The Eye–a Similitude
A sermon
(No. 904)
Delivered by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"Keep me as the apple of the eye."- Psalm 17:8.
THIS prayer is full of meaning and is the outflow of a well-instructed
mind. It is no parrot cry, but the leaping up of a living desire from a
Grace-taught and thoughtful heart. The man knows something of himself
who sincerely offers this plaintive petition to his God, "Keep me." Is
there not a deep and sorrowful confession implied in this brief
utterance of the suppliant? As though he should say, "Preserve me from
my own heart, for it is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked: guard me from the rising up of my natural corruptions, for the
carnal mind is enmity against God. It is not subject to the Law of God,
neither, indeed, can be. Defend me from the turbulence of my own
passions, those household foes which are the worst enemies to the peace
and purity of my mind. Keep me from that evil man, Myself."
Has not the man who utters this request a clear perception of the evils
surrounding him in his circumstances and his relations and his position
in life? Conscious of danger, he desires to be held back from pride. If
he is in prosperity he asks to be withheld from pining and unbelief. If
he is in adversity he would be restrained from sinning in public or
transgressing in private. He desires that he may not be imperiled,
even, by the objects of his joy and affection, lest they should become
idols and so provoke the Lord to jealousy and cause Him to withdraw His
dear Presence and sweet communings from the soul.
The prayer has a singular sensitiveness–it seems to shiver like the
leaves of the aspen–to shrink like the sensitive plant. Knowing that
there are snares all around him, the pleading soul is desirous that God
should at all times encompass his path–"Keep me." The man has some
idea of the craft and malice of Satan, therefore he appeals to God that
he may be preserved from that fowler who first decoys and afterwards
destroys unguarded souls. He sees his danger. He feels his weakness and
seeks to the Strong for help–
"Love and keep us, blessed Jesus,
Keep us from denying You.
Keep our wayward feet from straying
Into paths of vanity.
Love and keep us, blessed Jesus,
Keep us from denying You."
An eye that has looked on the weakness and the wickedness of the little
world within our bosom bedews with briny tears the supplication, "Keep
me."
But the man who prays thus intelligently must have some knowledge of
the God he prays to. He has learned the vanity of all other reliances
and has left forever the arm of flesh. The invocation is addressed to
the Most High, for he is well aware that no other can respond to his
call, or interpose for his aid. He who uses this prayer intelligently
perceives the Omniscience of Jehovah. "You see all my dangers, You
foresee all the attacks of my enemies. You are acquainted with all my
ways. To You, therefore, I look for safeguard. Better than a hundred
eyes are You to me, You who can see all my foes, from whichever quarter
they may come. Ever watchful Guardian, keep me."
He believes, also, in God's Omnipotence–that there is no assailant so
strong as He who is His Israel's refuge and fortress. Nor is there any
danger so imminent that He cannot anticipate and avert it. He relies,
moreover, upon the love of God that He is willing of His own heart to
espouse his interests. He relies upon the faithfulness of God that He
will perform the mercy promised to the fathers, and upon the
immutability of God that He will never turn back, but finally achieve
the salvation of His servant through keeping him to the end.
Thus, as I have said, the man who could first offer and the man who can
constantly appreciate this devout prayer must know something of himself
and something of his God. He who has learned these two things has
mastered the
elements of wisdom. "Man, know yourself," said the heathen sage and he
uttered a goodly maxim. "Man, know your God," says the Christian, and
he points to wisdom far more sublime. Put the two together! To know
ourselves in our weakness and dangers and to know our God in His
glorious strength and willingness to protect us, is to have the seed of
Divine knowledge implanted in our breasts!
Knowing these two things we can not only pray this prayer with a
fervent spirit, but there are many things which we shall be enabled to
do by virtue of the good hand of the Lord our God upon us. Such, then,
is the importunate request of the Psalmist, to which I am persuaded
everyone that is godly among you will say, "Amen." "Keep me as the
apple of the
eye."
Now, Brothers and Sisters, I intend only to touch upon one point and
that is the metaphor here used–not, perhaps, limiting myself entirely
to the precise and definite meaning which it in this place presents,
but uttering with more freedom and latitude some of the thoughts which
it suggests.
