LivePrayerSermon 771. Seeing Jesus
A sermon
(No. 771)
Delivered by
C.H.SPURGEON,
At the Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington
"We see Jesus." Hebrews 2:9.
THE Apostle, in this verse, does not claim to have seen the Lord in the flesh, although he boasts in another passage thathe has done so, and asserts it as one of the proofs of his Apostleship. He is not, indeed, in this text referring to any seeingof the Lord by mortal eyes at all-he is speaking offaith-he means a spiritual sight of the Lord Jesus Christ. The point towhich I shall have to draw your attention this evening is that sight is very frequently used in Scripture as a metaphor, anillustration, a symbol to set forth what faith is.
Faith is the eye of the soul. It is the act of looking unto Jesus. In that act, by which we are saved, we look unto Him andare saved from the very ends of the earth. We look to Him and we find salvation. So far as seeing with these natural eyesof ours is concerned it is the very opposite of faith. We have heard people speak as though they wished they had lived inthe Savior's day and could have seen Him. It must have been a great privilege to those who were spiritually-minded, but itwas no privilege (as they know now, alas, to their regret), to those who were spiritually blind-for many of those who sawour Lord and heard Him preach, rose up in wrath to thrust Him out of the synagogue, and cast Him down the brow of the cliff.
Instead of being overawed by His sweet majesty, or won by that love which sat upon His brow, they scoffed at Him, said Hewas a Samaritan, had a devil, and was mad! Even the sight of Jesus Christ upon the Cross did not convert the men that stoodthere, but they thrust out their tongues and called Him by ignominious titles and increased the sorrows of His death by theirscornful expressions. To see Jesus Christ with the natural eye is nothing, my Brothers and Sisters, for this shall be thelot of all men! They shall look on Him whom they have pierced and shall weep and wail because of Him.
The sight of Him, when He shall come in the latter days to judge the earth in righteousness, will be the source of terrorto the wicked so that there can be no kind of benefit, certainly no saving blessing, from such a sight of Jesus Christ withthe eyes as will be afforded even to lost spirits. The Apostle is speaking of the spiritual eye here. He is speaking of thatmental vision which God affords to those who have had their eyes anointed with heavenly eye salve by the Holy Spirit thatthey may see. And our business tonight is, first of all, to show why faith is so frequently compared to the sense of sight.
I. Let us, in the first place, give our attention for a few minutes TO THE REASON WHY FAITH IS COMPARED TO SIGHT. Is not sight,in many respects, the noblest of all the senses? To be deprived of any of our senses is a great loss, but perhaps the greatestdeprivation of all is the loss of sight. Certainly, whatever may be the degree of pain that may follow the loss of any othersense, they who lose their sight lose the noblest of human faculties.
For observe, in the first place, that sight is marvelously quick. How wondrously fast and far it travels! It does not takeyou an hour to make a journey from one part of the country to another by your eyes. You are on a mountain and you can see50 or a 100 miles, as the case may be, and you see it by the simple opening of the eyes. It is all there. Your thought isflashed far away in an instant, in the twinkling of your eye. Standing on some of the Alpine summits, you look far and wideand see lakes spread at a distance beneath your feet. And far away there is a range of black mountains, or of hills clothedwith snow.
You know they are, perhaps, 200 miles distant, but in a moment you are there! So quick does the sense of sight travel thatwe go to the moon or to the sun without knowing that any space of time is taken up by our eyes traveling there! And thoseremote stars which the astronomers tell us are so distant that they can scarcely compute how far off they are, yet my eyetravels to them in a second of time when I gaze upon the starry firmament! So quickly does sight travel-and equally rapidis the action offaith!
Brethren, we know not where Heaven may be-where the state, the place called "Heaven" is-but faith takes us there in contemplationin a single moment. We cannot tell when the Lord may come-it may not be for centuries yet- but faith steps over the distancein a moment and sees Him coming in the clouds of Heaven, and hears the trumpet of resurrection! It would be very difficult,indeed, it would be impossible for us to travel backward in any other chariot than that of faith, for it is faith which helpsus to see the creation of the world when the morning stars sang together and the sons of God shouted for joy!
