By The Rev. CHARLES G. FINNEY

Modernized by Cliff Collins

“Open my eyes, that I may see wondrous things from Your law.” (Psalm 119:18)

In this message I will make the following points.

I. IN WHAT SENSE IS THE WORD ‘LAW’ USED IN THIS PASSAGE?

II. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE REQUEST TO “OPEN MY EYES”?

III. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN MAKING THIS REQUEST?

IV. WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF RECEIVING AN ANSWER TO THIS REQUEST?

V. WHAT ARE THE CONDITIONS OF AN ANSWER TO THIS REQUEST?

I. IN WHAT SENSE IS THE WORD ‘LAW’ USED IN THIS PASSAGE

The Bible uses the word ‘law’ in different ways. Sometimes, the word law means that which was written on the two tablets of stone. Sometimes law means the ceremonial law that was given to Israel by God through Moses. Sometimes law refers to the five books of Moses as opposed to the books of the prophets and the Psalms; and sometimes law means the whole revealed will of God. This last definition is used the most in the Old Testament, and I believe that this is the meaning that is used in our passage today; which is, that the word ‘law’ here refers to all of the Old Testament Scriptures; that is, it refers to the whole revealed will of God. It is as if, while praying, the Psalmist says, “Lord, open my eyes to behold wondrous things in the Bible”.

II. WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THE REQUEST TO “OPEN MY EYES”?

1. This request does not mean that the Psalmist wants the Lord to create new eyes for him. Nor,

2. Does the Psalmist pray for any physical operation like removing a cataract, or taking away a film that is on the surface of an eye; for we don’t use our natural eye to see spiritual things. But,

3. The Psalmist is praying for spiritual light. A man may have two good eyes. He may have both physical light and mental insight, and yet he will perceive nothing if spiritual light is lacking. I believe the Psalmist prays for spiritual light, the medium of spiritual vision, so that, supplied by the in-dwelling Spirit of God, he may apprehend the wondrous things that are really revealed in the Bible. Many will ask, “What is this spiritual light”? My answer is that I don’t really know what it is, any more than I can tell you what natural light is. Ask me what natural light is, and I can’t tell you. I can tell you what scientists say about it, and that is all.

One thing I know for sure. When light is absent, I cannot see, but when it is present, I can see. The same is true with spiritual light. I don’t know what it is, but one thing I do know, (and what Christian does not know it?) and that is, every man enlightened by the Spirit of God clearly knows that the Spirit of God enlightens him. He may be ignorant of the nature of the way spiritual light operates. He may be ignorant of the way physical light operates, but he can be perfectly sure of the fact that both spiritual and physical light exists. The person who receives spiritual light, is as certain that spiritual light exists as any man can be of the existence of the sun in the heavens. He knows that, in the presence of spiritual light, he can discern spiritual objects, and that, when there is no spiritual light, when it is absent, spiritual objects are hidden from his eyes. Now I say, that the Psalmist in today’s passage, expresses his desire to have spiritual light. He expresses his desire for the Holy Spirit to shed His light on the Bible, without which, he could not see and apprehend the truth of the Bible, and by spiritual light, these truths might be made to stand forth as actual realities to his soul.

III. WHAT IS IMPLIED IN MAKING THIS REQUEST?

1. This request implies that we possess the faculties required for perceiving spiritual objects. The Psalmist does not pray for any change or for a new creation, and there doesn’t need to be any change in the nature or the organization of our faculties.

2. This request implies that our spiritual eyes are useless without light. Without light our spiritual eyes are useless until God opens them, or until He supplies the light, which is the only way we can see. Until God opens our spiritual eyes, we will not and we cannot behold the wondrous things in God’s law. We will behold the wonderful things of God only as God supplies the medium of vision.

