The eye is the lamp of the body; so then if your eye is clear, your
whole body will be full of light:
ho luchnos tou somatos estin
(2SPAI) ho ophthalmos. ean oun e (3SPAS) ho ophthalmos sou aplous, holon
to soma sou photeinon estai (3SFMI) (Luke
11:34-36)
(Acts
2:46;
2 Corinthians 11:3;
Ephesians 6:5;
Colossians 3:22)
Mt 6:22-23
expands Mt 6:19-21, so that the eye becomes an illustration of
one's heart.
Eye (3788)
(ophthalmos) is the physical organ of sight, one of the chief
channels of information for man. A cruel custom sanctioned among heathen
nations was the putting out of the eyes of an enemy or a rival, because
in this way his power was most effectually shattered (Judges
16:21;
2 Kings 25:7;
Jeremiah 39:7).
The eye, to be useful, was to be "single," not
characterized by double vision (cf
Luke 11:34).
What does an eye do? It enables one to see their way, but it must be a
"clear eye" to fulfill this function. Jesus uses the term "bad eye" in a
figurative sense, teaching that such an eye tries to focus on worldly
possessions (material gain) and on God at the same time which confuses
the person ("spiritual double vision") and they cannot see their way
clearly as they walk through life. Jesus' main point is that believers
must maintain a clear, single eye, giving God our sole attention. "Bad
eyes" are stingy and covet money and wealth and produce spiritual
darkness, which Jesus warns is great!
Fleming offers an interesting
explanation that...
To illustrate the results of right
and wrong attitudes to material things, Jesus referred to a local belief
about the results of good and bad eyesight. People believed that eyes
were like windows that allowed light to enter the body and keep it in
good health. Healthy eyes meant a healthy body (light); diseased eyes
meant a diseased body (darkness). A healthy view of material things will
result in a healthy spiritual life; but an unhealthy view will mean that
the natural spiritual darkness already in the heart will become even
darker (Matt 6:22-23). A person can be a slave of only one master at a
time. If people devote their attention to increasing their prosperity
and comfort, they can no longer claim to be loyal to God (Matt 6:24).
Wiersbe adds that...
Wealth not only enslaves the heart,
but it also enslaves the mind (Matt. 6:22-23). God’s Word often uses the
eye to represent the attitudes of the mind. If the eye is properly
focused on the light, the body can function properly in its movements.
But if the eye is out of focus and seeing double, it results in unsteady
movements. It is most difficult to make progress while trying to look in
two directions at the same time. If our aim in life is to get
material gain, it will mean darkness within. But if our outlook is to
serve and glorify God, there will be light within. If what should be
light is really darkness, then we are being controlled by darkness; and
outlook determines outcome. (Wiersbe,
W: Bible Exposition Commentary. 1989. Victor)
Jews considered the eye to be the
window of one's soul. It follows that what one allows into his or her
mind and thought-life produces desires, which in turn produce action and
it is one's actions (or conduct) that reveal who that person truly is.
Lamp (3088)
(luchnos from leukos = brilliant, shining white) referred
to a portable lamp (as used in this sermon - see note
Matthew 5:15)
fed with oil, not a candle. The present use is figurative and refers to
the lamp of the body, the eye, the only channel through which light
enters into the human body.
Clear (marginal note =
healthy, sincere) (573)
(haplous from a = negation + pleko = twine, braid,
weave, knit) means single (as translated by the KJV), simple,
uncomplicated. It pertains to being motivated by singleness of purpose
so as to be open and aboveboard, single, without guile, sincere,
straightforward, i.e. without a hidden agenda.
Spurgeon writes that...
A heart professedly set upon heaven
but held in bondage to earth is like an eye blinded by the intrusion of
a foreign substance, involving the unfortunate owner of it in darkness.
There is no such thing as seeing spiritual things while the soul's
windows are fastened up with shutters of worldliness.
If thy motive be single — if thou
hast only one motive, and that a right one — the master one of
glorifying God — if thy eye be single. When a man’s highest motive is
himself, what a dark and selfish nature he has; but when his highest
motive is his God, what brightness of light will shine upon all.