Faith enables us to walk in the garden with our first parents and to witness the scene when God promised that the Seed ofthe woman should bruise the serpent's head. Faith makes us familiar with Patriarchs and gives us to see the troubles and trialsof kings. Faith takes us to Calvary's summit and we stand and see our Savior as plainly as did His mother when she stood sorrowfullyat the foot of the Cross. We this day can fly back to the solemn day of Pentecost and feel as if we could hear the mightyrushing wind, and see the cloven tongues sitting upon the chosen company, so swiftly does faith travel!
And, best of all, in one moment faith can take a sinner out of a state of death into a state of life, can lift him from damnationinto salvation, can remove him from the land of the shadow of death, where he sat in affliction and irons, and give him theoil of joy for mourning, and the garments of praise for the spirit of heaviness! O Sinner, you can get at Christ in a momentof time! No sooner has your heart trusted Jesus than you are with Him-united to Him!
You need not say, "Where is He? I would fly to Heaven if I could but find Him, or dive under Hell's most profound wave ifI could but embrace Him." He is near you, so near that the act of faith conveys you at once into His bosom, plunges you intoHis blood, clothes you with His righteousness, adopts you into the family of God and makes you co-heir with Jesus Christ-joint-heirwith Him in all things! See, then, why faith is like sight, because of the rapidity of its operations, requiring no time sothat a dying sinner, believing in Jesus, is saved at the 11th hour, needing not to go roundabout to do penances, and passthrough probationary periods and I know not what besides! He may come to Jesus, weary, and worn and sad. And the road to Jesus,though it seems long to some, is so short that one step takes you there. You have but to leave self behind, and trust in Him,and you are with Him! "We see Jesus." Faith, then, is like sight for its quickness.
Is not faith like sight, too, in the second place, for its largeness? It is a wonderful faculty, that of sight. Your eyesand mine take in at once the whole of this building with all the assembled company. These eyes will next, if they are placedat a point of vantage, take in the entire city of London with the whole of its populous streets. Give the eyes but the opportunity,let the sun go down, and they will take in all the thousands of worlds that stud the brow of night. What is there which theeye cannot grasp, and mark you, not the eye of the great and mighty only, but of the poorest also? Yes, the little insignificanteyes of the lark can take in as much, no doubt, as the big eyes of the bull. And the smallest eyes that God creates He enablesto compass great things.
A marvelous thing is that eye, darting its shafts everywhere, sending its rays around and embracing all things. Now, justsuch a power is faith. What a faculty faith has for grasping everything, for it lays hold upon the past, the present, andthe future! It pierces through most intricate things and sees God producing good out of all the tortuous circumstances ofProvidence. And what is more, faith does what the eyes cannot do-it sees the Infinite! It beholds the Invisible! It looksupon that which eye has not seen, which ear has not heard-it sees beneath the veil that parts us from the land of terror,and, moved with fear-it makes us fly to the Savior!
Faith sees through the pearly gate, and, beholding the glory of the better land, it makes us fly to Jesus who bears the keysof Paradise at His waist. Faith sees-I know not how to describe fully what faith sees-what is there she does not behold? Shesees even God Himself, for though in my finite conception I cannot grasp God, and my understanding can only perceive, as itwere, His train and skirts, yet my faith, with awful comprehension, can take in the whole of God and believe what she doesnot know, and accept what she cannot comprehend!
Oh, wondrous faculty of faith! God give it to you, my dear Hearer! God give you more and more of it so that it may be to youthe substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen, and that all comprehending faculty shall enable youto say-
"All things are mine, the gift of God, The purchase of a Savior's blood.