3. This request implies that the Psalmist knew very well that there were wonderful things hidden from his spiritual eye in the absence of spiritual light. There is no doubt that he knew some of the things that were contained in the Scriptures. Perhaps, his eyes had been opened. Perhaps they were opened more than once. Indeed, no spiritual man can read the 119th Psalm attentively, and not feel that the Psalmist who wrote it drank deeply in the spirit of God's holy law. Almost every verse expresses, in some way, his love for God’s law, the importance of God’s law, or the glory of God’s law. And the knowledge he had already gained had overwhelmed his heart and made him cry out more earnestly to have his eyes fully opened, that he might be able to see clearly the glories of the Scriptures. The Psalmist, without a doubt, was able to get, to some degree, behind the veil of those types and shadows of the Old Testament, to peek behind the drapery. He saw Christ revealed and the wonderful things of salvation. He looked through and beyond the outward types and shadows and what he saw so enraptured his soul that he prayed with agonizing earnestness and importance, “Open my eyes. O Lord open my eyes that I may see wondrous things from Your law”.

The wonders are in the Bible if we can only see them. We could walk in the middle of the splendors of nature, and see nothing if there was no light. What good are the glories of vision to a blind man? He can travel around the world, go over its mountains and through its valleys, cross its oceans and its continents, pass by all its beauties and its riches and abundance, and still see nothing. Without eyes, the visible beauty of all these things is worthless. Even if he had eyes to see, if there was no light, everything is as dark as midnight. The same is true with spiritual things. Read the Bible, pass through its paragraphs, climb over its pages, and after you have traveled through your Bible, you may see nothing of its beauties. You are like a man crossing the country in a stagecoach at midnight. He can enjoy none of its scenery, no matter how picturesque and beautiful it may be. Men, whose eyes are not opened in the sense of today’s passage, may read their Bibles, but they don’t see its beauties. They don’t behold the wondrous things that are nevertheless contained in its pages, and they, as earnestly as possible, should pray the prayer of the Psalmist. The Psalmist prayed because he felt there were things in the law of God that he had never seen.

4. This request implies that we need to know the wonderful things that the Bible mentions. Don’t think that the Psalmist wanted to gratify some worthless curiosity. I ask you, did he utter this inspired prayer, merely out of idle curiosity? No! He needed to know, and he felt that he needed to know. He desperately needed knowledge, and because of this, he cried to his Lord. He didn’t cry out to God simply for his own benefit, but that he might also teach others, that he might declare the praises of God in the great congregation.

5. This request implies that only God can open our eyes. The Psalmist knew that a simple knowledge of language, of grammar and linguistics would not help him at all. He already had a pretty good understanding of the language of the Scriptures. He did not pray for the Holy Spirit to teach him the language of the Bible. He did not pray to receive the ability to decipher all the passages within its pages. He would not pour contempt upon the study of languages by doing this. However, he values the knowledge of language in its place. But, in spite of all the knowledge of the language that he had, he felt that not one person, not even the wisest person on earth, nor an angel, could give him the light he needed. No one, no one but God, no one but God by the Spirit, which inspired the sacred pages, could open his eyes, and hence his prayer to God was, “Lord, open my eyes”.

Never forget that the Bible is a mere dead letter except to those to whom the Spirit makes it a personal revelation. Do you understand me? Do you know what I am talking about? What did the Psalmist pray for? Did he pray to read the Bible? No! He could read it. Did he pray to understand the words? He could define them. Did he pray to become acquainted with the literature of the Bible? No, he knew all of these things quite well. What then, did he pray for? He prayed that God would make the Bible a special and personal revelation to him, not a revelation through Moses and the prophets, not simply having the Scriptures in his hands, but he prayed that God would make the Bible a special and personal revelation to him. He prayed that God would make the Bible a special and personal revelation to him not by giving light to others, but by giving light directly to him, by opening his eyes. “Lord, open my eyes.” People are wrong, if they think that the Bible is a revelation to them in any such sense that they think it will save their souls without the Holy Ghost opening their eyes. The Psalmist himself could not see without this light, and he prayed for God to supply to him with that light, so that, with the help of that light, he might apprehend the truths of God’s word. He sees the words. He reads the sentences. But, what is the meaning? What is being said? “Open my eyes that I may see them.” His prayer was to God for he felt that only God could supply his need. But, let me quickly ask,

IV. WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF RECEIVING AN ANSWER TO THIS REQUEST?

1. The first consequence of receiving an answer to this request is that we will see ourselves in a new light. We will see our own portrait drawn in a manner that will instantly convince us that the pencil of the Omniscient One has done His work. It will be as if you had been sitting in the blaze of the omniscient eye of God. The clarity and precision of your portrait will be startling. Oh, what detail! You will feel like you have never really seen yourself before. You will be astonished at the fearful fidelity with which God will sketch every feature. Sinner, let God open your eyes, and you will have a completely different view of yourself altogether. Though it never entered into your heart to sit for your portrait, yet there is drawn every distinct shape, every contour, and every line. There you are, your face blazing right out, staring at you, every feature and every line blazing from the page of inspiration. Look wherever you want to look, there you are, a vile sinner, and you will want to flee and get away from the horrible picture of your own face.