1. The keeping desired by the earnest Christian is of that kind which
men accord to the apple of the eye. What sort of keeping is
this?–First, the Psalmist as good as prays, Lord, keep me with many
guards and protections. In the Providence of God, the apple of the eye
is defended with peculiar care and transcendent skill. Those who have
studied the formation of the pupil, itself, will tell you with how many
coats the retina is preserved. Then the most common observer knows how
the eyebrows, the eyelashes, and the eyelids are formed as outworks,
fences and barricades, to protect the pupil of the eye, which is thus
made to dwell securely like a citizen within the entrenchments of a
fortified town.
God has bestowed extraordinary pains upon all that concerns your eyes.
Being one of the most tender organs of the physical frame, He has used
many devices that it should be well preserved, notwithstanding its
exceeding sensitiveness. Nor is it merely sheltered in its own
fastness, but sentries keep ward lest it should be exposed to peril.
Whenever it is threatened with even the appearance of danger, no time
is lost in consultation with yourself, but with agility so brisk that
it seems almost involuntary, the arm is lifted up and the hand is
raised to screen it from harm or to resist attack. If you are about to
stumble, you naturally put out your hands to save your eyes.
Instinct seems to teach you at once the value of eyesight and your
whole strength is put forth to preserve it. In fact, all the members of
the body may be regarded as a patrol for the wardship of the eyes–and
all the incorporated powers of manhood are in constant vigilance to
guard and protect that precious orb. Admiring, then, this beautiful
arrangement to conserve the delicate organ of vision, we may pray,
"Lord, keep me as the apple of the eye, with many protections. You have
been pleased with the strong bastions of Your Providence, to surround
Your people. I ask for such protection. Lead me not into temptation. Do
not suffer the events of my career or the incidents of my daily life to
entangle me so that I shall be unable to escape out of the perplexing
snares.
"Let the powers of Heaven fight for me as of old the stars in their
courses fought against Sisera. Let me be in league with the stones of
the field and command the beasts of the forest to be at peace with me.
Let my tabernacle be in peace, and let no plague come near my dwelling.
Do You, O God, visit my habitation, and so abide with me beneath that
lowly roof that I may not by any means through outward circumstances or
inward thoughts be led into sin. Guard me, O my God, by all the power
of those mysterious wheels whose motions I cannot understand, but of
whose results You have said, 'All things work together for good to them
that love God, to them that are the called according to His purpose.'
And, Lord, be pleased to shield me by Your Grace as well as by Your
Providence. Keep me as the apple of the eye with tutelage of Your
restraining mercy. Teach me to sing–
'Oh, to Grace how great a debtor, Daily I'm constrained to be.'"
Brothers and Sisters, how wonderfully does Divine Grace preserve the
heirs of Heaven with operations marvelously diverse, but all fulfilling
one loving purpose! Sometimes Grace lowers me into the dust. At other
times it lifts me up to the Truth of God! It is Divine Grace that
empties and Divine Grace that fills my earthen vessel! It is Grace that
shows me my ignorance and Grace that makes me wise unto salvation. Let
the manifold operations of Your Grace, O God of all Grace, be brought
into full play to guard me as the apple of the eye! Whenever I hear a
sermon preached, may it keep me from stumbling, lest otherwise my feet
should trip. Whenever I bow my knees in prayer, may it be a safeguard
against some temptation or besetting sin which otherwise might have
been too strong to resist. When I read Your Book, make its words to be
as wholesome counsel and faithful warning to deliver my soul from the
paths of the Destroyer.
Grant unto us, Lord, that the ordinances of Your House–Baptism and the
Lord's Supper–yes, and whatever else You have enjoined to us by
precept, or handed down to us with the example of Your holy
Apostles–things commanded and things set in order–let all these be
used as auxiliaries to repel assault and preserve our peace. From
wandering into any false way, from staining the purity of a good
conscience, from bringing dishonor upon the name of Christ, "good Lord,
deliver us." "Keep me as the apple of the eye" with the guardianship of
Your Holy Spirit. O that the Divine Comforter might always dwell within
me, so that when Satan comes to invade my heart, it may be like the
house in which abides the strong man armed who is stronger than the
spoiler, and therefore keeps his goods in peace! Thus shall He drive
away the thief who would break in to steal my possessions and make me
his prey–
"Keep us, Lord, Okeep us ever,
Vain our hope if left by You!
We are Yours, O leave us never,
Till Your face in Heaven we see.
There to praise you
Through a bright eternity."