This world is mine, and worlds to come. Earth is my lodge, and Heaven my home." Again, sight is a most remarkable faculty,because, in the judgment of most men, it is very sure. We believe that we are often deceived by hearing. We are inclined,often, when we hear a story, to say, "I would believe that if I saw it, but I would not otherwise. I have been so often deceivedby hearing tales that I cannot always credit what my ears tell me."
We know how, by feelings, we are readily enough deceived, like Isaac, who would not have given his blessing to Jacob had nothis eyes waxed dim, and his touch deceived him. But "seeing is believing," according to the world's proverb. When a man seesa thing, then he says he knows it, though, indeed, of late years especially, we have learned that even sight itself is notalways to be trusted, for the most extraordinary illusions have been practiced upon persons for amusement and have becomea part of the apparatus of pleasure and philosophy. You cannot believe your own eyes nowadays!
You see a great many things, or think you see them, which are not there. And things which you could declare to be in such-and-sucha position turn out not to be there at all-it is merely some reflection, or some delusion, simple enough when explained-butmost puzzling until it is opened up to you. However, sight is generally regarded by men to be the most sure of all our faculties.If we see a thing, there it is-there is no questioning it.
Now faith has this certifying power in a much higher degree, for the faith which is of the operation of God and which distinguishesHis own elect, is infallible. The faith of God's people will not believe a lie. It is written that "if it were possible,"such-and-such "would deceive the very elect," but it is not possible. Where faith takes the Word of God as her basis, andrests upon it, she becomes an infallible faculty, and we may depend upon that which she reveals to us. It is a glorious thingto know certainties, such as the existence of God, and the Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and sure. Such blessedcertainties as the effectual Atonement which has put away the sin of the Lord's people and such certainties as the enjoymentof the Presence of the Holy Spirit in His indwelling power within our soul. May we have much of this faith which is like sightfor its certifying power!
Once more, is not faith wondrously like sight from its power to affect the mind, and enable a man to realize a thing? WhatI mean is this. That eminent preacher in America, Mr. Beecher, frequently used to address his audience upon Negro slavery.his touching eloquence never failed to move his people to an abhorrence of the thing and to a sympathy with those who smartedunder its power. But on one occasion, as I have been told, he wished to produce an extraordinary feeling in order to raisea large sum of money for a certain purpose.
He therefore spoke enthusiastically upon the sorrows of a beautiful girl, almost white, but still with sufficient Africanblood in her veins for her master to claim her for his slave-and she was about to be sold far south for the worst of purposes.Mr. Beecher wanted to touch the hearts of his people to purchase her liberty, that she, their Sister in Christ, might be freed.He had spoken earnestly, but to produce the required effect he called her from her seat, and bade her stand up in the midst,and you may guess that that morning there was no difficulty in collecting all the needed funds to set her free. The sightof the slave-girl had moved their hearts as the preacher's words could not do.
Now, it is so usually. We talk about poverty, but when do you feel your hands go into your pockets so freely as when you havebeen visiting a poor family where the little ones are crying for bread, and where the parents have no means for providingfor them? You feel for orphans. Many of us do very sincerely, but we never felt for them so thoroughly as when we began todeal with them and to see them and their widowed mothers. In our newly-founded Orphanage-for which I would bespeak your helpcontinually-we have had already to deal with many fatherless ones. We have come more than ever into contact with them andwe feel that the fatherless are, indeed, objects of pity, for the sight of them and of the widows has put the thing forciblybefore us.
We have heard of one who, being cold in the streets and seeing a poor shivering family, thought that winter was very hard,and that when he got home he would take care to put by some money to buy blankets for them. But when he had sat down by thefire, and thoroughly warmed himself and partaken of his cheerful meal, he thought the weather must be changed, and that itwas not so bad a thing, after all, to have a little winter. And so the blankets were never bought, and the poor were nevercared for. There is nothing like sight, my Brothers and Sisters, to convince-notwithstanding the moment when sight is over,feelings may depart.