2. In answering your request to have God open your eyes, God will reveal Himself to you. Both God and you will be revealed in proportion to the intensity of the light. If the light is obscure and dim, you will not see clearly. You will see ‘men as trees walking’. Everything will appear as if you at looking at things in moonlight or starlight. In starlight, you can see the outlines of fences, trees, and houses; in moonlight, you can distinguish a little more; but things are still not clear. As the sun approaches, as it puts out the stars one by one and makes the moon dim, as it rises more and more until it appears in perfect day, your view grows fuller and clearer until the whole landscape is bathed in a flood of light. God is revealed. The Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost are revealed. But especially the Son, Christ, is revealed.

Then, you will find Christ in places without number. Then, you will find Christ in passages where before you never dreamed that He was there. The more I read my Bible and pray the prayer of our text the more am I convinced of the spirituality of those who find Christ revealed everywhere in the Bible. Once I thought differently. I remember a few years ago reading Edward’s Notes on the Bible, and that I thought that he was visionary because he found Christ hinted so often throughout the Bible. He saw Christ everywhere. I didn’t see Him everywhere in the Bible. Therefore, some writers will find clear proofs of the divinity of Christ, where others can see no reference to Christ at all in those same passages. Now the problem with me was that I lacked spiritual light, so I was unable to see what the Bible really revealed. Most of the Jews could not see Christ in the Jewish law. They did not see the drift and bent of the Scriptures. Why not? Because, they were carnal and sensual. They did not have the Spirit. Where God opens people’s eyes, they will have revelations of Christ that will greatly surprise them. They will receive such a fullness and such a glory of Christ that it will greatly astonish them. Oh, what love! And, the clearer the light of the Spirit, the more you will see that the purpose of the Bible is to reveal Christ directly or indirectly. Christ is the subject, and the goal, in history, in prophecy, in poetry, in the Old Testament and in the New. Everywhere, Christ is the Alpha and the Omega, the sum and the substance, the beginning and the end. Let the light of the Spirit open your eyes, and Christ is everywhere, our righteousness, our wisdom, our sanctification, and our redemption.

3. Our views will differ a lot from the views of all those whose eyes have not been opened. You young people here who refuse to repent, you get together and you sympathize and agree with each other. You are all self-wise and vain. You meet and scoff at religion and religious people, you agree in your opinion that all piety is superstition and not worth your time and attention. But, let the Holy Spirit open the eyes of someone among you, and oh, how his attitude will change. Now, he will disagree with you, even though he so perfectly agreed with you just a little while ago. Suddenly, his views of himself and of you have changed. His views of his works and your works now differ, and his views of his relationship to God and his relationship to you, his old friends are now completely different. He can no longer sympathize with you. He can no longer participate and join in with your wicked scoffing. He sees with a strong light, and he is astonished at your darkness and at his former darkness. He will now shun you as he would shun the gates of hell. Why? The Holy Spirit has opened his eyes to behold eternity, and the judgment, and his sins. He sees himself, and he sees you, standing on a slippery slope, fiery billows rolling beneath you, and he cries out and flees in terror. All this may be true while he is still remains unrepentant.

But, suppose he is converted. Now he differs from you even more. He drifts farther and farther and farther from you, and as he progresses in grace, and as the light of the illumination of the Holy Spirit beams stronger and brighter on his soul, he presses on to the perfect day, while you either remain where you were or plunge into deeper darkness.