Holy Spirit, I invoke You, whether reproving or comforting, whether
quickening or enlightening, whether chastening or sanctifying, whether
humbling or perfecting me–be pleased to abide with me and hold You
watch over me in all Your sevenfold power, in all Your diversified
operations. And, O God, let Your angels have charge concerning me, to
keep me in all my ways, for I need many guards, even as the eye has
many bulwarks. Bid, then, those ministering spirits, who minister to
the heirs of salvation, that they bear me up in their hands lest I dash
my foot against a stone! Brethren, do such appeals seem to you like a
rhapsody? Do you forget the existence of angels, who excel in strength?
Do you give no heed to the capacities with which they are endowed by
Him who makes His angels spirits and His ministers a flame of fire?
I am afraid we are apt to think too lightly of those blessed spirits.
Is it necessary to remind you that the being of such an order of God's
creatures is not an allegory of the poets–no, not even of sacred
inspired poets! Facts abound in both the Old and New Testaments to
attest the reality of their services. Have you never heard how that in
the Creation, when God laid the foundations of the earth, the morning
stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy? And have
you not heard that when the Law was given to Moses, it was received by
the disposition of angels? You cannot be unaware of the comfort which
Daniel found from the mission of Gabriel, when, while speaking in
prayer, the angel appeared as a man flying swiftly, touched the
Prophet, talked with him, brought a message to him from Heaven and came
forth to give him skill and understanding?
Think, I beseech you, Brothers and Sisters, of the company of angels
caroling that sweet hymn of the Nativity on the plains of Bethlehem on
that night when our Savior was born! And never overlook their visit to
the wilderness, where, after Jesus had been tempted 40 days and 40
nights, "behold, angels came and ministered unto Him." Yet again in the
dark night of His betrayal, when our Lord was enduring the agony in the
garden of Gethsemane, don't you remember that, "there appeared to Him
an angel from Heaven strengthening Him"? After such things it may seem
needless to tell how angels repaired to the tomb from which Jesus had
risen and there, at the sepulcher, cheered the hearts of the sorrowing
women. Or to recount to you the story of Peter, released by an angel of
the Lord from the prison into which Herod, willing to please the Jews
and vex the Church, had cast him!
But I must mention this one thing more. Angels were the bearers, not
with black wands, but with flying colors, who carried Lazarus into
Abraham's bosom. Such guard I crave in life and death! I crave it of
You, O my God! My soul is enraptured at the multitude of Your loving
kindnesses and tender mercies! Keep me with every provision for my
safety! Keep me with all Your hosts and holy troops, with cherubim and
seraphim, with Providence and Grace and love. "Keep me as the apple of
the eye." In such sense, I think, the metaphor is not strained.
2. Secondly, the prayer may be interpreted with a view to the
constancy, the unintermitting continuance of that keeping which we
require of the Lord. Is not the eye always guarded? You are not always
thinking of it, it is true, for that would distract you from the duties
of life. If you had to reckon the dangers and provide against the
mishaps to which the eyes are exposed, your mind would never rest. But
to save you such care, the protections God has provided are always
ready. If a grain of dust, perhaps, should enter the eye, immediately,
by some wonderful arrangement, a watery fluid is exuded in which, if
you cannot extract the impediment, by-and-by it becomes dissolved and
is carried away.
Though an intruding substance may pain you, the pain is a mercy, for it
makes you restless till you get relief for the priceless eye. When you
fall asleep and are no longer able to protect the eyeballs, the
curtains fall, the blinds of it drop down and the windows are shut up
securely with lash and lid. How graciously does God preserve the health
of the eye and renew its brightness! It needs many secretions and they
are all supplied. The fineness of its organization and the variety of
its curious arrangements require adequate provisions to keep it in
proper condition and these are all furnished. Yes, and continue to be
supplied when the eyes' functions are suspended in your times of
slumber. Without care or thought on your part, at all times, asleep or
awake, the eyes are guarded like the bed of Solomon, about which were
three-score valiant men.
Right well does the parable of the eye suggest the prayer of the
text–Lord, keep me thus, as the apple of an eye is kept. Evermore, O
Lord, watch over me. Brethren, permit me to remark here that I believe
at no season is a Christian more in danger than when he has just been
in communion with God. Thus I have proved it myself. It is not very
often I lose my temper, at least I think not, but it has happened
sometimes. And I have noticed that when this sinful frailty has
overtaken me, it has been just after I have been near to God in prayer.