Now faith has also this mighty reasoning power in even a higher degree. If it is real faith it makes the Christian man, indealing with God, feel towards God as though he saw Him. It gives him the same awe, and yet the same joyous confi-
dence which he would have if he were capable of actually beholding the Lord. Faith, when it takes a stand at the foot of theCross, makes us hate sin and love the Savior just as much as though we had seen our sins placed to Christ's account and hadseen the nails driven through His hands and feet and seen the bloody scourges as they made the sacred drops of blood fall-
"We were not with the faithful few
Who stood Your bitter Cross around.
Nor heard Your prayer for those who slew,
Nor felt that earthquake rock the ground.
We saw no spear pierce Your side-
Yet we can feel that You have died." Faith realizes the thing and thus becomes "the substance of things hoped for, the evidenceof things not seen." Hence the glory and the beauty of faith.
Now, many of you have heard about the wrath of God but it has all been forgotten. You have heard about the judgment and thewrath of God to come afterwards. You have heard of the Atonement, and the power of Jesus to put away sin. But you have hadno effect produced upon your minds, because, as the Apostle puts it, "It was not mixed with faith in them that heard it."But if you had had faith in that which was proclaimed, and had come savingly to trust in the Truth of God which was presentedas the grounds of your salvation, you would have been moved, and stirred, and excited, and led to hate sin and to fly to Jesus!God grant to us, then, that we may have more and more faith. I have thus, I trust, at sufficient length shown the parallelbetween faith and sight.
II. And now we shall spend a minute or two upon another thought, namely, that FAITH, THE SIGHT OF THE SOUL, IS HERE SPOKENOF AS A CONTINUOUS THING. "We see Jesus." It does not say, "We can see Jesus"-that is true enough-the spiritual eye can seethe Savior. Nor does it say, "We have seen Him." That also, glory be to God, is a delightful fact! We have seen the Lord,and we have rejoiced in seeing Him. Nor does the text say, "We shall see Him," though this is our pride and our hope, that"when He shall appear, we shall be like He, for we shall see Him as He is."
The text says, "We see Jesus." We see Him now and continually. This is the common habit of the Christian! It is the elementof his spiritual life. It is his most delightful occupation. It is his constant practice. "We see Jesus." Dear Brothers andSisters, I am afraid some of us forget this. For instance, we see Jesus Christ as our Savior, we being sinners still. Andis it not a delightful thing always to feel one's self a sinner, and always to stand looking to Christ as one's Savior, thusbeholding Him evermore? "As you have received Christ Jesus the Lord, even so walk you in Him"-not merely sometimes comingto Him as you came at first, but evermore abiding in Him.
"To whom coming"-always coming, constantly coming-"as unto a living stone." I was present at a meeting of Believers a shorttime ago when a conversation of this kind occurred. A Brother in the Lord, one of the most fervent men I know, said that sometimeswhen his piety flagged and his heart grew cold, he found it a very blessed thing to go and visit the sick and the dying. Hefound this to be such a sweet restoration to his faith that he recommended us all, as often as we could, to frequent dyingbeds.
Now another Brother who was present, who preaches the Gospel, but who at the same time is a butcher, said he thanked God hedid not need to go to a dying bed to see Jesus and to get his heart set right. He said that he had had as sweet fellowshipwith God in Camden Town Market as he ever had in the House of Prayer. And he said that he found it best always to live ashis Brother wished to live sometimes, namely, always conscious of sin and always looking to the Sin-Offering. Come to Jesus,then, as you came at first! Fly to the fountain always as needing constant cleansing-not as though you had not been washed,but still abiding-continuing in blessed recognition of your present cleansing that flows from the fountain filled with blood.
It is very sweet to remember that the fountain we sing about as being opened in Jerusalem, is opened "for the house of Davidand for the inhabitants of Jerusalem"-not so much for sinners, though it is opened for them, as for Believ-ers-"for the houseof David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem." Let us always be coming to it! And each morning and each night, let this be thecry of our spirit, "Still guilty, still vile, still polluted, we see Jesus, and, seeing Him, we know that we are saved."
