905. Footsteps of Mercy

A Sermon Delivered On Sunday Evening, By C. H. Spurgeon, At The Metropolitan Tabernacle, Newington. 4/27/2011*4/27/2011

Keep me as the apple of the eye. (Psalms 17:8)

1. This prayer is full of meaning, and is the outflow of a well instructed mind. It is no parrot cry, but the uplifting of a living desire from a grace taught and thoughtful heart. The man knows something of himself who sincerely offers this plaintive petition to his God, “Keep me.” Is there not a deep and sorrowful confession implied in this brief utterance of the supplicant? as though he should say, “Preserve me from my own heart, for it is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: guard me from the uprising of my natural corruptions, for the carnal mind is enmity against God; it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be: defend me from the turbulence of my own passions, those household foes which are the worst enemies to the peace and purity of my mind: keep me from that evil man, myself.” Has not the man who utters this request a clear perception of the evils surrounding him in his circumstances, and his relationships, and his position in life? Conscious of danger, he desires to be held back from pride, if he is in prosperity; and withheld from pining and unbelief, if he is in adversity; he would be restrained from sinning in public or transgressing in private; he desires that he may not be imperilled even by the objects of his joy and affection, lest they should become idols, and so provoke the Lord to jealousy, and cause him to withdraw his dear presence and sweet communings from the soul. The prayer has a singular sensitiveness, it seems to shiver like the leaves of the aspen, to shrink like the sensitive plant. Knowing that there are snares all around him, the pleading soul is desirous that God should at all times encompass his path — “Keep me.” The man has some idea of the craft and malice of Satan, therefore he appeals to God so that he may be preserved from that fowler, who first lures, and afterwards destroys unguarded souls. He sees his danger, feels his weakness, and seeks the strong for help.

   Love and keep us, blessed Jesus,
      Keep us from denying thee;
   Keep our wayward feet from straying
      Into paths of vanity;
   Love and keep us, blessed Jesus,
      Keep us from denying thee.

An eye that has looked on the weakness and the wickedness of the little world within our bosom, clouds with briny tears the supplication, “Keep me.”

2. But the man who prays intelligently like this must have some knowledge about the God he prays to. He has learned the vanity of all other reliances, and has left for ever the arm of flesh. The invocation is addressed to the Most High, for he is well aware that no one else can respond to his call, or interpose for his aid. He who uses this prayer intelligently perceives the omniscience of Jehovah. “You see all my dangers, you foresee all the attacks of my enemies, you are acquainted with all my ways; to you, therefore, I look for safeguard. Better than a hundred eyes are you to me, you who can see all my foes, from whichever quarter they may come. Ever watchful guardian, keep me.” He believes also in God’s omnipotence, that there is no assailant so strong, but he who is his Israel’s refuge and fortress is stronger, nor is there any danger so imminent that he cannot anticipate and avert it. He relies, moreover, upon the love of God that he is willing in his own heart to espouse his interests; upon the faithfulness of God that he will perform the mercy promised to the fathers, and upon the immutability of God that he will never turn back, but finally achieve the salvation of his servant through keeping him to the end.

3. Thus, as I have said, the man who could first offer, and the man who can constantly appreciate this devout prayer, must know something about himself and something about his God. He who has learned these two things has mastered the elements of wisdom. “Man, know yourself,” said the heathen sage, and he uttered a good maxim. “Man, know your God,” says the Christian, and he points to wisdom far more sublime. Put the two together! to know ourselves in our weakness and dangers, and to know our God in his glorious strength and willingness to protect us, is to have the seed of divine knowledge implanted in our hearts. Knowing these two, we can not only pray this prayer with a fervent spirit, but there are many things which we shall be enabled to do by virtue of the good hand of the Lord our God upon us. Such, then, is the importunate request of the Psalmist, to which I am persuaded everyone who is godly among you will say, “Amen.” “Keep me as the apple of the eye.”