At such a time somebody has come right across my path and ruffled my
spirit. Something has been said or done so cold, so cruel, so
unChrist-like, so irritating and on the part of myself so unexpected,
that I have in horror spoken unadvisedly with my lips.
Ah, I should not wonder if many of you have found the same surprising
sin assails you. When you felt happy and blessed, beyond the reach of
fear, the baneful action of the world has so grated upon your too
susceptible feelings that you have felt as if it were well for you to
be angry. Always beware when you are rich with Divine Grace in present
possession. The highwaymen, in olden times, did not meddle with the
farmers as they went to the market–it was when they were coming home,
having sold their crops and bringing back their full moneybags, that
they planned their attacks! When our ships of war went after the
Spanish galleons, they did not attack them as they were going to
America, but when they came back enriched with bars of gold–when they
knew them to be loaded to the water's edge–it was then they stormed
the Spaniard to win his bullion!
The devil may not make a dead set upon you when you are poor in Grace
and indolent, not trading with the merchandise of wisdom, or seriously
engaged in the King's business. But if you have had much spiritual
commerce with Heaven whereby your soul has been enriched and your heart
has been cheered and your face has shone, then beware of temptation! In
watchfulness and prayer, however, put it thus–"Keep me, Lord, alike in
my high estate and in my low estate. Keep me when I am engaged in
business that I fall not into the tricks of trade, or the excitements
of desperate speculation. Keep me when I am at the table, that I sin
not against You in the midst of social communion with my family or my
friends.
"Lord, where shall I go from the presence of sin, or where shall I fly
from the reach of temptation? If I seek the desert and become a lonely
hermit, sin is there. If I plunge into the thick of the city and find
solitude among the crowds of men, behold, sin reigns there. If I take
me to my chamber, sin can haunt me there. Or if I go abroad into the
fields, to listen to the voice of Nature, I can be seduced to rebel
against You there in full view of all your marvelous works. If I should
take the wings of the morning and fly unto the uttermost parts of the
earth–if, like the shipwrecked, I lived on a desolate island and saw
not the face of man, even there the face of sin would disquiet me, and
rebellious thoughts would rise to taint my daily life."
You need keeping, then, always and at every moment. Seek protection,
Brothers and Sisters, seek it constantly! Begin not the day without
saying, "Keep me." Finish it not without crying again, "Keep me." All
day long be not far away from the horns of the altar, to which you may
run with the brief ejaculation, "Keep me, keep me, as the apple of the
eye." It means constant care, a perpetuity of Divine guardianship. You
need that. Seek it–
"Lord, we are blind and halt and lame,
We have no stronghold but Your name.
Great is our fear to bring it shame.
Let us not fall. Let us not fall." 3. "Keep me as the apple of the
eye." Does it not mean, "Keep me from little evils, the dust and grit
of this evil world"? Your eyes need not to be guarded so much from
beams as from motes. You would not say, "It is only a tiny grain of
dust, therefore let it enter into my eyes." By no means! The smallest
grain that floats in the summer's breeze will vex and irritate and
cause the scalding tears to flow, and you know, by painful experience,
how much suffering you may
endure from a grain of sand which you could scarcely see. Be this your
prayer, then–"Lord, keep me from what the world calls little sins.
Lord, keep me from what my callous conscience may make me think to be
little sin. Save me, Lord, from thoughts or imaginations, for these are
the eggs of which greater mischiefs are hatched. Keep me, Lord, from
words which, to carnal minds, might seem but air, but which, in Your
sight are weighty matters, especially as coming from Your children who
have been brought up to understand the Law of Your mouth."
I like to see the Christian show the rigidity of that Puritan who said
that he could not, even in a word, swerve from the Truths of God he
believed, though there were a living or an opportunity of preferment to
be has by complying. "Oh, but," said another, "others have made long
gashes in their consciences–could not you make a little nick in
yours?" Ah, you know what those "little nicks in the conscience" always
come to! When once you begin the nick, how swiftly it runs from the top
to the bottom of your conscience! Beware of nicks of the conscience!
