Anoint Thine Eyes by L. A. S.

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Jun 14, 1906

“Anoint Thine Eyes”

By L. A. S.

THE counsel of the faithful and true Witness to the church of the Laodiceans, represents them as being defective in spiritual vision. “I counsel thee ‘to . . . anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see.’” Rev. 3:18. The people here addressed do not see things clearly. They do not see things in their true proportion. Spiritual things, eternal things, are less real to them than the visible, temporal things. The eternal riches are of less value than the earthly riches. They are counseled to buy “gold tried in the fire,” wealth that will not lose its value when destruction comes upon the things of this world.

In this world sin has so perverted and distorted everything that naturally, we see nothing in its true light. People have to be brought to their real senses, as it were, by a shock. In some unusual and startling way they have to be reminded that there are other and higher interests to be considered than the pursuit of wealth and pleasure. The spell of worldliness must be rudely broken, the veil that is over their spiritual vision rudely torn away, before they will give serious thought to the things of the world to come. When some destroying visitation comes upon them and they are brought, as it were, face to face with God and eternity, then the darkening veil is swept away and they see things in their true proportion, their true value. They see and feel, not fancies, but realities, for at such times all that is unreal sinks out of view.

Such an experience came to the residents of San Francisco on that memorable morning in April last, and one who passed through it, speaks thus of the change wrought in her mind by the visitation:—

I turned to dress myself. What a change in values! I had no thought for the dress I had cherished the day before. I was merely considering what was warmest and most substantial—a coarse wool skirt and a long coat lined with white silk and highly decorated with trimming. Did I choose the latter because it was pretty? No, indeed; but because it was warm and long. . . .

After a half-hour we came up to our flat to take an inventory of the situation. I walked over the remains of my choicest china, porcelain, and cut glass, without a feeling of regret, or a sigh, or a tear. Everything seemed so insignificant, and the world so far away. That is, the world we had lived in. All estimates of value were annihilated. Human life seemed the only thing worth consideration.

How will it be when sudden destruction comes upon all the cities at once,

and the people realize that the day of God has come? For “the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.” 2 Peter 3:10. How insignificant then will be all the things which now seem of so much account that they eclipse the whole spiritual vision. How valueless then will be things for which everything else is sacrificed now, and how valuable then will be righteous character which stands approved of God, and the “gold tried in the fire,” which can endure the test of the burning day. But the important time to discover the truth is not in the day of God, but now. “Behold, now is the accepted time.” “Anoint thine eyes with eye-salve, that thou mayest see,” is counsel for to-day. Now is our day, and the time to know the things which belong unto our peace.

L. A. S.