Two leading principles cannot rule in
one heart; they cannot both be master. Either sin or grace will engross
the whole heart; neither will submit to compromise.
Referring to the eye haplous
means clear, sound, healthy. Haplous refers to singleness,
simplicity, absence of folds and describes an eye which does not see
double as it does when it is infected. When the eye accomplishes its
purpose of seeing things as they are, then it is "haplous",
single, healthy. In this verse the eye is called "single" in a
moral sense and so the eye that is clear represents a heart that has
single-minded devotion. Piling up earthly treasures "blurs" heavenly
vision.
There is another meaning that is
possible in view of the fact that this word family (haplo-) can
refer to generosity or liberality in giving. See MacArthur's explanation
below.
John MacArthur explains the
meaning of a "clear" eye versus an "bad" eye wring that...
Words that are closely related to
haplous mean “liberality” (Ro 12:8; 2 Cor. 9:11) and
“generously” (James 1:5). The implication in the present verse is
that if our heart, represented by the eye, is generous (clear),
our whole spiritual life will be flooded with spiritual understanding,
or light. If our eye is bad, however, if it is diseased or
damaged, no light can enter, and the whole body will be full of
darkness. If our hearts are encumbered with material concerns they
become “blind” and insensitive to spiritual concerns. The eye is like
a window which, when clear, allows light to shine through, but, when
dirty, or bad, prevents light from entering.
Poneros (bad) usually means
evil, as it is translated here in the King James Version. In the
Septuagint
(Greek Old Testament) it is
often used in translating the Hebrew expression “evil eye,” a
Jewish colloquialism that means grudging, or stingy (see Deut. 15:9, “Beware,
lest there is a base thought in your heart, saying, 'The seventh year,
the year of remission, is near,' and your eye is hostile
[verbal form of poneros, ponereuo = to be evil or in a bad state
-
LXX translates "thine eye shall be
evil"] toward your poor brother, and you give him nothing; then he
may cry to the LORD against you, and it will be a sin in you”; Pr.
23:6 "Do not eat the bread of a selfish man [literally an "evil
eye"], Or desire his delicacies"”). “A man with an evil
eye,” for example, is one who “hastens after wealth” (Pr. 28:22
"A man with an evil eye hastens after wealth, And does not know that
want will come upon him.").
The eye that is bad is the
heart that is selfishly indulgent. The person who is materialistic and
greedy is spiritually blind. Because he has no way of recognizing true
light, he thinks he has light when he does not. What is thought to be
light is therefore really darkness, and because of the self-deception,
how great is the darkness! The principle is simple and sobering: the
way we look at and use our money is a sure barometer of our spiritual
condition.
(MacArthur, J:
Matthew 1-7 Macarthur New Testament Commentary
Chicago: Moody Press)
Piling up earthly treasures blurs
one's spiritual vision.
Matthew Henry explains that...
The eye... that be single—haplous—free and bountiful (so the word
is frequently rendered, as Ro 12:8; 2 Co. 8:2, 9:11, 13; Ja 1:5, and we
read of a bountiful eye, Pr. 22:9) (and) liberally affected
and inclined to goodness and charity, will direct the man to
Christian actions, the whole conversation will be full of light, full of
evidences and instances of true Christianity, that pure religion and
undefiled before God and the Father (Ja 1:27), full of light, of good
works, which are our light shining before men; but if the heart be evil,
covetous, and hard, and envious, griping and grudging (such a temper of
mind is often expressed by an evil eye, Mt 20:15; Mk. 7:22; Pr 23:6, 7),
the body will be full of darkness, the whole conversation will be
heathenish and unchristian.
Keener explains that...