Let your prayer be, "Lord keep me! Keep away from me those sins, the
wrong of which I hardly know, but whose wickedness and woefulness are
open before You. Let me never trifle with a sin because it does not
look so black or cause such shame as some other iniquities." Christians
will too often indulge wrong habits and tolerate doubtful customs till
transgressions seem to them as if they were unavoidable and gladly
would they persuade themselves that they are harmless. There was an
officer who kept in his house a leopard, a tame leopard, which had been
born in captivity and had never known what liberty was. It had grown up
as tame as a domestic cat, till one day, when the master was asleep, it
gently licked his hand.
Now, it so happened that he had cut the skin during the day and a
little blood oozed out as the creature's tongue was drawn repeatedly
over the wound. The taste of the blood roused the wild demon spirit of
the beast at once, and had it not been promptly shot, its once loved
master would have been its victim! In like manner those little
household sins which look not like the destroyers they are, will, one
of these days, reveal their true nature and you will have to chase them
from your soul and drive them to their native haunts. It is not safe
that they should lodge under your roof! Chase them away before they put
you into greater danger. They must be doomed or you will have no peace.
They must be destroyed, for your life is in jeopardy.
When the thief cannot break in at the door, himself, he finds a child
and puts him through the little window and then the great door is
speedily opened. Thus do little sins open the door for a great sin. Men
who have appeared to be immune to open temptations to commit a crime
have often been enticed by specious allurements. The temptations have
come in the garb of virtue and their disguise has not been cast aside
until the way of escape has been cut off. "Keep me, then, as the apple
of the eye," means, "keep me from little things that defile and little
flaws that disfigure or utterly deface godliness of character."
4. Do you not think, Brethren, that the sensitiveness of the organ of
vision may suggest another lesson to be drawn from this prayer, "Keep
me as the apple of the eye"? That is to say, make my heart tender and
my conscience quick and impressionable? There is nothing more sensitive
than the eye. If anything were moved near your hand or arm in the dark,
you might not feel its motion, but the eye is keenly perceptive, even
of a current of air. It is affected by anything passing near it, as you
may readily notice for yourselves. God has made the apple of the eye
thus sensitive for its own protection–that it may shrink from rash
exposure. So, if we are kept as the apple of the eye, we shall be
endowed with this peculiar faculty–a tender sensitiveness that shrinks
with nervous trepidation from the presence of evil.
If the eyes grew dull and callous instead of being impressionable, they
would be in immediate danger and probably would be soon destroyed. The
sensibility of the eye is its own protection–it forecasts the peril
and avoids it. Our hearts, my Brethren, must in like manner, to some
extent, carry within themselves, by God's Grace, their own instincts of
self-protection. Wesley seized on this thought and paraphrased it aptly
when he wrote the verse–
"Quick as the apple of an eye,
O God, my conscience make.
Awake my soul when sin is near,
And keep it still awake."
Are there not some men whose senses are never exercised to discern good
and evil? They walk in such darkness that they stumble on a sin before
they detect it in their path, or a ponderous temptation will roll on
them and overturn them without their once perceiving the headway it was
making, or the necessity of making their escape. There are some
nostrils
that would not be disgusted at the foulest smells, nor would they be
regaled though the daintiest perfumes were loading the air with their
fragrance.
But there are other nostrils quick and delicate which soon perceive the
noxious odor. It frets their sense while it pollutes the air. The
insensitive are exposed to all kinds of disease and pestilence because
they perceive not the danger, while those to whom the fume is repulsive
would shun it at once and never rest till the noxious matter that might
have bred disease is removed. We want a spiritual sensibility that
shall be quick and apprehensive of the faintest smell of sin. Only feel
that it is loathsome and you will easily convince yourselves that it is
dangerous. You will not require the minister to come down and admonish
you of his suspicions, or exhort you to forbear the first indications
of a wrong practice. You will not need a mother or father to say, "My
dear Child, that is a treacherous step you are about to take."
The conscience should be a ready indicator–if in good keeping it would
be a wonderful tell-tale. It will startle you from your lethargy. It
will arouse you as with an alarm, for it will cry aloud, "You are going
astray! You are falling into error! You are wandering after evil! You
are setting yourself to do iniquity." God give us this sensitiveness! I
delight to see it in young converts. Ah, some of us in the early stages
of conviction were half afraid to put one foot before another for fear
of doing wrong. O that you could keep up that tenderness of heart! It
ought to increase.
