Proverbs 4:25. Eyes Right

A sermon (Number 2058) by C. H. Spurgeon

*“Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you.”*——Proverbs 4:25.

These words occur in a passage where the wise man exhorts us to take care of all parts of our nature, which he indicates by members of the body. “Keep your heart,” says he “with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from you a froward mouth, and perverse lips put far from you. Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove your foot from evil.” It is clear that every part of our nature needs to be carefully watched lest in any way it should become the cause of sin. Any one member or faculty is readily able to defile all the rest, and therefore every part must be guarded with care. We have selected for our meditation the verse which deals with the eye. These windows of light need to be watched in their incomings, lest that which we take into our soul should be darkness rather than light; and they need to be watched in their outgoings lest the glances of the eye should be full of iniquity, or should suggest foolish thoughts. Hence the wise man advises, “Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you.” Have eyes and use them. Using them, take care to use them honestly.

Some persons are always as if they were asleep. They go through the world mooning about, seeing nothing, or seeing men as if they were trees with a sight which is not sight, but blindness hidden. The shadows of this transient life impress them and that is all: they have never awakened yet to the true life and its solemn realities. They have never seen anything in very truth; for it is faith that sees, and of faith they have none. That which is apart from faith is not visible to the soul however clear it may be to the eye. We have thousands around us who need to be startled out of that slumber in which they see the fabrics of their dreams, and the unsubstantial fancies of the hour. They say, “We see,” but scales are on their eyes. I fear we have such in all our congregations, lulled to sleep even by the preacher's tones, to whom the fact of coming to their accustomed seat and listening to the usual hymns, tends rather to confirm them in a sluggard's slumber than to stir their souls to action. O you sluggards, may God awaken you by grace lest He arouse you by the thunderbolts of His vengeance! It is time that your eyes began to look right on, and your eyelids straight before you.

Many others are somewhat awake mentally but they are not looking right on, neither do their eyelids look straight before them. They are staring about them, star-gazing, wondering what will be seen next: always ready like the Athenians to hear and see some new thing. They move, it is true, but it is in a labyrinth which leads to nothing, in a circle which ends where it began; they toil and slave but it is all in the shadowland: of substantial work they do nothing. An active idleness, a diligent laziness, is all that their life is made up of; for as yet they have no purpose——no purpose worth being the aim of an immortal soul. An arrow will never strike the mark if it travels in a zigzag direction; and the man whose life has no aim whatever, who pursues this, and then that, and then the other, what will he achieve? Are not many like “dumb driven cattle” going they know not where? They have never yet discovered that this life is a preface to a life of diviner mold. They do not regard the present as the lowly porch of the glorious edifice of the future. They have not thought that time is but the doorstep of eternity, a thing of small account, save that it is linked with the endless ages; and so they seek after this, and then after that, and then after the other; and always after that which is too poor, too trifling to be the object of a mind capable of fellowship with God. How many there are whose spirit is agitated by a mere nothing, resembling

“Ocean into tempest tossed To waft a feather or to drown a fly”!

To beings who lead such purposeless lives we would address the words of the wise man, “Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you.” Have something to do and do it. Have something to live for and live for it. Get to know the right way, and knowing the right way keep to it with full purpose of heart and concentration of faculty. O man, see where you are going and go that way with your eyes open, resolutely marking every step as you take it. Look where you ought to look and then follow your eyes, which shall thus be useful outriders to your life, and help to make your way safe and wise. When you have sent your eyes before you to make sure of the way, it will be safe to follow. Look before you leap, and only leap when looking bids you do so. If a man is to let his eyes look right on and his eyelids straight before him, then he is to have a way, and that way is to be a straight way, and in that straight way he is to persevere. You cannot see to the end of a crooked way. You can only see a small part of a way that twists and winds. Choose then a direct path which has an end which you dare think of and look upon. Some men's lives are such that they dare not think of what the end of them must be. They would not long pursue their present track if they were forced to gaze into that dread abyss which is the only possible close of an evil course. The way of transgressors is hard in itself, but it is hardest of all when we behold their dreadful end. “Surely Thou hast set them in slippery places. Thou castest them down into destruction.” You need to have a way, and a straight way, and a way whose end you dare contemplate, or else you cannot carry out the advice of Solomon, “Let your eyes look right on and let your eyelids look straight before you.”

Every wise man will conclude that the best way for a man is the way which God has made for him. He that made us knows what He made us for, and He knows by what means we may best arrive at that end. According to divine teaching, as gracious as it is certain, we learn that the way of eternal life is Jesus Christ. Christ Himself says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life”; and he that would pursue life after a right fashion must look to Jesus, and must continue looking unto Jesus, not only as the author but as the finisher of his faith. It shall be to him a golden rule of life when he has chosen Christ to be his way, to let his eyes look right on, and his eyelids straight before him. He need not be afraid to contemplate the end of that way, for the end of the way of Christ is life and glory with Christ for ever. “It does not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.” A friend said to me the other day, “How happy are we to know that whatever happens to us in this life, it is well!” “Yes,” I added, “and to know that if this life ends it is equally well, or better.” Then we joined hands in common joy to think that we were equally ready for life or death, and did not need five minutes' anxiety as to whether it should be the one or the other. Brethren, when you are on the King's highway, and that way is a perfectly straight one, you may go ahead without fear and sing on the road.

With all my heart I invite any who have never yet begun to live after a right fashion, to take Christ to be the way of life to them; and then I entreat them to let their eyes look straight on, and their eyelids straight before them, and to follow Jesus without giving a glance either to the right hand or to the left till it shall be said of them, even in glory, “These are they which follow the Lamb wherever He goes.”

1. I shall make my earnest appeals to the heart and conscience by beginning with this first exhortation: *let Christ be your way*. You that are young, let Him be your way from your youth. You that have hitherto gone the wrong road until your hairs have grown gray in the service of iniquity, turn I beg you, and take to the way of salvation. May His Spirit turn you, and you will be turned, then will Jesus become your way from henceforth.