These differences in views are also true of the different stages of Christian experience. As the Holy Spirit opens a person’s eyes more and more, that person differs more and more from those who are below him. He sees things that they can’t see, and he has a clear view of what they can only see dimly. His view differs from their views, as a view in the bright noonday differs from a view in the evening twilight. Their experience will differ from his, as the description of a village, or a mountain, or a landscape, seen in the evening, would differ from a description of the same things when they are seen under broad daylight. The more the Holy Spirit opens our eyes, the more we view Scriptures differently! This happens as naturally as a cause produces its effect. As our light increases, our views must enlarge and expand. We certainly must see more and see clearer when we stand with the great sun pouring its flood of light on our heads, than when we look around in the dim starlight.

And here, let me say that it is unspeakably foolish to stereotype religious opinions, as if everyone’s views and opinions are all supposed to agree. A young convert just born into the kingdom, wants to be admitted into the fold of the Good Shepherd. Well, the elders arrange a meeting. The young convert shows up. The elders have him sit down and then the elders read the whole system of religious doctrine to him. “Do you subscribe to this”? “Do you believe all of this”? “Then, you can’t go one step farther, otherwise you will be in danger of heresy”. Isn’t it strange that so many people imagine that Christians can come to the place where they all become alike in their views of religious truth? They may be alike as far as they go. They may both be correct, because one may be far in advance of his fellow babe in Christ. And as a new truth comes to view, that view always sheds its light over all the other truths, and modifies the form in which those truths appear. And, as long as the Spirit continues to throw its light on the sacred pages, we can expect to modify and enlarge, and in some degree change our views of truth. It is absurd to nail down our system and say, “there it is, it is complete and can never be changed”. I have heard people consider it a virtue that they have never changed their views of truth. But I ask, have such people prayed the prayer of the Psalmist? Have their eyes been opened?

4. When God answers our prayer for light, the Bible will become a new book to us. Converts honestly say that the Bible is a new book to them; but this is not just true with new converts. Old Christians, Christians who have known God for a long time, say the same thing because of their experiences. A few years ago, I was laboring in a revival with an elderly minister, a man sixty years old. I will never forget how that man would say to me time after time, with deep emotion, “I have a new Bible. How stunning are the promises. It seems to me as though I had never read them before. They are so rich, so full, and so precious!” Ah, yes! Nor is this an unusual or an uncommon situation. There are many situations, where people, who have been Christians for a long time, suddenly found their Bible a new book, and growing fresh and new every day. Their Bible has become so precious, so glorious, and so sweet; that they could devour it, like a starving person devours his desperately needed food.

Let me say, beloved, that within the last year the Lord has given to me such views of the Bible that I have found it difficult to realize that I had ever known anything about the Bible before. Many times, I have cried out, as the light poured on the truth, “Lord, I never knew this before”, and, for a while, I could hardly believe that I had never seen that thing before. I don’t mean I had never seen anything before, for I know I had seen great and beautiful things in the Bible before, but the light was so great that the spots that before seemed bright, were now hidden in the added splendor, as stars were lost in the light of dawn. Whole strings of passages would march through my mind with such glory and freshness. Passages that I had preached from again and again, would come in review under a light so new and so striking, and with a meaning so full, that it would seem as though I had never known anything about them before. The thoughts would crowd, and roll, and swell like an infinite tide, until it would appear as if I could preach and preach, and never be done preaching on almost any one of those passages.

5. People will be astonished at their former ignorance of the Bible when God opens their eyes. They will see so much that is new where they thought they knew everything before, that they will be forced to exclaim in amazement “how could I have read so many things and not see them. I have read those passages a hundred times, why haven’t I seen these things before? I felt like a person passing through a village in the dark, not knowing it was night, but thinking it was day, and then one day, I walked through the same village in broad daylight. I could see the houses, and streets, and gardens, and I wondered why I did not see the village before.” Without spiritual light, people fail to see almost every spiritual truth in the Bible. They are like people in the dark, even though they say “We see”; and when God indeed opens their eyes, and they really see, they are astonished, almost beyond belief, that they had never seen before.

6. Those whose eyes are opened will see so many wonderful things in the Bible that others simply don’t see. They will see things that others refuse to believe are even there, even though you tell them that those things really exist within those sacred pages. Read the Bible under the illumination of the Holy Spirit, and you will see all kinds of things, which, if you try to tell others about some of them, they will look at you as if you are crazy. They will insist that nothing like that is in the Bible, and they will suspect that you may be a little loony. Well leave them alone. Let them have their say. They cannot see what you have seen, until they stand in the same strong and clear light. Let two people pass through the same village, one at night, and the other during the day, and let the one who passed in the dark think that it was day, and that he saw all that he could possibly see. Can you convince him? No! Just wait until he goes through the same village in the daytime, and then talk with him.

