Isaiah 6:9-13 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear you indeed, but understand not; and see you indeed, but perceive not. Let me illustrate a little more clearly these two ways o flocking at things, the superficial and the cubical; the so-called practical and the imaginative; the way of sight and the way of vision. 1. There are two ways of looking at a little child. "Sight" exercises the power of observation and beholds a little animal, compounded of material atoms in varying quality, a cunning product of material forces; a little bundle of hungers and thirsts. "Insight" beholds in the child a germ of wondrous possibility, a promise of the eternal, a vehicle of unnamed endowments, a possible image of Christ. 2. There are two ways of looking at a flower. There is the way of "sight" — A primrose by the river's brim A yellow primrose was to him, And it was nothing more. And there is the way of "insight" — Flower in the crannied wall, I pluck you out of the cranny. I hold you here. root and all, in my hand, Little flower, but if I could understand What you are, root and all, and all in all, I should know what God and man is. 3. There are two ways of looking at a book: "sight" and "insight." Here is a book. It is a dictionary. A man gave years of ceaseless labour to its creation. What is it? A Chinese dictionary. Who compiled it? A missionary. And this when he might have been teaching the multitude, feeding the hungry, carrying consolation to the terrified and depressed. To what purpose is this waste? Why were not these years invested and given the poor? So says "sight;" How does "insight" regard the labour! The dictionary is a door of hope, the carrier of light, the key to an empire, a living way into the thought and heart of a vast people. 4. There are two ways of looking at the fabric of this building in which we at present worship. "Sight" says, "How plain the structure, made of common brick! And the windows! nothing about them tasteful and refined." "Insight" gazes at the building and recalls the men and women who have found their Saviour here. A panorama of spiritual ministers passes before it, the consecration of wedlock, the dedication of little children, the illumination of death, the transfiguration of sorrow, the heightening of joy! To the soul's vision this plain brick house is an earthly vessel, precious because of the heavenly treasure of which it has been, and is, the shrine. 5. There are two ways of looking at the bread upon the Communion table. To "sight" it is common baker's bread, bought at so much a loaf, and there is much more like it. To "vision" it is a token of a broken body and of shed blood. By vision we realise the spiritual significance of things, and by fixing our regard upon them we appropriate their contents into our own spirits. (J. H. Jowett, M. A.) Parallel Verses KJV: And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. |
    |