what they should ff all day long they dwell on what they are not feeling; and at night they make diligent search for what they I have been feeling. It looks to me like shutting up. — your shop, and then living in the counting-house, tak- Be ing account of what is not sold. Small profits will be made in this way. I remember Mr. Moody saying that a looking-glass was a capital thing to show you = the spots on your face; but you could not washina

- looking-glass. You want something very different ox. when you would make your face clean. Solet your eyes look right on. Forget yourself, and think ae is oe id -of Christ.

i - Some not only unduly practice retrospection and: Re introspection, but they carry much too far a sort of

circumspection. ‘They look all round them: they look.

= upon their past, and their present, and their fears, been and their doubts, and from all these things they judge Cane their condition, and decide their state of mind. You recollect Peter. He cried to his Lord, “Bid me come unto Thee on the water.” He receives permission. Down the side of the boat goes Peter. To his intense — surprise he is standing on a wave. Peter had never ‘ done such a thing before in his life as walk on the water. He might have kept on standing on the wave, — and he might have walked all the way to Jesus, if he I had kept his eyes on his Master until he reached

Ilows, and he listened to the howling of the wind,

asi ely I may use the text as an illustration of that et closing of the eyes. “Let thine eyes look right on.’

“7 understand that,” says one, “for I trust. But you oe ‘ ‘cannot

Ba:. LOOK WITH YOUR EYELIDS.” os What can that mean? Remember that you can shut -your eyes with your eyelids to a great many things,

a ‘sight a great many things are best not seen. Sc when you would otherwise see the danger, and ah a “the difficulties and the doubts, do not look with your eyes, but look with your eyelids. Not to look at the

distrust. Do not see, do not feel, “only believe.” Draw down the blinds, and see nothing, know nothing, believe nothing but the living word of the living - Saviour. “Let thine eyes look right on, and let. thine eyelids look straight before thee.”

Ill. But my time has almost expired, and I have only to lay emphasis on one more matter. Let your eyes distinctly and directly

and then to the beating of his own heart; and down a went; and then he had to cry to his Master. es Let mie

and so cease to see them; and in the matter of faith

. difficulties at all is all the look they deserve. Let — - your eyelids shut out the view which would create

a nite Soe sts eae Peter ned to look at ace Sey

: I have gone over this Al one I en to hannnee

have no faith in priests; but it is a very easy thing to:

by this: ‘To the law and to the testimony; if hos

Lord.

Christ until you have faith in Him. “Faith cometh

it again, in order to clinch the nail. Look not to a human guide, but look to Christ Jesus alone. W

fix your faith upon a minister, and hear what he ‘says, and believe it because he says it. I charge you, believe nothing that I tell you if it cannot be supported — by the Word of God. I am content to stand or to fall —

speak not according to this word, there is no light in — them.” I will quote the authority of no other book, whoever may have composed it; no ancient book, let. it belong even to the earliest days of the Church. This one inspired volume is the text-book of our = religion. Follow Holy Scripture, and you have an re infallible chart. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one apostle and high-priest of our profession; follow Him.: 4

Again, look not on any secondary aims. Seek first — the kingdom of God and His righteousness. In seeking Christ, make no bargain with gain or reputation;. — be content to loose all gold and all honor if you may but win Christ. To follow religion for pelf would be xg a mean act of hypocrisy, and to leave it for the same reason is equally vile. Let your eyes be fixed on following your Lord, and as to any worldly consequences, bring your eyelids into use, keep them fast closed, and go right on in implicit obedience to your a

And, lastly, take care that you continue gazing upom

hearing the Word of God till faith come meee: Do you ask me

HOW FAITH COMES? ai It is the gift of. God, but it usually comes in a certain way. Thinking of Jesus, and meditating upon Jesus, will breed faith in Jesus. I was struck with what one

said the other day of a certain preacher. The hearer

was in deep concern of soul, and the minister preached a very pretty sermon indeed, decorated abundantly with

word-painting. I scarcely know any brother who can

paint so daintily as this good minister can; but this poor soul, under a sense of sin, said, ‘‘ There was ¢oo much landscape, str. I did not want landscape; I wanted salvation.” Dear friend, never crave word-painting when you attend a sermon; but crave Christ.

You must have Christ to be your own by faith, or you”

are a lost man. When I was seeking the Saviour I remember hearing a very good doctrinal sermon; but

when it was over I longed to tell the minister that

there was a poor lad there who wanted to know how he could be saved. How I wished he had given half a minute to that subject!

Iam not here to give you intellectual treats: my eyes look right on to your salvation. Oh that yours may look that way! Go after Christ, dear friend! Seek after Christ with your whole heart and soul. Feel that the one thing you must have is to be reconciled to God by the death of His Son. Keep on with that cry, ‘‘ None but Christ; none but Christ.” Then you will soon find Him. ‘Let your eyes look right

oye one and hearing by the sord of God.” Go on on, and let your eyelids look straight before you,” and you shall see the Lord of grace appearing to you through the mist and through the cloud, that selfsame Saviour who stands in the midst of us even now, and cries, “Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for] am God and there is none else.”