If we justify valuing material
possessions because “everyone does it” or “other people do it more,” our
self-justification will blind us to the truth of our disobedience and
affect our whole relationship with God. Jesus’ illustration about the “single”
(NIV = good) eye and the evil eye would immediately make
sense to his hearers: a “good” eye was literally a healthy eye, but
figuratively also an eye that looked on others generously (Sirach
32:8). In the Greek text of the Gospels, Jesus literally calls the eye a
“single” eye, which is a wordplay: the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible
also uses this word for “single” to translate the Hebrew term for
“perfect”—thus “single-minded” devotion to God, with one’s heart set
on God alone. An “evil eye,” conversely, was a stingy, jealous or
greedy eye; yet it also signifies here a bad eye (Mt 6:23), one that
cannot see properly. Jesus uses the “single” eye as a transition to his
next point, for the “single” eye is literally undivided, having
the whole picture: thus one is not divided between two masters, as the
text goes on to explain (Mt 6:24). (Matthew
6)
Hendriksen has the following
explanation of haplous noting that...
The basic meaning of the adjective
haplous, is simple, single, uncomplicated. However, as is true of
words in general, various shades of meaning develop from this primary
sense. Thus, for example, the noun haplotes in Eph.6:5 ("Slaves,
be obedient to those who are your masters according to the flesh, with
fear and trembling, in the sincerity of your heart, as to Christ")
and Col. 3:22 ("Slaves, in all things obey those who are your masters
on earth, not with external service, as those who merely please men, but
with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord.") refers to
singleness of heart; hence, sincerity, integrity, uprightness (cf. 1
Chron. 29:17 "Since I know, O my God, that Thou triest the heart and
delightest in uprightness, I, in the integrity of my heart, have
willingly offered all these things; so now with joy I have seen Thy
people, who are present here, make their offerings willingly to Thee").
See also 2 Cor. 11:3: sincere devotion. It is not difficult to
understand that the disposition of heart and mind that is “single,” in
the sense that it is unmixed with ulterior or selfish motivations, would
be “generous.” Hence in Ro 12:8 ("he who exhorts, in his exhortation;
he who gives, with liberality;"); 2Cor. 8:2 ("that in a
great ordeal of affliction their abundance of joy and their deep poverty
overflowed in the wealth of their liberality.") 2Cor 9:11, 13
the meaning is generosity, liberality; and in James 1:5 ("But if any
of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men
generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.")
the adverb haplos means generously.
So also the transition from “simple”
or “single” to “unmixed with any defect,” “speckless,” hence clear,
sound, healthy, is easy to understand... And the evident contrast here
(in Mt. 6:22, 23) indicated between the adjectives haplous and
poneros (evil, bad) is probably best interpreted by sound versus in
poor condition (or bad)....
(Hendriksen,
W., & Kistemaker, S. J. Exposition of the Gospel According to Matthew
Grand Rapids: Baker Book House)
Hindson writes that...
The concept here is based on the
ancient idea that the eyes were the windows through which light entered
the body. If the eyes were in good condition the body could receive such
light. Tasker (p. 75) notes that Jesus, using this language
metaphorically, affirms that if a man’s spiritual sight is healthy and
his affections directed toward heavenly treasure, his whole personality
will be without blemish. The phrase if … thine eye be single
indicates devotion to one purpose. The “single eye” refers to a single,
fixed vision or goal. (Hindson,
E, Woodrow Kroll: KJV Bible Commentary. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.)
Harry Ironside explains the
single eye this way...
What we need to be concerned about,
therefore, is a single eye for the glory of God, an eye that discerns
His will in order that we may walk in it. If we turn away to paths of
self-will, we go into willful darkness and will soon lose our way.
Wiersbe suggests that we...
Compare Abraham and Lot in Ge 13:5-18
for an illustration of the “single eye.” The eye here speaks of the
outlook of the heart. A single eye means one that is fixed on the
spiritual. It is the opposite of the double-minded person in James 1:8;
4:4, 8. (Wiersbe,
W. W. Wiersbe's Expository Outlines on the New Testament. Wheaton, Ill.:
Victor Books)
Kent Hughes
explains that...