If Christ is your way, you will begin first to seek to have Christ. “How shall I have Him?” says one. Do you desire Him? Will you accept Him? He is yours. The act of accepting Christ secures Christ to us, for the Father freely gives Him to all who freely accept Him. Some are troubled through ignorant and unbelieving fears, and are saying, “I wish I could lay hold on Jesus! I wish I knew that Christ was mine!” Are you willing to have Him? Who made you willing? Do you desire Him? Who made you desire Him? Who but the Spirit of the Lord? Will you now take Jesus to be your Savior to save you from your sin? Then depend on it, He is yours. There was never any difficulty with Him to give Himself to you; the difficulty was to bring you to receive Him; and now that you do receive Him, remember this——“As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name.” Jesus Himself has said it, “Him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out”; and therefore, since you come, you shall never be cast out. Jesus has accepted you, for you have accepted Him. But I pray you, none of you rest until you have Christ. Let your eyes look right on and your eyelids straight before you till you find Him. Look nowhere else but to Him and after Him. Shut yourself up in your room, determine not to come out again until you have Him, and it shall not be long before you find Him. Concentrating all your gaze upon the Crucified, light shall come from Him, causing the scales to fall from your eyes, and you shall see Him, even you that could not see; and you shall cry in delight, “He is mine, He is mine.” Remember how David said to his son, “If you seek Him, He will be found by you.” Think of the words of the prophet, “Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near.” When you have Christ, the next business of your life must be to know Christ. Seek to know more of Him, to know Him better, to know Him more practically, to know Him more assuredly. “That I may know Him,” said the apostle, after he had been a believer in Him for fifteen years. That same man of God speaks of “the love of Christ which passes knowledge,” even his knowledge, which was of the fullest sort; so that he meant to go on learning more and more of Christ, and he did not count himself to have attained. Christian men and women, you do not know your great Master yet. Here have some of us been nearly forty years in His service, and yet we could not describe Him to our own satisfaction. Why, we hardly know the power of the hem of His garment yet. We have not descended far down into the mines of His perfections. How little we know of our hidden wealth in Christ Jesus! Oh, that we studied Scripture more, that we were more teachable, and waited more humbly upon the Lord for the light of His Spirit from day to day! Well says our singer——

“Hoard up His sacred word, And feed thereon and grow; Go on to seek to know the Lord, And practice what you know.”

In this matter let your eyes look right on, and your eyelids straight before you. Other men may have their pursuits, this is yours; stick to it earnestly. The science of a crucified Savior shines like the moon in the midst of the stars as compared with all the other sciences which men may know; study it with your whole power of mind and heart. The angels on the mercy-seat of the ark stood always looking downward and bending over. Hence the apostle says, “Which things the angels desire to look into”; and if they desire to look into the ark of the covenant and its sacred mysteries, how much more should we!

When you come to know somewhat of what he is, then go on to obey Christ. Is there anything that he has bidden you do? Do it. Some Christians have never yet been baptized: how will they answer for wilful neglect of a known duty? Others have been Christians for years and yet have never communed at the Lord's table. Jesus said “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Do they keep his commandments? It was his dying request, “This do in remembrance of me,” and yet they will not fulfill it. Even such a tender request they slight, as though it were of no importance whatever, as if their Lord was a mere nobody whose wishes might well be overlooked. What shall I say of many of the biddings of our holy gospel, many of those sweet precepts which are to be used in the family, and in the business, and in the field? What forgetfulness there is of them! What refusings to follow Christ! He might come to us and say, “If I be a Master, where is my honor?” Truly it ought to be one of the first thoughts of a Christian to find out the Lord's will; and when he knows it, obedience should follow immediately. His eyes should look right on, and his eyelids straight before him. What said the blessed virgin to those who were at the feast? Note the words, “Whatsoever he says to you, do it.” It was well spoken of the favored mother and it remains as a golden precept for us all—“Whatsoever he says to you, do it.” Make no reserve, exercise no choice but obey his command. When you know what he commands, do not hesitate, question, or try to avoid it, but “do it”: do it at once, do it heartily, do it cheerfully, do it to the full. It is but a little thing that, as our Lord has bought us with the price of his own blood, we should be his servants. The apostles frequently call themselves the bond-slaves of Christ. Where our Authorized Version softly puts it “servant” it really is “bond-slave.” The early saints delighted to count themselves Christ's absolute property, bought by him, owned by him, and wholly at his disposal. Paul even went so far as to rejoice that he had the marks of his Master's brand on him, and he cries, “Let no man trouble me: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.” There was the end of all debate: he was the Lord's, and the marks of the scourges, the rods, and the stones were the broad-arrow of the King which marked Paul's body as the property of Jesus the Lord. Now if the saints of old time gloried in obeying Christ, I pray that you and I, forgetting the sect to which we may belong, or even the nation of which we form a part, may feel that our first object in life is to obey our Lord and not to follow a human leader, or to promote a religious or political party. This one thing we mean to do, and so follow the advice of Solomon as he says, “Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you.” Beloved, let us endeavor to be obedient in the minute as well as in the greater matters, for it is in details that true obedience is best seen. Let us copy the faintest touches in the life of our great Exemplar.

That being attended to, remember, if Christ is your way you have further to seek to be like him, not only to do as he did, but to be as he was; for “as he was, so are we in this world.” What a man does is important, but what a man is, is all-important. The ring of the metal is something, but if its ring could be imitated by a base coin it would be nothing. It is after all the substance of the metal that decides its value. O man, what are you? If you are a twice-born man you are a partaker of the nature of Christ; but if not you are under the curse which cleaves to the old nature as leprosy cleaves to the leper. “As we have borne the image of the earthy we shall also bear the image of the heavenly”; and we must begin to bear that heavenly image even now. As born again into the headship of the Second Adam, we should seek to be as much like the Second Adam as we are already by nature like the first Adam through our first birth. The second birth should be as operative to produce the image of the second Adam, as the first was to produce the image of the first Adam. Alas! “The earthy” is impressed upon us very distinctly; we cannot spend an hour without discovering the clear stamp of nature's die. Oh that “the heavenly” could be quite as clearly discerned! This therefore we must aim at, though as yet we have not attained it. Here is something to be thought of very carefully, and I charge you by the Holy Ghost, let your eyes look right on and your eyelids straight before you, that you may be transformed from glory to glory into the image of the Lord. God grant that it may be so with every one of us!

Now supposing that we have attended to all this, if Christ is our way and our model there is something more; namely, that we seek to glorify Christ and labor to win others to him. Here is a grand field for all our energies. O Christian people, what are we left in this world for except to bring others to Jesus? Are we not left in this wilderness that we may find out more of the good Shepherd's stray sheep, and work for him and with him to bring them in? I fear we forget this. Are not some of you indifferent as to whether your fellow-men are lost or saved? Have not some of you, in your families, come to this pass - that you see your brother an infidel, your sister frivolous, your parents godless, and yet it does not fret you? I think that if I had a godless relative it would break my night's rest, not now and then, but always. A brother, a father, a child unsaved! What do you mean by taking your ease? If the spirit of Christ be in us, the tears that fell from the eyes of Jesus will find their like upon our cheeks. We shall weep day and night because men are not gathered unto eternal life. Nor will this be a loss to us for blessed are the mourners in Zion. Blessed are they that mourn because others abide in sin and reject the Lord!