Should not this, also, be the mode of our life in another respect? We are now disciples. Being saved from our former conversation,we have now become the disciples of the Lord Jesus. And ought we not, as disciples, to be constantly with
our Master? Ought not this to be the motto of our life, "We see Jesus"? We should not regard the commands of Jesus Christas being a law left to us by a departed Master whom we cannot see, and to whom we cannot fly. Is it not better to believethat Christ is a living Christ, that He is in the midst of His Church still, observing our order, noting our obedience orour disobedience, a Master absent in one sense, but still in another point of view ever present, according to His promise-"Lo,I am with you always, even unto the end of the world"? We should-
"Stay with Him near the tree, Stay with Him near the tomb. Stay till the risen Lord we see, Stay watching 'till He come."
My Brethren, could we be so frequently cold and careless if we could always see Jesus? Would our hearts be so hard towardsperishing sinners if we always saw that face which was bedewed with tears for them? Do you think we could sit still, or growworldly, or spend all our energies upon ourselves if we could see the Crucified, who though "He saved others, Himself He couldnot save"? I wish I could always come here to preach Jesus "seeing" Him by my side, and feeling in my heart that I was preachingin my Master's Presence. I would that you could always come into this place, both at Prayer Meetings and at all other times,feeling, "The Master is here. Let us bow as in His sight. Let our worship be given-not to One who is blind, and who will notsee us-but to One who beholds us all and sees our inmost thoughts."
As disciples we should be more punctual in our obedience, more consistent in our imitation of Jesus if we had Him always beforeus. The Romanist puts up the crucifix idol before his eyes. Well, let us put up Christ in our spirits. He wears the crosson his bosom. Let us carry Christ in our heart, still thinking of Jesus, seeing Him at all times. Would it not also, dearFriends, be very much for our comfort if we were to see Jesus always as our Friend in our sojourn here? "Henceforth," He says,"I call you not servants, but I have called you friends."
You are very poor, my dear Brother. Do you see Jesus? He was poorer than you. You have somewhere to go to sleep tonight, butHe could say, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has not where to lay His head."Are you racked with pain tonight? Let it help you to see Jesus. You are not "exceedingly sorrowful even unto death," nor areyour griefs to be compared with His. Have you been deserted and betrayed? See Jesus kissed by Judas! Have you been deniedby some friend who promised to be faithful? Look into the face of Jesus as He turns to Peter! Does death itself stare youin the face? Remember Him who, "being found in fashion as a Man, humbled Himself, and became obedient unto death, even thedeath of the Cross."
We would never be alone if we could see Jesus, or at least, if we were, it would be a blessed solitude! We would never feeldeserted if we could see Jesus-we would have the best of Helpers. I know we would not feel weak if we always saw Him, forHe would be our strength and our song. He would become our salvation. The bitter waters of Marah-the afflictions and troublesof the day would all be sweet if this tree were cast into the flood for us, and if Jesus were brought, in solemn meditation,into contact with our spirits. Oh, to see Jesus!
You have seen Him as your Savior-you desire to see Him as your Master. Oh, to see Him as your Friend upon whose bosom youcan still lean your aching head, into whose ear you can ever pour your tale of sorrow! Through the wilderness you may continuallycome up leaning on your Beloved, and with Him you may have perpetually such sweet enjoyments, that earth, desert as it is,shall seem to blossom like a garden of roses and your spirit shall enjoy Heaven below!
Again, would it not be much better for us, dear Friends, if we were to see Jesus as our Forerunner? I do not know whetherit is so with the most of you, but while some of us rejoice in the prospect of Heaven, yet the thought of death is sometimessurrounded with much gloom. It cannot be an easy thing to go down amidst the chill darkness of the river, and there to beseparated, the soul from the body, and to leave this earthly tabernacle behind an inheritance to worms. It has a hideous appearanceto us sometimes.