The idea here is simple but
beautiful. The eye is pictured as the window through which light comes
into the body. If a window is clean and the glass is clear, the light
that comes in will properly light every part of the room. If the window
is dirty, or if the glass is uneven or tinted or discolored, the light
will be hindered, and the room will not receive the full benefit of the
light. The amount and quality of the light that comes into a room
depends on the condition of the window through which it comes. So it is
with the eye. The condition of the eye determines the quality of the
light that enters the body. If you are color-blind, all the reds and
greens of Christmas decorations are lost to you. If you have cataracts,
you may sit next to someone and perceive only a shadow. If your eye is
blind, "how great is that darkness." There are no colors, no forms, no
motion. Of course, Jesus is not giving us a lesson on optics. He is
saying that the light that comes into a man's soul depends on the
spiritual condition of the eye though which it has to pass because the
eye is the window of the body.
(Hughes, R. K.
Sermon on the Mount: The Message of
the Kingdom. Crossway Books)
J C Ryle wrote that...
Singleness of purpose is one great
secret of spiritual prosperity
Vincent writes that...
The picture
underlying this adjective (haplous) is that of a piece of cloth or other
material, neatly folded once, and without a variety of complicated
folds. Hence the idea of simplicity or singleness (compare simplicity
from the Latin simplex; semel, once; plicare, to fold). So, in a moral
sense, artless, plain, pure. Here sound, as opposed to evil or diseased.
Possibly with reference to the double-mindedness and indecision
condemned in ver. 24. (Vincent, M. R. Word Studies in the New Testament
Vol. 1, Page 3-46).
Earlier Jesus had declared
"Blessed are the pure (single minded
focus) in heart for they shall see God" (see notes
Matthew 5:8)
Whole (3650)
(holos) means whole or all complete in extent, amount, time or
degree. Holos is used frequently in the Septuagint to modify "heart"
("whole heart")
><>><>><>
The Divided Heart - F. B.
Meyer has the following devotional based on passages from Matthew 6 and
James 1...THE DIVIDED HEART
"Where your treasure is, there will
your heart be also. If thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full
of light."--Matt. 6:21-22.
"A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."--Jas. 1:8.
THE CLOSING paragraphs of Matthew 6.
are full of instances of a divided heart. The Greek word for care means
that which divides.
Some are divided by anxiety. The anxious soul cannot take a strong
straight course, any more than a man can sleep who is wondering whether
he has bolted the front door or wound up his watch. Some are divided by
contrariness--a most difficult and complicated disposition of soul. We
would like to be pleasant, helpful, agreeable, and amiable, but are
conscious of cross-currents that restrain and make us awkward and
disagreeable, and we find ourselves rent between two strong influences,
the one to be Christlike and gracious, the other to be distant and
angular. Others are divided by fitful and passionate impulses. Happy are
they who can hold them well in check. Even St. Paul tells us that he was
conscious of these two wills--the better serf which longed to do the
will of God, and the lower, selfish, passionate self, which brought him
into subjection. St. Augustine tells us that, though the prayers of
Monica, his mother, greatly affected him, he was constantly swept back
from his ideal by an outbreak of passion.
Bunyan also illustrates the same condition, saying that two selves were
at war within him. The Devil came and said, "Sell Him!" But he resisted,
even to blood, saying, "I won't!" But, as the Tempter continued urging,
"Sell Him!" Bunyan finally yielded, and suffered an agony of remorse,
as, on the one hand, he accepted Christ as his only Hope, and on the
other, was prepared to barter Him away.
A divided heart lacks the first element of strength--it is unstable. The
men who leave their mark on the world are those who can say: "This one
thing I do." But we need more than concentration, we need consecration.
We must not only be united in ourselves, we must be united in God. Let
us make the prayer of Psalm 86:11, our own: "O knit my heart unto Thee,
that I may fear Thy name." Yield yourself to God that He may disunite
you from the world, and weave you into His own life.
PRAYER - O Faithful Lord, grant to us, we pray Thee, faithful hearts
devoted to Thee, and to the service of all men for Thy sake. AMEN. (Our
Daily Walk)
><>><>><>
F B Meyer has a message
entitled "The Intention of the Soul" (an exposition of Matthew
6:22)...