Now concerning the salvation of our fellow-men; we shall never compass it unless our eyes look right on and our eyelids straight before us. Before we win souls we must live for souls. We need men and women who live to convert others to Christ. The minister had better quit his pulpit if it be not his one burning desire to bring hearts to Jesus' feet. If a divine impulse be not upon him driving him to seek the souls of men, let him go elsewhere with his windy periods. Professors have little right to be in Christ's church unless they are passionately in earnest to increase his kingdom by the salvation of their fellow-men. O my brothers and sisters on whom is the blood-mark of redemption, I charge you concerning this matter to “let your eyes look right on and let your eyelids look straight before you”! Seek souls as dogs hunt their game; eye, nostril, ear all open, and every muscle strained. Converts are not gained by dreamers. We cannot imitate Jesus as a Savior of men by being dull and heartless. In any point in which we follow our Lord let us do it with all our soul.

Thus much upon the first point: let Christ be your way in all things, and keep to that way.

2. Following the text again, only working it a little differently, the second exhortation is *set your eyes on him as your way*. If Christ is your way and you follow him to have him, to know him, to obey him, to be like him, and to glorify him, then set your eyes on him as the way. Think of him, consider him, study him, and in all things regard him as first and last to you.

First, that you may know the way of life, let your eyes be fixed on him. Soul, are you in the dark? Kneel down and pray and look Christward. Saint, are you bewildered? Go by the way of the cross, the way of the Crucified, for that is the true and sure path. Sinner, are you burdened? Would you be rid of your burden? Run Christward. Any direction given to you to go anywhere else will misdirect you. I say not to any one I meet to-night, “Go to the wicket-gate.” Neither will I bid you look to any light within and run that way. My only direction is “Go to Jesus.” You see that cross and him who bled thereon! Stand still and look that way, and your burden shall fall from your shoulders. Where Jesus died, you shall live. Where Christ was wounded, you shall be healed. “Let your eyes look right on and let your eyelids look straight before you.” Know the road; you will never know it too well: the more you know it the happier you will be in it. “To Christ!” “To Christ!” “To Christ!” That is the sole inscription upon every finger-post of the road to heaven. Keep to the King's highway.

Since Christ is the way, let your eyes be fixed on him as the way, that you may follow him well, may follow him wholly. Gather up all your faculties to go after your Lord. Be not like Lot's wife who longed, and looked, and lingered, and was lost. Away, away, away from Sodom, altogether away: let no eye steal in that direction. Away, away, away to Christ, to Christ alone. All eyes must be for Jesus who cries “Look to me and be saved.” As the ploughman looks to the end of the furrow and keeps right on, even so must you look only to Jesus. What have you to do with anything but Christ, sinner? I tell you that you have nothing even to do with your own sins, but to lay them down at his feet. He is all; the beginning and the end. “Let your eyes look right on and let your eyelids look straight before you.”

Look alone to Jesus and do this to keep your spirits up. Some men's eyes do not look right on and their eyelids do not look straight before them, for they look back upon that part of the road which they have traversed, and grow content with that which they have already attained. They live in retrospection. When you begin to look back at what you have done and rub your hands and say with self-satisfaction, "I remember when I did right well," wisdom warns you that this is not the right kind of look. What have you to look back upon? Poor, weak creature! Forget that which is behind and press forward to something better and higher. When you sinful souls get looking back upon your past bad lives, I am glad of that, but still I do not want even you to keep your eyes always in that direction. You will get no comfort in looking into the foul ditch of your own transgressions. Look, look, look before you! Look where the cross stands. Run that way. Let your eyelids look straight before you to the atoning sacrifice; away from the past, which he will graciously blot out, to Jesus only. Some spend much of their time in what is called introspection. Now introspection, like retrospection, is a useful thing in a measure; but it can readily be overdone, and then it breeds morbid emotions, and creates despair. Some are always looking into their own feelings. A healthy man hardly knows whether he has a stomach or a liver; it is your sickly man who grows more sickly by the study of his inward complaints. Too many wound themselves by studying themselves. Every morning they think of what they should feel: all day long they dwell upon what they are not feeling; and at night they make diligent search for what they have been feeling. It looks to me like shutting up your shop and then living in the counting-house, taking account of what is not sold. Small profits will be made in this way. You may look a long while into an empty pocket before you find a sovereign, and you may look a long time into fallen nature before you find comfort. A man might as well try to find burning coals under the ice as to find anything good in our poor human nature. When you look within it should be to see with grief what the filthiness is; but to get rid of that filthiness you must look beyond yourself. I remember Mister Moody saying that a looking-glass was a capital thing to show you the spots on your face; but you could not wash in a looking-glass. You want something very different when you would make your face clean. So let your eyes look right on—

"To the full atonement made, To the utmost ransom paid."

Forget yourself and think only of Christ.

Some not only unduly practice retrospection and introspection, but they carry much too far a sort of circumspection. They look all around them: they look upon their past, and their present, and their fears and their doubts, and from all these things they judge their condition, and decide their state of mind. You recollect Peter. He cried to his Lord, "Bid me come unto thee on the water." He receives permission. Down the side over the boat goes Peter. To his intense surprise he is standing on a wave. Peter had never done such a thing before in his life as walk on the water. He might have kept on standing on the wave and he might have walked all the way to Jesus, if he had kept his eyes on his Master until he reached him. The waters would have borne him up as well as a granite pavement; but Peter began to look at the billows, and he listened to the howling of the wind, and then to the beating of his own heart; and down he went; and then he had to cry to his Master. "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you": you can walk the waters all the way to the golden shore if you can but stop your eyes to all things else. Surely I may use the text as an illustration of that closing of the eyes. "Let your eyes look right on." "I understand that," says one, "for I trust. But you cannot look with your eyelids." What can that mean? Remember that you can shut your eyes with your eyelids to a great many things, and so cease to see them; and in the matter of faith-sight a great many things are best not seen. So, when you would otherwise see the danger and all the difficulties and the doubts, do not look with your eyes, but look with your eyelids. Not to look at the difficulties at all is all the look they deserve. Let your eyelids shut out the view which would create distrust. Do not see, do not feel, "only believe." Believe Christ, and believe nothing else. "Let God be true but every man a liar." If all the sins you have ever done should come rolling up like Atlantic billows, and if all the devils in hell should come riding on the crests of those waves howling as they come, take no notice of them. Christ has said he that believes in him has everlasting life; believe you in him, and you have the everlasting life as surely as Christ is the Christ of God. Draw down the blind and see nothing, know nothing, believe nothing but the living word of the living Savior. "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you." When you close your eyes to consider, you can see a good deal with closed eyes, but still look right on to the one and only trust.