Be diligent to keep the heart holy, for out of it are the issues of
life. With some of you I fear there is a degree of dullness that does
not betoken the refinement of your taste in spiritual things. We ought,
as we get nearer to Heaven, to become more and more jealous of
approximation or contact with anything that defiles, abhorring the very
trail of the serpent–shuddering at even the appearance of
sin–loathing the atmosphere that is corrupted by evil conversation.
Keep me, then, like as You keep the eye through its own sensitiveness.
5. Should we not make it our prayer, too, that God will keep us as the
eye ought to be kept? It should be single. "The light of the body is
the eye. Therefore, when your eye is single, your whole body is full of
light. But when your eye is evil, your whole body is full of darkness."
Keep me single-minded, Lord, consecrated wholly and devoted alone to
You. The eye should be clear. Any speck on its retina would obscure our
view of the landscape. With "an inlet, so small," as one of the poets
writes, "that a grain might close it," the eye needs to be cleansed.
God has provided arrangements for this without disturbing the beautiful
mechanism of the little orb.
Take heed, Beloved, that the eye of faith is kept clear. We need to be
sprinkled with the precious blood and washed with clean water often,
that we may be always pure, consciously sanctified. The clean water,
you know, is the cleansing water which came with the blood from the
heart of Christ, who, through the Eternal Spirit, offered Himself
without spot to God. Thereby the conscience is purged and the heart
made clean, actively and passively sanctified unto God. The eyes need
to be far-seeing. It is a great pity when the eyes can only see a short
distance. We strain our natural eyes to see some ship far out at sea
that looks, perhaps, like a speck on the horizon. Or we want to stretch
our vision far over mountain and valley, river and lake, from some
lofty Alp, compassing the entire prospect at a glance.
And oh, it is well when our soul can take a wide view and embrace the
grand perspective which Revelation unfolds, free from cloud and vapor,
not pestered with the cares of the day so as to obscure the immortal
joys that await our arrival at the city of the blessed! It is grand
when our view is not earth-bound and absorbed by incidents that
transpire within the tick of this clock, but prospecting the fields of
light beyond, where moments, hours, days, years, and centuries of years
are unknown! Raise your eyes, Christians! Maybe you shall catch a
glimpse of the better land–
"Where everlasting spring abides, And never withering flowers. Death,
like a narrow stream, divides
That heavenly land from ours."
May the Lord keep us as the apple of the eye–sensitive, clean, clear,
single-eyed, and far-seeing.
My Brethren, the eye is kept and preserved as an ornament. Certainly
the most expressive feature of the human body is the eye, and it is the
most capable of making the countenance beautiful. Take away the eyes
from that fair face–those eyes of hazel or of blue, or those dark eyes
that look you through and through and burn your heart as with coals of
fire–how dull, unimpassioned and senseless it would be! "A beautiful
eye," it has been somewhere said, "makes silence eloquent. A kind eye
makes contradiction assent. And an enraged eye makes beauty itself to
be deformed, for it is this little member which gives life to every
part about us."
Take the sparkling eyes away from the sweetest face and how sadly you
have marred it. Your marble statues–some of them almost speak–fail to
convey the impression of life because there are no eyes. That lack of
eyes is lack of all that is lifelike. Let every Christian pray to God
that, as the eye is the ornament of the body, he may be kept as an
ornament to the Christian Church. What are the ornaments of the Church
of God? Are they the wealthy and respectable members? Or are they the
learned and intellectual members? These, my dear Friends, are ornaments
from man's too carnal point of view! They will often secure the most
notice among their fellows, but they are not ornaments from God's point
of view unless there is something higher to commend them than the
accidents of rank or education.
The greatest ornaments of the Christian Church are those that labor
most diligently, those that pray the most fervently, those that are
most filled with love, those that are most Christ-like in temper and
disposition, the most humble, the most teachable, the most patient in
suffering, the most persevering in service–those who commend the
Gospel of the Grace of God by their entire life and conversation–such
are the ornaments of the Church of God! And the eyes of faith shed
luster on all other features of character. I tell you that when spirits
more pure than ours go round about the Church and count the towers
there and mark well her bulwarks, it never enters into their thoughts
that one part of the building was smeared with the yellow hue of
wealth–or that another part of the building was decorated after the
classic manner of Corinth and Athens! They only think of the jasper
light and of the sapphire glow of spirituality and holiness as it
flashes bright in the sunlight of God over hearts that have been
sanctified by the Holy Spirit! Pray that you may be made an ornament of
the Church–your light shining before men–being kept as the apple of
the eye to shed luster on the saints around and in your degree to
irradiate this dark world!
