Mark 8

Eyes That See

Having eyes, see ye not? Mark 8:18.

During the summer house-letting season, two ladies went to the coast to “look over” a small villa. After they had been shown everything about the premises they said to each other, “It's just the sort of place we want; we'll take it.” They walked along the street a little way, and then the older of the two asked, “Was there a scullery? I cannot remember anything,” she added. “What was the outlook from the parlor window? The parlor seemed a long, narrow, dull room.” “It was square,” her companion answered; “where were your eyes?” And she described every room in the house, down to the scullery.

The second lady had eyes and could use them. One meets people like that occasionally. Barrie, the man who wrote Peter Pan, describes in one of his books, called A Window in Thrums, a young woman called Leeby. She was just a country girl; some of you children would probably have called her stupid. The minister's wife gave her that character at any rate. One night when she was invited to the manse to tea she was left for a minute or two in the bedroom. “And,” said her hostess, “when I returned she was still standing on the same spot in the center of the floor.... It is a pity she cannot make use of her eyes, if not of her tongue.” She did not know Leeby. That same young woman took home to her mother a most graphic account of everything in the room. She could describe every article it contained, down to the illustrated paper that had been used to “set” the fire.

Now, there are boys and girls who certainly have not Leeby's faculty. Even when it comes to seeing the beautiful world in which they live, they run about and enjoy themselves, they grow to manhood, and they see nothing.

This faculty of seeing Nature is a higher one than that of being able to note the contents of a room. God has given us the wonderful sense of sight; and surely He meant us to use it, when He made the world so beautiful.

A lady came back to Edinburgh for a visit, after having been absent from it for a very long time. “What a wonderfully beautiful place it is,” she said. “As a girl, I took everything about it for granted; now, I seem to be able really to see it.” Her “seeing” eye had been developed.

An artist sat down to sketch a landscape in color. A friend who knew nothing of painting looked over his shoulder. “You are putting all sorts of absurd colors into your picture,” he remarked. “Stick to Nature: that field is just plain green.” “It seems so to you,” the artist answered; “but just look for a little while, then you will begin to see the other tints”; and, said the friend long years afterwards, “that was my first lesson in painting.”

“I never see the Thames as you have painted it,” someone said to Turner. “Don't you wish you did?” was the answer. The eye can be trained to appreciate the mysterious beauty of the world we live in; and the way to get training is just to look and look, and go on looking.

Now, beyond and above the beauty of this world, there is the beauty of real goodness. Many people have the faculty of seeing that. There are boys and girls who have it. They seem almost to be born with it.

But even better still, there are boys and girls trying every day to develop real goodness within themselves. How is it done, do you think? They keep the right kind of company. The man who looked over the artist's shoulder and watched him work began to be able to see a little. He learned that there were colors in Nature that the ordinary eye never sees. The thought even stirred within him, “I also want to be a painter.” You will find that it is the same with the beauty of goodness. If we keep in the company of good people we begin to see things as they do; we want to be like them.

The “beauty of holiness” is the Bible expression. Like Nature, holiness is mysterious; there is more in it than mere goodness. Men and women learn about it, and boys and girls too, when they keep in the company of Jesus Christ. Their eyes are opened in a wonderful way. To them, the world and the beautiful trees and the flowers and the sunshine just speak of the love of the great Father. There are men and women who keep so constantly in Christ's company that they see Him in everything.

Some folks as can afford,

So I've heard say,

Sets up a sort of cross

Right in the garden way,

To mind 'em of the Lord:

But I, when I do see

This apple tree,

An' stoopin' limb

All spread wi' moss,

I think of Him,

And how He talks wi' me.

That poem is supposed to be spoken by a Wiltshire peasant; but you too, boys and girls, can see and find Christ everywhere.