Even the Apostle himself shuddered a little at it when he said, "Not that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon." Deathseems a bitter pill to us all, and unless it is swallowed up in victory-and the victory takes away the sting of death-thehour of dissolution will be bitter. But do you not think that our thoughts of gloom about death sometimes arise from a forgetfulnessthat Jesus will be with us? If our faith could see Jesus as making our bed in our sickness and then standing by our side inthe last solemn article to conduct us safely through the iron gates-should we not, then, look upon death in a very differentlight? You know how Watts's hymn puts it-
"Oh if my Lord would come and meet, My soul should stretch her wings in haste, Fly fearless through Death's iron gate, Norfeel the terrors as she passed. Jesus can make a dying bed Feel soft as downy pillows are, While on His breast I lean my head,And breathe my life out sweetly there." My dear Brothers and Sisters, gathering up all I should like to have said, but cannotsay, into one, it is this-if we see Jesus as being always with us, from morn till eve, in life and in death-what noble Christiansit will make us! Now we shall not get angry with each other so quickly. We shall see Jesus! We cannot be angry when that dearloving face is in view. And when we have been affronted we shall be very ready to forgive when we see Jesus. Who can hatehis brother when he sees that face, that tender face, more marred than that of any man? When we see Jesus, do you think weshall get worldly? Would you have spoken as you did across the counter today, Brother, had you seen Jesus?
My dear Friend, would you have been as you have been to your work-fellow? Would you have spoken as you did to your servants?Would you have acted as you did to your master had you seen Jesus? They say "a master's eye does much." Certainly the Presenceof Jesus would do much! "The master's eye does more than both his hands," they say. Oh, for that consciousness of the eyesof Jesus, which shall be like the hands of Jesus molding us according to His will. "We see Jesus."
Now, I hope you do see Jesus as you sit in the pews there. Sometimes on Sunday, when the Lord helps the preacher, and Christis evidently set forth among you, you have seen Jesus. But will you see Him after you have gone down those steps? Will yousee Him when you get home to your houses? Will you see Him the next morning in the workroom, or at the business, or in themarket? This is not quite so easy, and yet I hold that if we had more Divine Grace we would see Christ just as well in themarket, among the baskets of fruit, as we can at the Tabernacle sitting in our pews! We would see Him quite as well if wewere driving a horse, or walking along Cheapside, as when we are in our closets, bowing the knee. For that is true Grace whichis with us always, and that is the Presence of Jesus which abides with us forever. That is true piety which shines the fairestin the midst of worldly cares. May we each one of us have this-and may it be the expression of our life-"We see Jesus"-andthen we shall be able to go farther and say, "For me to live is Christ, and to die is gain."
III. I shall detain you just a minute or two longer for a third point about our sight of Jesus, namely, we have said thatfaith is like sight, and that our faith should be a present Grace in active operation. But there may be this reflection aboutour present sight of Christ, that SOMETIMES OUR FAITH, LIKE OUR SIGHT, IS NOT QUITE CLEAR. You do not always see, I suppose,equally well. There are many things that affect the optic nerves, and we know that in fair weather we can see a greater distancethan we can in cloudy weather.
I was at Newcastle, some time ago, in a friend's house and when I went up to the top window and looked out, he said, "Thereis a fine view, Sir, if you could but see it. We can see Durham Cathedral from here on Sunday." "On Sunday!" I said, "howis that?" "Well, you see all that smoke down there, all those furnaces, and so on? They are all stopped on a Sunday, and then,when the air is clear, we can see Durham Cathedral." Right away I thought-ah, we can see a great deal on a Sunday when thesmoke of the world is gone for a little time! We can see all the way to Heaven, then. But sometimes, what with the smoke wemake in business, and the smoke the devil makes, and the smoke that sin makes, we can scarcely see anything at all!