You must also let your eyes look right on, dear friends; for if you begin to look two ways at a time you will miss the Lord Jesus, who is your way. Under the Jewish law no man who had a squint was allowed to be a priest. He is described as one who had "a blemish in his eye." I wish they would make a similar law with regard to spiritual sight in preachers nowadays, for certain of them are sadly cross-eyed. When they preach free grace they squint fearfully towards free-will; and if they look to the atonement they must needs see in it more of man than of Christ. See how they look to Moses and to Darwin; to revelation and to speculation! A great many people would fain be saved, but they squint: they look a little towards sin, and the flesh, and the world, and they make provision for personal gain, and personal ease. In this case they fail to see Christ's strait and narrow way of the denial of self, and the crucifixion of the flesh. If you would have salvation, "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you." Look not a little this way and a little that way, or you will never run aright. "I could believe that I was a Christian," says one, "if I felt more happy. I could trust Christ if I felt my nature changed." That is a squint which ruins the faith-look. That is trying to look two ways at once. You cannot do it: it will ruin you. It would spoil the beauty of the sweetest countenance if we could use our eyes to look otherwise than straight on. We have some friends who if they wish to see us, look over there, and yet we are not there. Avoid this spiritual blemish; it has no advantages—"Let your eyes look right on." Look to Christ alone, to him as your whole salvation. Have nothing to do with your good works as a ground of trust, or you are a lost man. I charge you have nothing to do even with your faith and your repentance as a ground of trust. Trust not your trust, but trust alone in what Christ has done. If you shall trust your best feelings or your worst feelings, your prayers or your praises, your almsgivings or your consecration in any degree, you have made an antichrist of them. Strip yourself of your last rag and let Christ clothe you from top to toe. Be hungry unto famishing, and clean out the last crumb you have in the pantry, for then only will you feed on Christ the bread of life. Let him be both bread and wine, and make up the whole of a feast for you. You shall have salvation surely enough if this be what you do. But let not Jesus bring the bread, and carnal confidence the wine: take a whole Christ to be all your salvation and all your desire, and your peace shall be unbroken. Let the Holy Spirit bring you to that oneness of trust which makes both eyes meet at their proper focus, and let that focus be the Lord Jesus. "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you."

3. But my time has almost expired and I have only to lay emphasis on one more matter. *Let your eyes distinctly and directly look to Christ alone.* I have gone over this before, but I need to hammer at it again in order to clench the nail. Look not to any human guide but look to Christ Jesus alone. We have no faith in priests; but it is a very easy thing to fix your faith upon a minister and hear what he says, and believe it because he says it. I charge you, believe nothing that I tell you if it cannot be supported by the Word of God. I am content to stand or to fall by this: "To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, there is no light in them." I will quote the authority of no other book whoever may have composed it; no ancient book, let it belong even to the earliest days of the church. This one inspired volume is the text-book of our religion. Follow Holy Scripture and you have an infallible chart. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one apostle and high priest of our profession: follow him. Not even mother or father or the brightest saint that ever lived must divide you from your perfect Guide. "Let your eyes look right on and let your eyelids look straight before you," and hear the gracious words of him who bought you with his blood as he cries, "Follow me."

Then again look to Christ directly and distinctly for yourself. I warn you against putting any trust in national religion, or in family and birthright godliness. A personal Christ must be laid hold of by a personal faith. You must yourself repent, yourself believe, yourself get a grip of him, and of none but him. You must use your own eyes: "Let your eyes look right on and let your eyelids look straight before you."

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

Forget all things else when seeking Christ and when you have found Christ. It is no ill thing for a man, when he is under concern of soul, to let his business and everything go till he finds his Savior. I urge no one to such a course, but I have noticed many converts who have done this who have soon found rest. If a captain were busy about the comfort of his passengers in their cabins but all the while knew that there was a great leak in the ship, and that it would soon go down, and to this he paid no heed whatever, you would say to him “How foolish you are to mind the little and neglect the great!” But if he told the passengers, “Breakfast cannot be prepared with our usual care for all hands are pumping or repairing the vessel,” you could not blame him when you knew that every man's help was needed to save the ship from going down. In times of extreme danger, secondary things must give place to the main thing. If this house were to take fire you would not stay to sing the last hymn, even if I gave it out. May the Holy Spirit lead some of you to feel that you must be saved! You must be saved, and therefore you must put other things into a second place. Remember how Bunyan pictures the man running for his life, and when his neighbors called to him to stop, he put his fingers in his ears, and as he ran he shouted “Eternal life! Eternal life! Eternal life!” That man was a wise man. Imitate him; if you have not found eternal life run for it with your “eyes right on, and your eyelids straight before you.”

And lastly, take care that you continue gazing upon Christ until you have faith in him. “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Go on hearing the Word of God till faith comes thereby. Do you ask me how faith comes? It is the gift of God, but it usually comes in a certain way. Thinking of Jesus and meditating upon Jesus will breed faith in Jesus. I was struck with what one said the other day of a certain preacher. The hearer was in deep concern of soul, and the minister preached a very pretty sermon indeed, decorated abundantly with word-painting. I scarcely know any brother who can paint so daintily as this good minister can; but this poor soul under a sense of sin said, “There was too much landscape, sir. I did not want landscape; I wanted salvation.” Dear friend, never crave word-painting when you attend a sermon; but crave Christ. You must have Christ to be your own by faith or you are a lost man. When I was seeking the Savior I remember hearing a very good doctrinal sermon; but when it was over I longed to tell the minister that there was a poor lad there who wanted to know how he could be saved. How I wished he had given half a minute to that subject! Doctor Manton, who was usually a clear and full preacher of the gospel, when he preached before the Lord Mayor, gave his lordship something a cut above the common citizens and so the poorer folk missed their portion. After he had done preaching his sermon an aged woman cried, “Doctor Manton, I came here this morning under concern of soul, wanting a blessing, and I have not got it for I could not understand you.” The preacher meekly replied, “The Lord forgive me! I will not so offend again.” He had overlooked the poor, and had thought mainly of my Lord Mayor. Special sermons before Mayors and Queens and assemblies are seldom worth a penny a thousand. The gospel does not lend itself to show performances. I am not here to give you intellectual treats: my eyes look right on to your salvation. Oh that yours may look that way! Go after Christ, dear friend. Seek after Christ with your whole heart and soul. Feel that the one thing you must have is to be reconciled to God by the death of his Son. Keep on with that cry, “None but Christ: none but Christ.” Make this your continual litany—

“Give me Christ, or else I die; Give me Christ, or else I die.”