The eye is the most striking and
important feature of the face. Blue as the azure of heaven, brown as
hazel, black as jet, it gives expression and beauty to the countenance,
fills with tears of pity, sparkles with the radiance of affection, and
flashes with the fire of anger. By the eye we are able, therefore, to
discern much of the thoughts and intents of the heart. The eye is also
urgently needed to enable us to do the work of life. It is by the eye
that we are lighted to our toils, discover the path in which we must
tread, and look upon the faces of our friends or the beauty of God's
creation. Each time we see a blind person or pass institutions devoted
for the recovery of sight, let us lift up our hearts to thank God for
this priceless boon.
It is interesting to notice the comparison which our Lord employs, He
speaks of the eye as the "light of the body;" in other places the same
Greek word is rendered "lamp," or "candle." In the fifth chapter of
Matthew we discover the same expression: "Neither do men light a lamp
and put it under the bushel." The same word is used in Luke 12: "Let
your loins be girded about, and your lamps burning." It is the word by
which John the Baptist is designated in John 5--"He was a burning and a
shining light"---in contradistinction to the other term, applied to our
Lord alone, "That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world." The ministry of John was the lamp that lighteth
the steps of men until "the Sun of Righteousness arose with healing in
his wings." The eye, our Lord says, is the lamp of the house of the
body. It is as though He thought of the eye as hanging in the vestibule
of the palace of life, casting its rays outward to the busy
thoroughfare, and inward to the recesses of the soul.
It is obvious that there must be something in our inner life which
corresponds to the eye, for our Lord adverts to the eye as the emblem
and symbol of something within. He is not speaking of the eye of the
body only, but of its correlative, the eye of the soul. What is that
inner eye? Some have supposed that it is the power of a concentrated
affection, for truly love sheds a warm glow over all the furniture of
the inner life, as well as upon the great world without. Others have
affirmed that the intellect is the eye of the soul, by which we are able
to behold the ordered process of the world and to consider the processes
of thought within us. A truer conception of our Lord's meaning, however,
will lead to the conclusion that the eye of the body corresponds to the
inward intention and purpose of the soul.
If, for a moment, you will examine your inner life, descending to the
profound depths that lie beneath the surface of your being, you will
discover that there is one deep aim or purpose which is the real
intention of your life. Deep down below the play of emotion and
intellect, and of engagement in various interests, there is one strong
stream or current running perpetually through the dark ravines of your
nature. It may be that you are hardly aware of it; your nearest and
dearest friends do not realize it. You would be startled if it were
stated in so many words, but it is none the less true that there is a
unity in each human character which God perceives. In each of us tie can
read a unity of purpose and a unity of will. This is the intention of
the soul and distinguishes each of us from every one beside.
The eye may, of course, be healthy or unhealthy. If healthy, a tiny
curtain which hangs at the back of the organism is adjusted to receive
the focused rays which come from the external objects. On this tiny
curtain is formed an invested image of all things which are visible. If
you look into the eye of another, and especially into the eye of a
little babe, you will see the whole panorama of the world presented as
in a cinematoscope. This curtain is perpetually being readjusted, so
that the unblurred image of the outer world may be cast upon it. When we
are travelling in a railway train it is probable that in a single hour
the focus is altered thousands of times, for at every jolt and
oscillation of the vehicle there must be a readjustment of the lens.
When the eye is in an unhealthy condition the image is doubled or
blurred. There are two ways in which it may become evil. To use a common
expression, there may be the obliquity, called a squint, such as
disfigured the noble face of Edward Irving. Mrs. Oliphant tells us that,
as a babe, he was laid in a wooden cradle, through a whole in which he
was able to watch the light with one eye, whilst the other retained its
usual straightforward direction. His eyes, therefore, were not parallel,
and it was impossible to focus them upon a given object. The soul's
intention may be diverted from a single purpose in a double direction.
We may pray with the object of gaining an answer from God, and at the
same time of receiving credit from man. We may try to amass the
treasures of this world, and at the same time to be rich toward God. We
may endeavour to serve two masters--God and mammon. This is the
counterpart in the spiritual life of a squint in the eye. Another source
of ill-health with the eye is when the little vesicles which supply
blood for the tiny curtain become overcharged, so that it is impossible
for the delicate nerves to adjust the lens, and the vision becomes
blurred and indistinct. Yet another source of the evil eye is when a
film forms over the surface of the pupil, so that the light cannot
enter.