Well, since the natural sight has to undergo variations, both from itself within and from the smoke without, and from thestate of the weather-we must not wonder if our faith undergoes variations, too. It ought not to do so, but sometimes it does,There are seasons when we realize that Christ is ours. Glory be to His name, if all the devils in Hell would speak to thecontrary, yet we know that our Beloved is ours, and that we are His! We are sure of it. Though all the angels in Heaven shouldcome and deny it, we would face them, and say, "I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep thatwhich I have committed unto Him against that day."
But there are other times when the same Believer sings Newton's hymn, but whenever he does, he ought to sing it alone, forfear anybody should catch the contagion of it-
" 'Tis a point I long to know, Oft it causes anxious thought: Do I love the Lord or no,
Am I His or am I not?"
There are hours when some of us would be glad to creep into a mouse hole or hide ourselves in a nutshell-we feel so little,so insignificant-our faith is at so miserable an ebb that we know not what to do. Well, let us not be astonished as thoughwe were not the children of God because of this. Everything that has life has variations. A block of wood is not affectedby the weather, but a living man is! You may drive a stake into the ground and it will feel no influence of spring, summer,autumn, or winter-but if the stake is alive and you drive it into the soil where there is moisture-it will soon begin to sprout!And you will be able to tell when spring and winter are coming by the changes that take place in the living tree. Life isfull of these changes-do not wonder, then, if you experience them.
Again, faith, like sight, is not only subject to variations, but it has great growth. Our children, in a certain sense, seeas truly when they are a day old as when they are grown up to be 20 years old. But we must not suppose that they see as accurately,for they do not. I think observations would teach us that little children see all things as on a level surface, and that distantobjects seem to them to be near, for they have not yet received experience enough to judge of the relative position of things.That is an acquired knowledge, and no doubt very early acquired but still it is learned as a matter of mental experience.
And let me say, though you may not have noticed it, all our measures of distance by the eye are matters which have to be gainedby habit and observation. When I first went to Switzerland with a friend from Lucerne, we saw a mountain in the distance whichwe were going to climb. I pointed out a place where we should stop half-way up, and I said, "We shall be there in about fourand a half hours." "Four and a half hours!" my friend said, "I'd undertake to walk it in ten minutes." "No, not you." "Well,but half an hour!" He looked again, and said, "Anybody could get there in half an hour!" It seemed no distance at all.
And yet when we came to toil up, the four and a half hours turned into five or six before we reached the place! Our eyes werenot accustomed to mountains, and we were not able to measure them. It is only by considerable experience that you get to understandwhat a mountain is and how a long distance appears. You are altogether deceived and do not know the position of things tillyou become wiser. And it is just so with faith. Faith in the Christian, when he first gets it, is true and saving-but it isnot in proportion. The man believes one doctrine, perhaps, and that is so delightful that it swallows up every other. Thenhe gets hold of another and he swings that way like a pendulum-no doctrine can be true but that one.
Perhaps in a little time he swings back like a pendulum the other way. He is unsteady because while his faith perceives theTruth of God, it does not perceive the harmonies of the Truths of God. His faith, for instance, may perceive the Lord JesusChrist, but as yet it has not learned the position which Christ occupies in the great economy of Divine Grace. He is half-blind,and cannot see very far. He has sight, but it is not the sight which he will yet receive. Like the blind man who, when ourLord healed him, saw men at first as trees walking, he comes, in due time, to see clearly, for Grace always goes on in itswork-it will never halt half-way.
Regardless, at first all is obscure and confused. Just as when you pass from darkness into light you are unable to bear it,you are dazzled and need a short time to accustom your eyes to the brilliance. But in due time the eyes are strengthened andyou can bear more and more light till you again see with comfort. Let us ask, then, of the Lord, that He will increase ourfaith till the mental eyes shall become clear and bright, and that we be made meet to be partakers of the inheritance of thesaints in light, to be with Christ, and to see Him as He is. If you have but little faith remember that that will save you.The little diamond is as much a diamond as the Kohinoor. So little faith is as truly the faith of God's elect as the greatestfaith!