And here let me say, that what I said a little while ago about the doctrine of Christ’s divinity, the same is true with the doctrine of Entire Sanctification. Once I could not find that doctrine in the Bible, and now I wonder how I never saw it, for now I see it almost everywhere. It is true with me, as it was with a good sister who said about herself, “When I first heard of the doctrine of Entire Sanctification, I thought it was nowhere in the Bible, but now I see that it is everywhere”. I can use those same words myself. Isn’t it strange, however, that people whose eyes are not opened, cannot see that doctrine in the Bible. So much of the Bible is written in such a way, and perhaps it is because of the nature of the situation, that the soul must be in just the right state in order to see what was in the mind of the Spirit at all. “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost”, says Paul. (1 Cor 12:3) That is, no man can see Christ as He is. No one can see the Lord of our salvation, but by the light of the Holy Spirit spread across the sacred page.

It is very interesting to see how many notions and opinions people will have of what this passage or that passage means, or how dull of understanding they will be, and then how clear everything will appear when the Lord has opened their eyes. Before, nothing could convince them, now they need nothing to convince them. If a person should walk past this meetinghouse, suppose God blinds him so he can’t see this building. You couldn’t convince him that this building is here; but let God restore his sight or lets the light shine on his eyes, and he no longer needs any proof. There it stands right before his eyes.

The doctrines of Atonement, of Christ’s Divinity, and of Sanctification, when the light from heaven bursts on the pages of divine inspiration, you don’t need any voices to tell you. As you silently sit there, you gaze on the revealed wonders, as when, from the deepest midnight, the sun breaks from the darkness and the whole landscape lies before you in an ocean of glories. Now Christian friends, I mean what I say; there is a spiritual illumination, there is a supplying of the spiritual eyes with light, in which light the mind sees with a power of demonstration, the spiritual truths revealed in the Bible. It is like the light that provides natural vision. Before this light is supplied, the mind may doubt, reason, argue, and deny; but oh, when the sun rises and pours forth its glorious blaze, then everything is revealed, every argument is hushed, every doubt is forgotten, and the soul gazes in silent rapture on the wonderful scene.

7. The more our eyes are opened the more our views will become a wonder to others. Others will think that our views are peculiar. Yes indeed, peculiar light will naturally produce peculiar views. The more the Spirit gives us light, the more we see, and the more we will modify our views in response to the light that the Holy Spirit pours down upon us. Those who do not have the same light will think that these views are strange, and they will wonder at us. “How is it”, they say, “that they find this and that in the Bible? We don’t find anything like that”. The Jews think that the Christian doctrine is blasphemous; they cannot find our Jesus in their idea of the Old Testament Messiah.

Those who do not have our light will surely regard us as heretics. If God gives us light, if the revelations of His word are delivered to our souls, and especially if we proclaim these revelations to the world, we will be considered heretics. Let any man push his prayer before God, “Lord, open my eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of Your law”, and let God answer, and let his eyes be really unsealed, and the presbytery will begin to watch him, and they will go around whispering to each other “That brother has a good spirit, but his views are dangerous”. They must keep an eye on him. They must appoint a committee to talk with him to rid him of his strange and peculiar views. What is the matter? Nothing! The only thing that has happened is that the Holy Spirit has shed light on his mind, and he has gone a step or two beyond the stereotyped form of denominational Christianity, that’s all. He understands the Bible better than he ever did before. He has a richer insight into the richness of its promises; the Holy Spirit has anointed him for His work, that’s all. And if he ventures to say meekly to his fellow-servants, “Brethren, the Lord has shown me glorious things in His word,” their counsel will be, “our brother seems to have a sweet, heavenly spirit, but his views are peculiar and dangerous, and those views must be declared false, and we should silence him.” This has always been true, and men who are led to walk ahead of their fellow Christians, must be content to be suspected of heresy.