Then you will soon find him. “Let your eyes look right on and let your eyelids look straight before you,” and you shall see the Lord of grace appearing to you through the mist and through the cloud; that self-same Savior who stands in the midst of us even now and cries, “Look to me and be saved all the ends of the earth: for I am God and there is none else.”

A sermon (Number 2058) by C. H. Spurgeon

"Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you." — Proverbs 4:25.

These words come from a passage where the wise man urges us to care for every part of our nature, which he describes using parts of the body. "Keep your heart," he says, "with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Put away from you a deceitful mouth, and keep dishonest lips far from you. Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet, and let all your ways be established. Turn not to the right hand nor to the left: remove your foot from evil." Clearly, every part of our nature needs careful watching, because any part can become a cause of sin. Any single member or faculty can easily corrupt all the rest, so every part must be guarded with care. We have chosen for our meditation the verse that deals with the eye. These windows of light need to be watched in what they take in, lest what enters the soul be darkness rather than light — and they need to be watched in what they put out, lest the glances of the eye be full of wickedness or stir up foolish thoughts. So the wise man advises, "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you." Have eyes and use them. And when you use them, use them honestly.

Some people seem to drift through life as though they are half asleep. They wander through the world seeing nothing — or seeing people as though they were trees, with a vision that is really blindness in disguise. The passing shadows of this temporary life make an impression on them, and that is all. They have never truly woken up to real life and its serious realities. They have never truly seen anything, because it is faith that sees — and they have no faith. Whatever lies outside of faith remains invisible to the soul, however clearly it may appear to the physical eye. Thousands around us need to be shaken out of this slumber in which they see only the illusions of their dreams and the empty fancies of the moment. They say, "We see," but scales are on their eyes. I fear we have people like this in all our congregations — lulled to sleep even by the preacher's voice, so that the habit of coming to their usual seat and listening to familiar hymns only deepens their spiritual drowsiness rather than stirring their souls to action. You who are sleeping, may God awaken you by grace before He rouses you with the thunder of His judgment! It is time your eyes began to look right on, and your eyelids straight before you.

Many others are somewhat awake mentally, but they are not looking right on — their eyes are not fixed straight ahead. They are staring about, gazing at the sky, always wondering what new thing will appear next — ready, like the Athenians, to hear and see something novel. They are moving, it is true, but they move through a maze that leads nowhere, going in circles that end where they began. They toil and strive, but all their effort is in the realm of shadows. They accomplish nothing of substance. An active idleness and a busy laziness is all their life amounts to, for they have no real purpose — no purpose worthy of an immortal soul. An arrow can never hit its mark if it travels in a zigzag path. What will a person achieve whose life has no real aim — who chases this thing, then that thing, then yet another? Are not many like "dumb driven cattle," going they know not where? They have never discovered that this life is a preface to a far greater one. They do not see the present as the humble entrance to the glorious structure of eternity. They have not considered that time is merely the doorstep of eternity — a small thing in itself, made significant only by its connection to the ages that never end. And so they pursue this, then that, then something else — always chasing things too small and trivial to be worthy of a mind made for fellowship with God. How many there are whose spirit is stirred up over a mere nothing, like

"Ocean into tempest tossed, to waft a feather or to drown a fly"!

To those who lead such purposeless lives, we would offer the words of the wise man: "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you." Have something to do and do it. Have something to live for and live for it. Learn the right way, and once you know it, keep to it with full purpose and concentrated effort. See where you are going, then go that way with your eyes open — deliberately marking every step as you take it. Look where you ought to look, then follow your eyes, which will serve as scouts for your life and help make your path safe and wise. Once you have sent your eyes ahead to confirm the way, you can safely follow. Look before you leap, and only leap when your looking tells you it is right to do so. If a man is to let his eyes look right on and his eyelids straight before him, he must have a way — and that way must be straight — and he must keep to it. You cannot see to the end of a crooked road. You can only see a small stretch of a road that twists and winds. Choose a direct path with a destination you are willing to face and think about. Some people's lives are such that they dare not think about where they are heading. They would not long continue on their present course if they were forced to look into the terrible end that awaits an evil life. The way of the wicked is hard in itself, but it is hardest of all when we see where it leads. "Surely You have set them in slippery places. You cast them down into destruction." You need a way — a straight way, and a way whose end you can bear to contemplate — or else you cannot follow Solomon's advice: "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you."

Every wise person will conclude that the best path for any person is the one God has made for them. The One who made us knows what He made us for, and He knows by what means we can best arrive at that end. According to divine teaching — as gracious as it is certain — we learn that the way of eternal life is Jesus Christ. Christ Himself says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life"; and whoever would walk through life rightly must look to Jesus and keep looking to Him — not only as the author but as the finisher of their faith. When a person has chosen Christ as their way, the golden rule of their life becomes this: let your eyes look right on, and your eyelids straight before you. There is no need to fear looking at the end of that road, for the end of Christ's way is life and glory with Christ forever. "It does not yet appear what we shall be; but we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." A friend said to me the other day, "How happy we are to know that whatever happens to us in this life, it is well!" "Yes," I added, "and to know that if this life ends, it is equally well, or better." Then we joined hands in shared joy, knowing we were equally ready for life or death and had no need for even five minutes of anxiety over which it would be. Brothers and sisters, when you are on the King's highway — and that way is perfectly straight — you can press ahead without fear and sing as you go.

With all my heart I invite anyone who has never yet begun to live rightly to take Christ as the way of life — and then I urge them to let their eyes look straight on and their eyelids straight before them, following Jesus without glancing to the right or left, until it is said of them, even in glory, "These are they who follow the Lamb wherever He goes."

I will make my earnest appeals to the heart and conscience by beginning with this first exhortation: let Christ be your way. You who are young, let Him be your way from your youth. You who have gone the wrong road for so long that your hair has grown gray in the service of sin — turn, I urge you, and take the way of salvation. May His Spirit turn you, and you will be turned. Then Jesus will become your way from this point forward.