If you but see Jesus, though it is but by the corner of your eye, yet if you see Him, you shall be saved! And though you maynot see as much of Christ as advanced Believers do, yet if you see enough of Him to trust Him, to rely on Him entirely-yoursins, which are many, are forgiven-and you shall yet receive Grace for Grace until you shall see Him in His Glory. However,always be praying, "Lord, increase our faith."
The last thing I have to notice about this true faith in Christ as sight is that it is at all times a very simple thing tolook. Look! No one needs go to a grammar school or to a university to look. Look! The smallest child, as we have said, canlook- the most illiterate and untaught can look. If there is life in a look, glory be to God for such a provision becauseit is available for each one of us! Sinner, if you would be saved, there is nothing for you to think upon but Christ. Do yoursins trouble you? Go to Him and trust in Him-and the moment you look to Him you are saved. "Oh," says one, "but I cannot dothat! My faith is so weak."
Well, when I walk about and see a beautiful sight, very seldom do I think about my own sight-my mind is occupied with thesight-and so let it be with you. Never mind those eyes-think more about the vision to be seen. Think of Christ. It
would be a pitiful thing if, when there were some great procession in the streets, all you thought about was your own eyes.You would see but very little. Think less about your faith, and more about Jesus-
"Weary Sinner! Keep your eyes
On the atoning Sacrifice.
View Him bleeding on the tree,
Pouring out His life for you.
Cast your guilty soul on Him,
Find Him mighty to redeem!
At His feet your burden lay.
Look your doubts and fears a way." Turn over and over in your mind the great transaction on the Cross. I have sometimes saidto young seekers, Go home and spend an hour deliberately reading about the death of Christ. And then picture it in your mind'seye, for it is in that way that faith comes. Through the Holy Spirit's power we come to believe that story by thinking uponit, seeing Jesus in it, and then following on and giving it the full acceptance of our spirit. Go to the Cross for faith ifyou cannot go with faith, and the Lord grant that you may find in Jesus-
"True belief and true repentance, Every Grace that brings us near," so that you, too, may say with us, "We see Jesus."
What is there in this world which is worth looking at in comparison with Him? All else is like the mirage of the desert whichappears but to fade away, deluding the weary traveler with hopes of rest and refreshment, and leaving him sick at heart becauseall has passed as the baseless fabric of a dream, leaving not a wreck behind. Can you gain anything by watching the bubbleson the stream of time? Will they shake your death thirst and cool your brow in the article of death? Is there anything ofhealing in the uplifted images of earthly gold, honor, wisdom, and power? You have tried them-well, how do they answer?
I know of one who, traveling over a pass in Italy one evening, secured a light to help him over a dangerous and difficultpart of the way further on. It was not needed till the narrow steep descent was reached. In fact, it was in the way till then,and just as the traveler came to the very spot where it was required, it went out and left him in utter darkness! So it isfull often in the sinner's experience who travels in the dark-his lights go out when most needed. Oh, far better, then, towalk in daylight, using the eye of faith in the clear sunshine of Gospel light from the Sun of Righteousness! Walk in thelight. Come to the light, and live seeing Jesus-
"We would see Jesus, for the shadows lengthen Across this little landscape of our life. We would see Jesus' our weak faithto strengthen, For the last weariness, the final strife. We would see Jesus, the great Rock foundation, Whereon our feet wereset by Sovereign Grace. Nor life nor death, with all their agitation, Can then remove us if we see His face. We would seeJesus-sense is all too blinding, And Heaven appears too dim, too far away. We would see You, to gain a sweet reminding ThatYou have promised our great debt to pay. We would see Jesus: this is all we're needing- Strength, joy, and willingness, comewith the sight! We would see Jesus, dying, risen, pleading; Then welcome day, and farewell mortal night!" The Lord send youaway with His blessing, for Jesus' sake.