8. Those who are enlightened will be considered mystical. The most spiritual Christians have always been considered mystical. Yes, there are real mystics. There are extremes and there are delusions, and men think they see when they do not see; but that does not alter the fact that spiritual men are reckoned mystical by those who are in the dark. Why? Because spiritual people have spiritual eyes, they have spiritual light, and they see and understand things that are completely invisible, and they see and understand things that are a complete mystery to others.

9. Those whose eyes God has not opened, will consider those who are enlightened, deranged. Many thought Christ was mad. Festus said to Paul, “Paul, you are beside yourself! Much learning is driving you mad!” (Acts 26:24) “You have studied so hard, you have gone so deeply into philosophy and theology that you are deranged.” Paul indeed answered him most solemnly, “I am not mad, most noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and reason”. (v.25) But where does the difference lie? Paul had met Jesus along a road and had seen a light from heaven that was brighter than the brightness of the sun shining round about him. The light of God had fallen on him, and now people thought that he was mad.

Festus thought that Paul was mad. And why shouldn’t this be true? It will be true. It will surely be true. When do we judge a man deranged? Suppose a person’s eyes should really be opened as Elisha’s eyes were opened, and so were the eyes of the young man who was with him, and he beheld the angel of God encamped about him, which is in fact true. Or perhaps, a person’s eyes should be opened like Stephen’s eyes were opened, so that he could look into heaven and see the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God, so that he could behold the realities of the invisible world, wouldn’t he be pronounced deranged? Yes indeed! “Put a strait jacket on him. Listen to his babble,” they will cry, “he says he sees angels, and chariots, and horses all around him. He says he sees heaven opened! Blasphemy! Away with him! Stone him to death!” Why? Because Stephen told them what he really saw. Let a man simply share what he sees, and surely, he must be deranged. Now men do become deranged, surely they do; and they sometimes become visionary, most certainly. But, men’s eyes may really be opened also, as Stephen’s and Elisha’s were, and then others will imagine that they are deranged. And those who think they are deranged may also be honest in their opinion.

10. Those who are enlightened will almost certainly be persecuted. Why was Paul persecuted? Because his eyes had been opened to see the fullness of the knowledge of Christ Jesus his Lord, and because he was constrained by Christ’s love to preach the cross. Paul had been a persecutor of Christians. He had many friends; but Christ's love ravished his soul, and he would joyfully pour out his whole life for his Master. And what did Paul say? Listen to him. “Now it happened, as I journeyed and came near Damascus at about noon, suddenly a great light from heaven shone around me. And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me’? So, I answered, ‘Who are You, Lord’? And He said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting’.” (Acts 22:6-8) Paul then went on and finished the story of his conversion.

Many were impatiently listening to Paul’s testimony. Soon Paul began again. “When I returned to Jerusalem and was praying in the temple, I was in a trance and saw Him saying to me, ‘Make haste and get out of Jerusalem quickly, for they will not receive your testimony concerning Me’.” Well, finally, they could bear it no longer. They gave him audience until He said that God called him to go to the Gentiles, and then they lifted up their voices and said, “Away with such a fellow from the earth, it is not fit that he should live”. “And they cried out, and cast off their clothes, and threw dust into the air.” (Acts 22:22-23) And why? Surely, Paul was crazy. Certainly, he was a horrid blasphemer, and to kill him would be doing God a service. They persecuted him. Why? Paul could see, but they were blind. And those who are blind like that, will often will think that they should do many things that are harmful to those who are spiritual, and to those whom they regard as dangerous fanatics.

I don’t believe that all persecution comes from mere malicious wickedness. Many in high places and in low, oppose and persecute because they are in the dark, and they think they see, and they persecute “in all good conscience”. They may be, (and indeed they are) wicked for being in the dark, but as long as they are in the dark, they think their spiritual brethren are causing trouble, and they must be put down and put out of the church; and they think they are doing God a service when they use the cutting knife. But are they innocent? With all the light around them that God has offered and now offers, are they innocent while they remain in the dark? I don’t think so.

11. The illumination of the Holy Spirit will make us stop relying on others. We will no longer expect any such instruction from human lips that will suffice to qualify us to be useful. It isn’t that God may not use others to instruct us to some degree. He does so. But we will no longer rest in human instructions, and we will go to God feeling completely sure that our help comes from Him alone, that God alone can supply the light that we will use to see the things that lie hidden in the Word of God.