4. Now, brothers and sisters, I intend only to touch upon one point, and that is the metaphor used here — not, perhaps, limiting myself entirely to the precise and definite meaning which it presents in this place, but uttering with more freedom and latitude some of the thoughts which it suggests.

5. I. The keeping desired by the earnest Christian is of that kind which men accord to the apple of the eye. What kind of keeping is this? — First, the Psalmist prays, Lord, keep me WITH THE MANY GUARDS AND PROTECTIONS.

6. In the providence of God the apple of the eye is defended with particular care and transcendent skill. Those who have studied the formation of the pupil itself will tell you with how many coats the retina is preserved. Then the most common observer knows how the eyebrows, the eyelashes, and the eyelids, are formed as outworks, fences, and barricades, to protect the pupil of the eye, which is so made to dwell securely like a citizen within the entrenchments of a fortified town. God has bestowed extraordinary pains upon all that concerns your eye; being one of the most tender organs of the physical body, he has used many devices so that it should be well preserved, notwithstanding its exceeding sensitiveness. Nor is it merely sheltered in its own position, but sentries guard it lest it should be exposed to peril. Whenever it is threatened with even the appearance of danger no time is lost in consultation with yourself, but with agility so brisk that it seems almost involuntary, the arm is lifted up and the hand is raised to screen it from harm or to resist attack. If you are about to stumble, you naturally put out your hands to save your eyes. Instinct seems to teach you at once the value of eyesight, and your whole strength is exerted to preserve it. In fact, all the members of the body may be regarded as a patrol for the protection of the eye; and all the incorporated powers of manhood are in constant vigilance to guard and protect that precious orb. Admiring then this beautiful arrangement to conserve the delicate organ of vision, we may pray, “Lord, keep me as the apple of the eye, with many protections. You have been pleased with the strong bastions of your providence to surround your people: I ask for such protection. Do not lead me into temptation; do not allow the events of my career or the incidents of my daily life to entangle me so that I shall be unable to escape out of the perplexing snares. Let the powers of heaven fight for me, as of old the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. Let me be in league with the stones of the field, and command the beasts of the forest to be at peace with me. Let my tabernacle be in peace; and let no plague come near my dwelling. Oh God, please visit my habitation; and so abide with me beneath that lowly roof so that I may not by any means through outward circumstances or inward thoughts be led into sin. Guard me, oh my God! by all the power of those mysterious wheels, whose motions I cannot understand, but of whose results you have said, ‘All things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to his purpose.’ ” And, Lord, be pleased to shield me by your grace as well as by your providence. Keep me as the apple of the eye with tutelage of your restraining mercy. Teach me to sing — 

   Oh, to grace how great a debtor,
   Daily I’m constrained to be.

Brethren, how wonderfully does grace preserve the heirs of heaven with operations marvellously diverse, but all fulfilling one loving purpose! Sometimes grace lowers me into the dust, at other times grace lifts me up to the throne. It is grace that empties and grace that fills my earthen vessel; grace that shows me my ignorance, and grace that makes me wise to salvation. Let the various operations of your grace, oh God of all grace, be brought into full play to guard me as the apple of the eye. Whenever I hear a sermon preached, may it keep me from stumbling, lest otherwise my feet should trip; whenever I bend my knee in prayer, may it be a safeguard against some temptation or besetting sin, which otherwise might have been too strong to resist. When I read your book, make its words to be as wholesome counsel and faithful warning, to deliver my soul from the paths of the destroyer. Grant to me, Lord, that the ordinances of your house — baptism, and the Lord’s supper — yes, and whatever else you have enjoined to us by precept, or handed down to us through the example of your holy apostles — things commanded and things set in order — let all these be used as auxiliaries to repel assault, and preserve our peace. From wandering into any false way, from staining the purity of a good conscience, from bringing dishonour upon the name of Christ, “good Lord, deliver us.” “Keep me as the apple of the eye” with the guardianship of your Holy Spirit. Oh that the Divine Comforter might always dwell within me, so that when Satan comes to invade my heart, it may be like the house in which the strong armed man lives who is stronger than the spoiler, and therefore keeps his goods in peace; so shall he drive away the thief who would break in to steal my possessions and make me his prey.