The eye is not only an ornament, but its function in the body is of the
greatest usefulness. How sad a privation is the loss of sight, or to
lose even a portion of its power how grievous the detriment! The eye is
in some respects the most useful part of the mechanism of our bodies.
It benefits all our limbs. So, Brethren, ought we to be profitable and
conducive to the good of others. When we pray, "Keep me as the apple of
the eye," it behooves us to remember the real interest that attaches to
our preservation. Are we worth keeping? Not certainly if we are of no
use! Who cares to spare and keep a tree that brings forth no fruit? Or
who is zealous to keep an eye that does not see? I suppose those who
wear glass eyes would rather not lose them, but I would be bound to say
they do not prize them as if they were as tributary to their pleasure
and profit as ours are whose eyes are of God's making and answer His
ends.
A genuine Christian will pray to be useful– not to be like a glass
eye, a mere counterfeit for appearance' sake–but being of God's
workmanship in Christ Jesus–that he may be preserved with all his
faculties in full vigor, lest his strength should be impaired and
spoiled and his capacity to show forth the praises of God, and minister
to the welfare of the Church dimmed or utterly extinguished.
My next remark you will, perhaps, think strange and quaint, but as I
have not restricted myself to the immediate sense of the metaphor, as
limited by the context, I may be allowed to speak of that which relates
to the eyes. It occurs to me that Solomon has made this shrewd remark,
"The wise man's eyes are in his head, but the fool walks in darkness."
And I would venture to give this a spiritual turn and, in beseeching
the Lord to keep me as the apple of the eye, would entreat Him to keep
me in the Head, that is, to preserve me in Christ Jesus. Of what use
were the eye of a man if it were not in the head? It would have no
vitality if it were taken away from the glorious position of honor
which is given to it in the countenance of the living man.
So if we could be divided from our living Head–if we, as members of
Christ, could be separated from Him, it were all over with us. When we
are united to Him, as the branch is to the vine, we flourish. We bring
forth fruit. But if we are separated from Him we are like the dead
withered branches that are gathered up and cast behind the wall where
all the rubbish is ignobly burned. The best Believer in the world would
be only fit for the burning if he were divided from Christ, his living
Head. "Because I live you shall live also." So it stands–Christ's life
is our life. The life of the brain is the life of the optic nerve. The
eye lives because the brain lives and because of its place in the head.
The life of Christ is the Christian's life. You live because of your
connection with Christ–because of your vital indissoluble gracious and
eternal union with Jesus Christ your Covenant Head!
Be this, then, your prayer, "Lord, let me abide in Christ and may His
Words abide in me. Let my thoughts abide in Him. May I meditate much on
Him–may my meditation of Him be sweet. Let my purposes and resolves
abide in Him. May I be determined to follow Him where ever He goes, to
be and to do always in His strength. May my desires always be
towards Him, desiring to know Him and to be found in Him–He Himself
being the summit of all my hopes and the crown of all my delight. O let
my whole soul be in Him! Then shall I be useful. Then shall I be an
ornament of the body. Then shall I be preserved and kept." I commend
this prayer to every Believer here. You will often need it–you may
need it tonight before you get home.
Pray it in the pew now, that you may have protection from sin–even as
you pass along the streets–that you may be preserved to your own door.
I have met with persons who have broken their leg on their own stairs.
Mind you, do not fall into sin in your own house, where you think you
are safest and at times when you could least suppose that you would be
in danger. The Lord succor you, and keep you as the apple of the eye.
Alas, there are some here to whom this prayer is nothing. They are not
Christ's, they have not believed in Him. Here is another prayer for
you. It is this: "Lord, save me, or I perish!"
The fitness of the prayer is obvious, for the reflection appended to it
is true. You are near perishing. If you died tonight you must perish
forever. "Lord, save me." He can do it! He will if you pray to Him. His
precious blood is shed for the remission of sins. He is always willing
to bless sinners. "Lord, save me, or I perish." Once saved, you may
pray to be kept–and He will keep you.
"Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling and to present you
faultless before the Presence of His Glory with exceeding joy, to the
only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and ever. Amen."
PORTION OF SCRIPTURE READ BEFORE SERMON–Psalm 17.