If Christ is your way, the first thing you will do is seek to have Christ. "How shall I have Him?" someone asks. Do you desire Him? Will you accept Him? Then He is yours. The act of accepting Christ secures Christ to us, for the Father freely gives Him to all who freely receive Him. Some are troubled by ignorant and unbelieving fears, saying, "I wish I could lay hold on Jesus! I wish I knew that Christ was mine!" Are you willing to have Him? Who made you willing? Do you desire Him? Who stirred that desire in you? Who but the Spirit of the Lord? Will you now take Jesus as your Savior to save you from your sin? Then trust this — He is yours. The difficulty was never on His side; the difficulty was bringing you to receive Him. Now that you do receive Him, remember this: "As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name." Jesus Himself has said, "Him that comes to Me I will in no wise cast out" — and so since you come, you will never be cast out. Jesus has accepted you, for you have accepted Him. But please, do not rest until you have Christ. Let your eyes look right on and your eyelids straight before you until you find Him. Look nowhere else but to Him and after Him. Shut yourself in your room, determined not to come out until you have Him — and it will not be long before you find Him. Fix your gaze entirely on the Crucified, and light will come from Him, causing the scales to fall from your eyes. You will see Him — even you who could not see — and you will cry in delight, "He is mine, He is mine." Remember how David said to his son, "If you seek Him, He will be found by you." Think of the words of the prophet: "Seek the Lord while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near." Once you have Christ, your next great pursuit in life must be to know Christ. Seek to know more of Him, to know Him better, to know Him more practically, to know Him more certainly. "That I may know Him," said the apostle — after fifteen years as a believer. That same man of God speaks of "the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge" — even his knowledge, which was of the richest kind — meaning he intended to go on learning more and more of Christ and did not count himself to have arrived. Christian men and women, you do not know your great Master yet. Some of us have been in His service for nearly forty years and still cannot describe Him to our own satisfaction. We have barely begun to feel the power of the hem of His garment. We have not gone deep into the mines of His perfections. How little we know of our hidden wealth in Christ Jesus! If only we studied Scripture more, were more teachable, and waited more humbly upon the Lord for the light of His Spirit day by day! Well does our hymn writer say —

"Hoard up His sacred word, and feed thereon and grow; go on to seek to know the Lord, and practice what you know."

In this pursuit, let your eyes look right on and your eyelids straight before you. Other people may have their own interests — this is yours. Stick to it earnestly. The knowledge of a crucified Savior shines like the moon among stars compared to every other field of learning a person might pursue. Study it with your whole mind and heart. The angels over the mercy seat of the ark always stood looking downward, leaning over it. So the apostle says, "Which things the angels desire to look into" — and if the angels long to look into the ark of the covenant and its sacred mysteries, how much more should we!

When you have come to know something of who He is, go on to obey Christ. Is there anything He has commanded you to do? Do it. Some Christians have never been baptized — how will they account for willfully neglecting a known duty? Others have been Christians for years and have never communed at the Lord's table. Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep My commandments." Are they keeping His commandments? It was His dying request — "This do in remembrance of Me" — yet they will not fulfill it. Even such a tender request they ignore, as though it were of no importance at all — as if their Lord were a nobody whose wishes could be brushed aside. What shall I say about many of the commands in our holy Gospel — those gentle instructions meant for home and work and daily life? How easily they are forgotten! How little people follow Christ! He might come to us and say, "If I am your Master, where is My honor?" Truly, one of the first thoughts of a Christian should be to discover the Lord's will — and once it is known, obedience should follow immediately. His eyes should look right on and his eyelids straight before him. What did the blessed virgin say to those at the feast? Notice her words: "Whatever He says to you, do it." It was well said by that honored mother, and it stands as a golden rule for us all — "Whatever He says to you, do it." Make no exceptions, exercise no personal preferences, but obey His command. When you know what He commands, do not hesitate, question, or try to avoid it — just "do it": do it at once, do it heartily, do it cheerfully, do it completely. It is surely a small thing that, since our Lord bought us with His own blood, we should be His servants. The apostles frequently called themselves the bond-slaves of Christ. Where our Authorized Version softly says "servant," the original word is actually "bond-slave." The early saints delighted to count themselves Christ's absolute property — bought by Him, owned by Him, and entirely at His disposal. Paul even rejoiced that he bore the marks of his Master's brand on his body, crying, "Let no man trouble me, for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus." That settled the matter: he belonged to the Lord, and the marks of scourging, beatings, and stonings were the royal brand that identified Paul's body as the property of Jesus the Lord. Now if the saints of old gloried in obeying Christ, I pray that you and I — setting aside whatever denomination we belong to, or whatever nation we are part of — will feel that our first purpose in life is to obey our Lord, not to follow a human leader or advance a religious or political cause. This one thing we intend to do, following the counsel of Solomon: "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you." Dear friends, let us strive to be obedient in small things as well as great ones, for it is in the details that true obedience is most clearly seen. Let us copy even the faintest traces of the life of our great example.

Having attended to that, remember — if Christ is your way and your model, there is something more: seek to be like Him, not only to do as He did, but to be as He was; for "as He is, so are we in this world." What a person does matters, but what a person is matters most of all. The ring of metal tells you something, but if it could be imitated by a cheap coin, that ring would mean nothing. In the end, it is the substance of the metal that determines its value. So, what are you? If you are a twice-born person, you share in the nature of Christ. If not, you remain under the curse that clings to the old nature as leprosy clings to a leper. "As we have borne the image of the earthly, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly" — and we must begin to bear that heavenly image even now. As those born again into the headship of the Second Adam, we should seek to resemble the Second Adam as fully as we already resemble the first Adam through natural birth. The second birth should be just as effective in producing the image of the Second Adam as the first birth was in producing the image of the first Adam. Sadly, the earthly image is stamped on us very clearly — we cannot spend an hour without seeing the obvious mark of our fallen nature. If only the heavenly image were just as clearly visible! This is what we must aim for, though we have not yet arrived. This deserves our most careful attention, and I urge you by the Holy Spirit — let your eyes look right on and your eyelids straight before you — that you may be transformed from glory to glory into the image of the Lord. God grant that it may be so for every one of us!

Now, assuming we have attended to all this — if Christ is our way and our model — there is still something more: we must seek to glorify Christ and work to win others to Him. Here is a vast field for all our energies. Christian people, why are we left in this world except to bring others to Jesus? Are we not left in this wilderness to find more of the good Shepherd's stray sheep, and to work with Him in bringing them home? I fear we forget this. Are some of you indifferent to whether your fellow human beings are lost or saved? Have some of you come to a point where you see your brother living as an unbeliever, your sister living carelessly, your parents living without God — and it does not trouble you? I think that if I had an unsaved loved one, it would break my sleep every night — not just occasionally, but always. A brother, a father, a child — unsaved! How can you take your ease? If the Spirit of Christ is truly in us, the tears that fell from the eyes of Jesus will find their match on our cheeks. We will weep day and night because people are not being gathered into eternal life. This will not be a loss to us, for blessed are those who mourn in Zion. Blessed are those who grieve because others remain in sin and reject the Lord!

