_THE LIGHT AS DARKNESS_
MATTHEW xiii. 10-17.
The condition of the heart determines the quality of my discernment. If
"the heart is waxed gross," the ears will be "dull of hearing," and the
eyes will be "closed." My spiritual senses gain their acuteness or
obtuseness from my affections. If my love is muddy my sight will be dim.
If my love be "clear as crystal" the spiritual realm will be like a
gloriously transparent air.
And the awful nemesis of sin-created blindness is this, that it interprets
itself as sight. "The light that is in thee is darkness." We think we see,
and all the time we are the children of the night. We think it is "the
dawn of God's sweet morning," and behold! it is the perverse flare of the
evil one. He has given us a will-o'-the-wisp, and we boastfully proclaim
it to be "the morning star."
But there is hope for any man, however blind he be, who will humbly lay
himself at Jesus' feet. Let this be my prayer, O Lord, "Cleanse Thou me
from secret faults." Deliver me from self-deception, save me from
confusing the fixed light of heaven with the wandering beacon-lights of
hell. And again and again will I pray, "Lord, that I might receive my
sight!"