12. In proportion to the light we enjoy, we will find ourselves dwelling in the spiritual instead of in the natural world. Let a man see as with open vision, the realities which we all believe to exist in the invisible world, let him understand them as we now understand the objects of our visible world, and which world do you think will he be most familiar with? Will he be more familiar with God, heaven, Christ, and the eternal world, or will he be more familiar with this gross and earthly clod on which we tread? As the light of the Holy Spirit opens our mind, and we dwell in and commune with the spiritual world, we will lose sight of earthly objects. There is a state of mind where people can feel the light shining broad and deep on the soul. God draws near. The soul withdraws from all its outward senses, and retires into its inner sanctuary. God approaches and comes into the innermost chamber of the soul, and there is silence. Far, far from the world of sense and sight, the soul communes with the eternal God. And if the whole world were to throng around and clamor for a hearing, still the soul, withdrawn far within, refuses to listen to them, but in ecstatic bliss, it drinks draughts of indescribable joy from the presence of infinite love, and God is all in all.

I remember well how I once read with astonishment the account of such men like Xavier, where they would have such communion with God that they would completely drive from them all thoughts of earthly, and every sensual object. Xavier, you know, on a certain day, was to have a visit from a prince, the viceroy. He went to his chamber, directing his servant to call him at a certain a time. When the servant entered his room to call him at the hour, there was his master kneeling on the floor, his eyes upturned, and his face shining like that of an angel, wholly insensible to outward things. The servant was afraid to disturb him. At the end of an hour the servant came again, Xavier was still kneeling, his eye upturned, and his face shining like an angel. The servant spoke. There was no answer. He spoke again. No reply. He shook him and succeeded in awakening him from his trance. “Is the viceroy here”? He asked, “tell him I have a visit from the King of Kings today, and I cannot leave it”, and he sank back into insensibility, and was totally absorbed in the presence of the Living God.

There was a time when I couldn’t understand how Paul could be in such a state of mind, that, speaking as an honest man, he could not tell, as he says, whether he was in the body or out of the body. But now, I can see how he could say this. The mind becomes so absorbed with spiritual views, that it becomes completely insensitive to natural objects. The senses are all swallowed up and laid aside. After all, the senses are only the organs that the soul uses; but the soul can do without them. The person can retire from the touch, the hearing, the sight, and in the deep sanctuary of the soul, he can sit alone and fellowship with God. And this occurs when the light of the Spirit shines broadly and fully on his mind. Speak to that person who is totally absorbed in the presence of God and he does not hear you. Touch him and it does not arouse him. He is gone, gone to the spiritual world; and when he returns and his soul comes back to earth, whether he was in the body or not, he won’t be able to tell.

Do you remember what happened right here several years ago? The Holy Spirit came upon a beloved sister, and she thought she was in heaven. Her heart was there, and she thought she was there. She forgot she was in the body, the glories of heaven were all around her, and she literally leaped for joy. I heard about another event that happened, I think it occurred in the state of New York. It happened to a deacon. He was sitting in the “deacon's seat”, facing the congregation; as the minister was preaching, when the Holy Ghost fell on the deacon. He rose up unwittingly, stretched out his hands upward, his face pale and gazing as it were into heaven, and his countenance was as radiant as the countenance of an angel. The assembly was amazed. The Spirit of God ran like fire throughout the whole congregation. The arrows of conviction flew like lightening, the whole body convulsed with emotion, and many broke down before the Lord.

13. He whose eyes are opened will be solemn, but it will be a cheerful solemnity. It is said about Xavier, that his cheerfulness was so great, that those who were not familiar with him thought that he was lightheaded. David, in his joy, danced with all his might before the ark, when he brought the ark up from the house of Obed-Edom. Now I’m not saying that there will be levity, but there will be a deep and solemn cheerfulness, the kind of cheerfulness we can expect God to possess, a broad, universal smile. The mind will smile to the depths of its being. To the very bottom of the heart, there is one deep, broad smile. As God looks forth over His whole creation with a smiling face, the soul will be as cheerful and as peaceful as an ocean of peace.