When it comes to saving our fellow human beings, we will never accomplish it unless our eyes look right on and our eyelids straight before us. Before we can win souls we must live for souls. We need men and women who live with the conversion of others to Christ as their driving purpose. A minister had better leave his pulpit if his one burning desire is not to bring hearts to Jesus' feet. If no divine compulsion drives him to seek the souls of people, let him take his empty words elsewhere. Those who profess faith have little right to be in Christ's church unless they are passionately committed to growing His kingdom through the salvation of their fellow human beings. My brothers and sisters, marked by the blood of redemption — I urge you in this matter: "Let your eyes look right on and let your eyelids look straight before you!" Pursue souls the way hunting dogs pursue their prey — eye, nose, and ear all alert, every muscle straining. Converts are not won by dreamers. We cannot imitate Jesus as a Savior of people by being dull and half-hearted. In every way we follow our Lord, let us do it with our whole soul.

That covers the first point: let Christ be your way in all things, and keep to that way.

Now, returning to the text and working it from a slightly different angle, the second exhortation is this: set your eyes on Him as your way. If Christ is your way and you are following Him — seeking to have Him, know Him, obey Him, resemble Him, and glorify Him — then fix your eyes on Him as the way. Think of Him, consider Him, study Him, and in all things regard Him as first and last.

First, if you want to know the way of life, fix your eyes on Him. Soul, are you in the dark? Kneel down and pray, and look toward Christ. Believer, are you confused? Take the way of the cross, the way of the Crucified — that is the true and sure path. Sinner, are you burdened? Do you want to be free of that burden? Run toward Christ. Any direction that points you somewhere else will lead you astray. I am not telling anyone here tonight to "go to the wicket gate." Nor will I tell you to look for some inner light and follow that. My only direction is: "Go to Jesus." Do you see that cross and the One who bled there? Stand still and look that way, and your burden will fall from your shoulders. Where Jesus died, you will live. Where Christ was wounded, you will be healed. "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you." Know the road — you will never know it too well. The more you know it, the happier you will be on it. "To Christ!" "To Christ!" "To Christ!" That is the only inscription on every signpost along the road to heaven. Keep to the King's highway.

Since Christ is the way, fix your eyes on Him as the way so that you follow Him well — and follow Him completely. Gather all your faculties and go after your Lord. Do not be like Lot's wife, who longed and looked and lingered — and was lost. Away from Sodom — completely away, with no eye turned back in that direction. Away to Christ, to Christ alone. All eyes must be for Jesus, who cries, "Look to Me and be saved." As the ploughman fixes his gaze on the far end of the furrow and goes straight ahead, so must you look only to Jesus. What do you have to do with anything else, sinner? I tell you, you have nothing even to do with your own sins except to lay them down at His feet. He is all — the beginning and the end. "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you."

Look to Jesus alone, and do this to keep your spirits up. Some people's eyes do not look right on and their eyelids do not look straight ahead, because they are looking back at the road they have already traveled and feeling satisfied with what they have already attained. They live in the past. When you begin looking back at what you once did and rubbing your hands with self-satisfaction — "I remember when I did quite well" — wisdom warns you this is not the right kind of looking. What do you have to look back on? Poor, weak creature! Forget what is behind and press forward to something better and higher. When sinful souls look back at the dark past, I am glad of that — but I still do not want even you to keep your eyes fixed in that direction. You will find no comfort by gazing into the foul pit of your own past sins. Look, look, look ahead! Look to where the cross stands. Run that way. Let your eyelids look straight before you to the atoning sacrifice — away from the past, which He will graciously blot out, and on to Jesus alone. Some people spend much of their time in what is called introspection. Now introspection, like looking back, can be useful up to a point — but it can easily be taken too far, and then it breeds unhealthy emotions and leads to despair. Some people are always examining their own feelings. A healthy person hardly notices whether they have a stomach or a liver — it is the sick person who grows sicker by studying their inner complaints. Too many people wound themselves by constantly studying themselves. Every morning they think about what they ought to feel. All day they dwell on what they are not feeling. At night they carefully search for what they have been feeling. It looks to me like closing up your shop and then spending all your time in the back office, taking inventory of what has not been sold. Little profit comes from that approach. You could look a long time into an empty pocket before you find a coin — and you could look a long time into fallen human nature before you find any comfort. A person might as well try to find burning coals under ice as to find anything good in our poor human nature. When you look within, it should be to see with grief what the filth is — but to get rid of that filth, you must look beyond yourself. I recall Mr. Moody saying that a mirror is an excellent tool for showing you the spots on your face — but you cannot wash your face in a mirror. You need something entirely different to make your face clean. So let your eyes look right on —

"To the full atonement made, to the utmost ransom paid."

Forget yourself and think only of Christ.

Some people not only go too far in looking back and looking inward, but they also go too far in what might be called looking around. They look in every direction — at their past, their present, their fears, their doubts — and from all of these they assess their condition and determine their state of mind. You remember Peter. He cried to his Lord, "Bid me come to You on the water." He received permission. He climbed over the side of the boat. To his amazement, he found himself standing on a wave. Peter had never walked on water before in his life. He could have kept standing on that wave and walked all the way to Jesus — if only he had kept his eyes fixed on his Master until he reached Him. The waters would have held him as firmly as a granite floor. But Peter began to look at the waves, listened to the howling wind, and then became aware of his own heartbeat — and down he went, crying out to his Master. "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you" — you can walk the waters all the way to the golden shore if you can shut your eyes to everything else. I may use the text to illustrate this closing of the eyes. "Let your eyes look right on." "I understand that," says one, "for I trust. But you cannot look with your eyelids — what can that mean?" Remember that you can close your eyes with your eyelids to a great many things and stop seeing them. In the matter of faith, many things are best not seen at all. So when you find yourself about to see the dangers, the difficulties, and the doubts — do not look with your eyes; look with your eyelids. The best way to deal with the difficulties is simply not to look at them at all. Let your eyelids shut out the view that would create distrust. Do not see, do not feel — "only believe." Believe Christ, and believe nothing else. "Let God be true, but every man a liar." If every sin you have ever committed should come rolling in like waves of the Atlantic, and if every demon in hell should come riding on the crests of those waves howling as they come — take no notice of them. Christ has said that whoever believes in Him has everlasting life. Believe in Him, and you have everlasting life as surely as Christ is the Christ of God. Draw down the blind and see nothing, know nothing, believe nothing but the living word of the living Savior. "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you." Even when you close your eyes to consider, you can still see clearly with closed eyes — but keep looking right on to the one and only object of your trust.