   Keep us, Lord, oh keep us ever,
      Vain our hope if left by thee;
   We are thine, oh leave us never,
      Till thy face in heaven we see;
         There to praise thee
      Through a bright eternity.

7. Holy Spirit, I invoke you, whether reproving or comforting, whether quickening or enlightening, whether chastening or sanctifying, whether humbling or perfecting me, be pleased to abide with me, and hold watch over me in all your sevenfold power, in all your diversified operations.

8. And, oh God, let your angels have charge concerning me, to keep me in all my ways, for I need many guards, even as the eye has many bulwarks. Ask, then, those ministering spirits, who minister to the heirs of salvation, that they bear me up in their hands, lest I dash my foot against a stone. Brethren, do such appeals seem to you like a rhapsody? Do you forget the existence of angels, who excel in strength; or do you give no heed to the capacities with which they are endowed by him who makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flame of fire? I am afraid we are accustomed to think too lightly of those blessed spirits. Is it necessary to remind you that the existence of such an order of God’s creatures is not an allegory of the poets; no, not even of sacred inspired poets? Facts abound in both the Old and New Testaments to attest to the reality of their services. Have you never heard how that in the creation, when God laid the foundations of the earth, the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy? And have you not heard that when the law was given to Moses, it was received by the disposition of angels? You must be aware of the comfort which Daniel found from the mission of Gabriel, when, while speaking in prayer, the angel appeared as a man flying swiftly, touched the prophet, talked with him, brought a message to him from heaven, and came to give him skill and understanding? Think, I beseech you, brethren, of the company of angels carolling that sweet hymn of the nativity on the plains of Bethlehem on that night when our Saviour was born. And never overlook their visit to the wilderness, where, after Jesus had been tempted forty days and forty nights, “behold, angels came and ministered to him.” Yet again in the dark night of his betrayal, when our Lord was enduring the agony in the garden of Gethsemane, do you not know that “there appeared to him an angel from heaven strengthening him?” After such things it may seem needless to tell how angels had gone to the tomb from which Jesus had arisen, and there at the sepulchre cheered the hearts of the sorrowing women; or to recount to you the story of Peter, released by an angel of the Lord from the prison into which Herod, willing to please the Jews and vex the church, had cast him. But I must mention one more thing. Angels were the bearers, not with black wands, I think, but with flying colours, who carried Lazarus into Abraham’s bosom. Such a guard I crave in life and death, I crave it from you, oh my God! My soul is enraptured by the multitude of your lovingkindnesses and tender mercies. Keep me, with every provision for my safety, keep me with all your hosts and holy troops, with cherubim and seraphim, with providence, and grace, and love. “Keep me as the apple of the eye.” In such sense, I think, the metaphor is not strained.

9. II. Secondly, the prayer may be interpreted with a view TO THE CONSTANCY, THE UNINTERRUPTED CONTINUANCE OF THAT KEEPING WHICH WE REQUIRE FROM THE LORD.

