The Expositor's Bible: The Second Book of SamuelBlaikie, William Garden
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Second Book of Samuel
Blaikie, William Garden
Bible. Samuel, 2nd -- Commentaries
For even in worldly things, singleness of eye is a great help towards
a sound conclusion. "To the upright there ariseth light in the
darkness." And if this rule hold true in the worldly sphere, much
more in the moral and spiritual. It is when you have the profoundest
desire to do what is right that you are in the best way to know
what is wise. In the service of God you are grievously liable to be
distracted by private feelings and interests of your own. It is when
these private interests assert themselves that you are most liable
to lose the clear line of duty and of wisdom. You wish to do God's
will, but at the same time you are very unwilling to sacrifice this
interest, or expose yourself to that trouble. Thus your own feeling
becomes a screen that dims your vision, and prevents you from seeing
the path of duty and wisdom alike. You have not a clear sight of the
right path. You live in an atmosphere of perplexity; whereas men of
more single purpose, and more regardless of their own interests,
see clearly and act wisely. Was there anything more remarkable in
the Apostle Paul than the clearness of his vision, the decisive yet
admirable way in which he solved perplexing questions, and the high
practical wisdom that guided him throughout? And is not this to be
connected with his singleness of eye, his utter disregard of personal
interests in his public life--his entire devotion to the will and to
the service of his Master? From that memorable hour on the way to
Damascus, when he put the question, "Lord, what wilt Thou have me to
do?" onward to the day when he laid his head on the block in imperial
Rome, the one interest of his heart, the one thought of his mind, was
to do the will of Christ. Never was an eye more single, and never was
a body more full of light.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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