In contradistinction to all these evils, how good it is to have a clear
eye, with its distinct vision; and how much more good it is when the
purpose and intention of the soul is so undivided that the whole of life
is illumined by the glow of a clear and beautiful radiance! All through
this chapter our Lord is arguing against this double vision. He says:
"Do not profess to belong to the kingdom of heaven while your hearts are
buried in the earth; do not have two masters; do not be divided by
anxious care; seek first the kingdom of God." All through this chapter
He is, in fact, bidding us to make our constant prayer the cry of the
psalmist, "Unite my heart to fear thy name." Our Lord sets His whole
force against any duplication of character so inimitably described by
John Bunyan in "Mr. Facing-both-ways," who, with one eye on heaven and
another on earth, sincerely professed one thing and sincerely did
another, and, from the inveteracy of his unreality, was unable to see
the contradiction of his life. "tie tried to cheat both God and the
devil, and in reality he only cheated himself and his neighbours."
There are three kinds of men. First, those who have no intention;
second, those who have a double intention; third, those whose intention
is pure and simple.
1. Some have no intention.
They live day by day without purpose; the eye of the mind is fixed
definitely and intently upon nothing. They take each day as it comes,
getting from it anything it may bring, doing the duty it demands; but
their existence is from hand to mouth, at haphazard, with no aim, no
ambition, no godly purpose. They cannot say, with the apostle, that they
are leaving the things which are behind, and pressing forward to the
things which are before, or that one thing they are ever engaged in
doing. It is quite true that in many cases there may be no great cause
to be championed, no subjects to be explored, no object in making money,
because already there is an ample competence. Some may read these words
who are daughters in a wealthy home, or young men the heirs of a
considerable fortune, or people in humble life who have no urgent need
to look beyond the day or week with its ordinary routine; but even these
should have a supreme purpose--to bring down the New Jerusalem out of
heaven, to establish the Kingdom of God amongst men, to hasten the
coming of the day of Christ, or to be themselves purer and holier. To
become may always be the supreme purpose and intention of the soul; to
be a little more like Christ; to know and love Him better; to be able to
shed more of His sweetness and strength upon others. There is no life so
contained within the high walls of circumstances, but it may reach up
toward the profound light of the azure sky that arches above.
Do not be content to drift through life; do not be satisfied to be a
piece of flotsam, swept to and fro by the ebb and flow of the stream; do
not be a creature of circumstance, because it is certain that if you are
not living with a divine purpose for God and eternity you are certainly
living for yourself, for your ease, for mere indolent enjoyment, or to
get through the years with as little fret and friction as possible.
This, at the heart of it, and in such a world as this so abject and
needy, is undiluted selfishness. To have no purpose is to have the worst
purpose; to have no ambition is to be living for self; to have no
intention is to be drifting through the wide gate, in company with the
many that go in thereat, to their own destruction.
2. Some have a double intention.
They have heard the call of Christ
and have received the seed of the Kingdom; but so soon as it reached
their hearts two strong competitors endeavoured to share with it the
nutriment of the soul. On the one hand, there were the cares of the
world--these largely have place in the poor and struggling; on the other
hand, was the deceitfulness of riches--these principally are found among
the opulent and well-to-do. For a brief interval there was a struggle as
to which of these should be master, but the strife soon ended in the
victory of the sturdy thorn; those ruthless brigands seized for
themselves all the sustenance that the soil of the heart could supply,
and grew ranker and taller until the tiny grain withered and failed to
bring forth fruit to perfection.
