clearly and
experimentally his own heart than all the learned men in the world know
theirs. And though the other may better discourse philosophically of the
acts of the soul, yet this poor man sees more into the corruption of it
than they all.' And in another excellent place he says: 'Many who have
leisure and parts to read much, instead of ballasting their hearts with
divine truth, and building up their souls with its precious words, are
much more versed in play-books, jeering pasquils, romances, and feigned
staves, which are but apes and peacocks' feathers instead of pearls and
precious stones. Foreign and foolish discourses please their eyes and
their ears; they are more chameleons than men, for they live on the east
wind.'

2. 'If thine eye offend thee'--our Lord lays down this law to all those
who would enter into life--'pluck it out and cast it from thee; for it is
better for thee to enter into life with one eye, rather than, having two
eyes, to be cast into hell-fire.' Does your eye offend you, my brethren?
Does your eye cause you to stumble and fall, as it is in the etymology?
The right use of the eye is to keep you from stumbling and falling; but
so perverted are the eye and the heart of every sinner that the city
watchman has become a partaker with thieves, and our trusted guide and
guardian a traitor and a knave. If thine eye, therefore, offends thee;
if it places a stone or a tree in thy way in a dark night; if it digs a
deep ditch right across thy way home; if it in any way leads thee astray,
or lets in upon thee thine enemies--then, surely, thou wert better to be
without that eye altogether. Pluck it out, then; or, what is still
harder to go on all your days doing, pluck the evil thing out of it. Shut
up that book and put it away. Throw that paper and that picture into the
fire. Cut off that companion, even if he were an adoring lover. Refuse
that entertainment and that amusement, though all the world were crowding
upto it. And soon, and soon, till you have plucked your eye as clean of
temptations and snares as it is possible to be in this life. For this
life is full of that terrible but blessed law of our Lord. The life of
all His people, that is; and you are one of them, are you not? You will
know whether or no you are one of them just by the number of the
beautiful things, and the sweet things, and the things to be desired,
that you have plucked out of your eye at His advice and demand. T