The Eye of the Needle

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Aug 20, 1861

The Eye of the Needle

THE EYE OF THE NEEDLE.—Some traveler in the holy land informs us that there is (or was) at the side of the principal gate of Jerusalem, a small one which, upon occasions of great urgency, was opened for the admission of persons after the great gates of the city were all closed for the night. This gate, from its small size, was called the eye of the needle, and to get a camel through it at all was no small task—for a loaded camel to pass was an utter impossibility.

With the above fact before the mind, one can see that the words of our Saviour when speaking of the "strait gate" and the "rich man" were more literal than many suppose. And we see how as the rich man passes into the narrow way, the sides and the low top of the strait gate scrape everything from him in which he had before trusted. No one can take anything but himself through. For easier is it to strip a camel of its burden than to divest a rich man of his trust in riches.