Will you not examine yourself? You think that you are whole-hearted,
whereas you may be double-hearted; or, to use the apt simile of the
prophet, baked on one side and not on the other; or, to use the simile
of the great dreamer, looking one way and rowing another. You seem to be
very earnest in Christian work, but are you quite sure that your
apparent devotion does not arise from a masterfulness of disposition
that likes to be independent and rule? May it not be due to a fussy
activity, which must be engaged in many directions that the soul may
escape from itself; or to a natural pity and sympathy for men, which
would incite you to a similar deed, even though you had never heard of
Christ? Of course, you say to yourself that your motive is pure and
single, and that you only desire to glorify God; but in His sight it may
be that you are really actuated by the natural propensities of your
nature, by your desire to be first, or by your appetite for notoriety or
money. The heart is so deceitful that it becomes us to examine ourselves
with all carefulness, lest at the end of life we shall find that, whilst
we appeared to be doing God's work, we were really doing our own; and
that, whilst our friends gave us credit for great religious devotion, we
were really borne along by a vain, proud and unworthy purpose, which
robbed our noblest service of all value in the sight of eternity. As the
apostle says, the one supreme intention of every child of God should be
to please Him. How few of us can say, with the apostle: "Whose I am and
whom I serve!" "It is a very small thing that I should be judged of you,
or of man's judgment; he that judgeth me is the Lord."
3. Let us see to it that we have a pure and simple intention.
Our aim should be to set our whole soul upon one thing only--to do the
will of God, so that the whole of our religious life may be spent before
the Father, who seeth in secret; that our alms, our prayers, our
fastings, should be for His eye, and His alone; and that the whole of
our life should emanate from hidden fountains where God's Spirit broods,
like those fountains of the Nile concealed in the heart of the great
mountains, the secret of .which for so long defied the research of the
explorer. The lamp of a holy life is the pure intention of the soul
which seeks to gain nothing for itself, which has no desire to please
men or to receive their commendation, which does not shirk adversity or
court the sunshine, but which sets before it as its all-sufficient goal
that God may be well pleased and that at the close of life's brief
pilgrimage it may be said of each of us, as it was said of Enoch, "He
had this testimony, that he pleased God."
How blessed such a life is! The light of the soul's pure intention
illuminates God, duty, human love, the glory of creation, and the
significance of history, literature and art. I remember once in my life,
at a most important crisis, when for weeks I was torn between two
strong, conflicting claims, that at last I was compelled to put aside
all engagements and to go alone into the midst of nature, where I
carefully examined my heart ¢o its very depths. I found that the cause
of the difficulty to ascertain God's will arose because I allowed so
many personal considerations to conflict with the inner voice; and when
I definitely put these aside, and stilled and quieted my life so that I
became conscious of being impelled by one purpose only --to know and to
do God's will--then the lamp of a pure intention sheds its glow upon the
path which I became assured was the chosen path for me. And since I
dared from that moment to follow, all other things have been added. It
was when Solomon asked that he might have a wise and understanding
heart, that he might know God's purpose, that God gave him honour,
wealth and length of days. Again and again these words of Christ ring
out as amongst the deepest that He ever spoke: "Seek ye first the
kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be
added unto you."
If the lamp of the pure intention of
the soul is not kept pure and clean, "how great is the darkness!" Our
Lord alludes, of course, to the fact that when darkness settles upon the
forest, the beasts steal forth, the glades resound to the roar of the
lion, the cry of the jackal, the laugh of the hyena. Multitudes of
beasts that have lain quiet in their lairs whilst the sun was shining,
creep forth; and our Lord says that when a man's heart is set on doing
God's will the lower and baser passions of his nature--like so many
beasts of prey--remain in their hiding places; but as soon as the blur
comes, and the soul ceases to live for the one intense purpose of
pleasing God, then darkness steals upon the house of life, and all
manner of evil and unclean things, that otherwise would be shamed into
silence and secrecy, begin to reveal themselves. "How great is that
darkness!" If any are conscious that there is a darkness upon life, upon
truth, upon the Word of God; if they are perplexed and plagued by the
intrusion of evil things which fill them with misgiving--let me urge
them to ask God to "cleanse the thoughts of their hearts by the
inspiration of his Holy Spirit, that they may perfectly love him and
worthily magnify his holy name." (From F. B. Meyer: The Directory of
the Devout Life)