You must also let your eyes look right on, dear friends — because if you try to look two ways at once, you will miss the Lord Jesus, who is your way. Under the Jewish law, no man with a defective eye was permitted to serve as a priest. He was described as one who had "a blemish in his eye." I wish a similar standard applied to spiritual sight in preachers today, for some of them are sadly cross-eyed. When they preach free grace, they squint fearfully toward free will. When they look to the atonement, they must see in it more of human effort than of Christ. See how they look to Moses and to Darwin — to revelation and to speculation! Many people would like to be saved, but they squint: they glance a little toward sin, the flesh, and the world, making provision for personal gain and personal comfort. In doing so, they fail to see Christ's narrow way — the way of self-denial and the crucifixion of the flesh. If you want salvation, "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you." Do not look a little this way and a little that way, or you will never run the race correctly. "I could believe I was a Christian," says one, "if I felt more happy. I could trust Christ if I felt my nature had changed." That is a squint that ruins the look of faith. That is trying to look two ways at once. You cannot do it — and it will ruin you. It would spoil the beauty of the loveliest face if the eyes looked in different directions rather than straight ahead. We have some friends who, when they want to look at us, look somewhere else entirely — yet we are not there. Avoid this spiritual defect; it has no advantages whatsoever — "Let your eyes look right on." Look to Christ alone, to Him as your whole salvation. Have nothing to do with your good works as a basis for trust, or you are a lost person. I charge you — have nothing to do even with your faith and repentance as a basis for trust. Do not trust your trust; trust only in what Christ has done. If you rest on your best feelings or your worst feelings, your prayers or your praise, your giving or your dedication — even in the slightest degree — you have made an idol of them. Strip off everything and let Christ clothe you from head to toe. Be hungry to the point of emptiness, and clear out the last crumb from your pantry — for only then will you feed on Christ, the bread of life. Let Him be both bread and wine, the whole feast for you. You will have salvation surely enough if that is what you do. But do not let Jesus bring the bread while carnal confidence brings the wine. Take a whole Christ as all your salvation and all your desire — and your peace will be unbroken. Let the Holy Spirit bring you to that single-focused trust where both eyes meet at their proper point of focus — and let that focus be the Lord Jesus. "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you."

My time is nearly gone, and I have only one more matter to emphasize. Let your eyes clearly and directly look to Christ alone. I have covered this before, but I need to drive the nail home by hammering at it once more. Look not to any human guide, but look to Christ Jesus alone. We have no faith in priests — yet it is very easy to fix your faith on a minister, to listen to what he says, and to believe it simply because he says it. I urge you: believe nothing I tell you unless it can be supported by the Word of God. I am content to stand or fall by this: "To the law and to the testimony — if they speak not according to this word, there is no light in them." I will quote the authority of no other book, no matter who wrote it — not even an ancient book from the earliest days of the church. This one inspired volume is the foundation of our faith. Follow Holy Scripture and you have an infallible guide. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the one apostle and high priest of our confession — follow Him. Not even mother or father, nor the brightest saint who ever lived, must divide you from your perfect Guide. "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you" — and hear the gracious words of the One who bought you with His blood as He calls, "Follow Me."

Look to Christ directly and personally — for yourself. I warn you against putting any trust in national religion, or in faith inherited through family and birth. A personal Christ must be grasped by a personal faith. You yourself must repent, you yourself must believe, you yourself must lay hold of Him and of no one else. You must use your own eyes: "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you."

Also, look not to any secondary aims. Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness. In seeking Christ, make no deal with personal gain or reputation — be willing to lose all gold and all honor if you may but win Christ. Following religion for self-interest would be a base act of hypocrisy, and leaving it for the same reason is equally shameful. Let your eyes be fixed on following your Lord — and as for any worldly consequences, put your eyelids to use, keep them firmly closed, and go straight ahead in full obedience to your Lord.

Forget everything else when seeking Christ — and when you have found Christ. It is not a bad thing for a person, when deeply concerned about their soul, to let business and everything else wait until they find their Savior. I urge no one to take this path, but I have noticed that many converts who have done so quickly found rest. Imagine a captain attending to the comfort of his passengers in their cabins while knowing all along that there is a great leak in the ship — that it is sinking — and paying no attention to it. You would say to him, "How foolish to mind the small thing and neglect the great one!" But if he told the passengers, "Breakfast cannot be prepared with our usual care, for every hand is pumping or repairing the vessel," you could not blame him when you knew every person's help was needed to keep the ship from going down. In extreme danger, secondary things must give way to the main thing. If this building were on fire, you would not stay to sing the final hymn, even if I announced it. May the Holy Spirit lead some of you to feel that you must be saved! You must be saved — and therefore you must put everything else in second place. Remember how John Bunyan pictures the man running for his life, and when his neighbors called out for him to stop, he put his fingers in his ears and as he ran he shouted, "Eternal life! Eternal life! Eternal life!" That man was wise. Imitate him. If you have not yet found eternal life, run for it with your "eyes right on, and your eyelids straight before you."

Finally, keep gazing upon Christ until you have faith in Him. "Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." Keep hearing the Word of God until faith comes through it. You ask how faith comes? It is the gift of God, but it usually comes in a particular way. Thinking about Jesus and meditating on Jesus will give birth to faith in Jesus. I was struck by what someone said recently about a certain preacher. The listener was in deep distress of soul, and the minister preached a very polished sermon, richly decorated with vivid word-pictures. I scarcely know any brother who paints word-pictures as beautifully as this good minister can — but this poor soul, weighed down by a sense of sin, said, "There was too much landscape, sir. I did not want landscape; I wanted salvation." Dear friend, never crave beautiful language when you come to hear a sermon — crave Christ. You must have Christ as your own by faith, or you are a lost person. When I was seeking the Savior, I remember hearing a very sound doctrinal sermon. But when it was over, I longed to tell the minister that there was a poor young man there who needed to know how he could be saved. How I wished he had given even half a minute to that subject! Doctor Manton, usually a clear and full preacher of the Gospel, when he preached before the Lord Mayor, pitched his sermon above the level of ordinary people — and so the poorer listeners missed their portion. After he finished, an elderly woman cried, "Doctor Manton, I came here this morning burdened in soul, wanting a blessing — and I have not found it, for I could not understand you." The preacher humbly replied, "The Lord forgive me! I will not so offend again." He had overlooked the poor and focused mainly on my Lord Mayor. Special sermons preached before mayors, queens, and grand assemblies are seldom worth anything. The Gospel does not lend itself to performance. I am not here to give you intellectual entertainment — my eyes look right on to your salvation. May yours look that way too! Go after Christ, dear friend. Pursue Christ with your whole heart and soul. Feel that the one thing you must have is to be reconciled to God through the death of His Son. Keep that cry going: "None but Christ — none but Christ." Make this your constant prayer —

"Give me Christ, or else I die; give me Christ, or else I die."

Then you will soon find Him. "Let your eyes look right on, and let your eyelids look straight before you" — and you will see the Lord of grace appearing to you through the mist and through the cloud. That same Savior stands in our midst even now and calls out, "Look to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God and there is none else."