10. Is not the eye always guarded? You are not always thinking of it, it is true, for that would distract you from the duties of life; if you had to consider the dangers and provide against the mishaps to which the eye is exposed, your mind would never rest; but to save you from such care, the protections God has provided are always ready. If a grain of dust, perhaps, should enter the eye, immediately by some wonderful arrangement a watery substance is exuded in which, if you cannot extract the impediment, by and by it becomes dissolved, and is carried away. Though an intruding substance may pain you, the pain is a mercy, for it makes you restless until you get relief for the priceless eye. When you fall asleep, and are no longer able to protect the eyes, the curtains fall, its blinds as it were drop down, and the windows are shut up securely with lash and lid. How graciously does God preserve the health of the eye and renew its brightness! It must need many secretions, and they are all supplied. The fineness of its organisation, and the variety of its intricate arrangements, require adequate provisions to keep it in proper condition, and these are all furnished; yes, and continue to be supplied when the eye’s functions are suspended in your times of slumber. Without care or thought on your part, at all times, asleep or awake, the eye is guarded like the bed of Solomon, around which were sixty valiant men. Very well does the parable of the eye suggest the prayer of the text: “Lord, keep me like this, as the apple of an eye is kept.” Always, oh Lord, watch over me. Brethren, permit me to remark here that I believe at no time is a Christian more in danger than when he has just been in communion with God. So I have proven it to myself. It is not very often I lose my temper, at least I do not think so, but it has happened sometimes; and I have noticed that when this sinful frailty has overtaken me, it has been just after I have been near to God in prayer. At such a time someone has come right across my path and ruffled my spirit. Something has been said or done so cold, so cruel, so unchristlike, so irritating, and as well on the part of myself so unexpected, that I have in horror spoken unadvisedly with my lips. Ah! I should not wonder if many of you have found the same surprising sin assail you. When you felt happy and blessed, beyond the reach of fear, the baneful action of the world has so grated upon your too susceptible feelings that you have felt as if it was well for you to be angry. Always beware when you are rich with grace in present possession. The highwayman in olden times did not meddle with the farmers as they went to the market; when they were coming home, having sold their crops and bringing back their full money bags, then they planned their attacks. When our ships of war went after the Spanish galleons, they did not attack them as they were going to America, but when they came back enriched with bars of gold — when they knew them to be loaded to the water’s edge — it was then they stormed the Spaniard to win his bullion. The devil may not make a direct attack upon you when you are poor in grace and indolent, not trading with the merchandise of wisdom, or seriously engaged in the King’s business; but if you have had much spiritual commerce with heaven, by which your soul has been enriched and your heart has been cheered, and your face has shone, then beware of temptation. In watchfulness and prayer, however, express it like this: “Keep me, Lord, equally in my high estate, and in my low estate. Keep me when I am engaged in business; so that I do not fall into the tricks of trade, or the excitements of desperate speculation; keep me when I am at the table, so that I do not sin against you in the midst of social interaction with my family or my friends. Lord, where shall I go from the presence of sin, or where shall I flee from the reach of temptation? If I seek the desert and become a lonely hermit, sin is there. If I plunge into the thick of the city, and find solitude among the crowds of men, behold, sin reigns there. If I go to my bedroom, sin can haunt me there; or if I go outside into the fields, to listen to the voice of nature, I can be seduced to rebel against you there in full view of all your marvellous works. If I should take the wings of the morning, and fly to the uttermost parts of the earth; if, like the shipwrecked, I lived on a desolate island of the main, and did not see the face of man, even there the face of sin would disquiet me, and rebellious thoughts would rise to taint my daily life.” You need keeping, then, always and at every moment. Seek protection, brethren, seek it constantly. Do not begin the day without saying, “Keep me.” Do not finish it without crying again, “Keep me.” All day long do not be far away from the horns of the altar, to which you may run with the brief prayer, “Keep me, keep me, as the apple of the eye.” It means constant care, a perpetuity of divine guardianship. You need that. Seek it.

   Lord, we are blind, and halt, and lame,
   We have no stronghold but thy name.
   Great is our fear to bring it shame.
   Let us not fall. Let us not fall.

11. III. “Keep me as the apple of the eye.” Does it not mean, “Keep me from LITTLE EVILS, THE DUST AND GRIT of this evil world?”

12. Your eye does not need to be guarded so much from beams as from motes. You would not say, “It is only a tiny grain of dust, therefore let it enter into my eyes.” By no means. The smallest grain that floats in the summer’s breeze will vex and irritate, and cause the scalding tears to flow, and you know by painful experience how much suffering you may endure from a grain of sand which you could scarcely see. May this be your prayer, then — “Lord, keep me from what the world calls little sins; Lord, keep me from what my callous conscience may make me think is a little sin! Save me, Lord, from thoughts or imaginations, for these are the eggs from which greater mischiefs are hatched. Keep me, Lord, from words which to carnal minds might seem only air, but which, in your sight are weighty matters, especially as coming from your children, who have been brought up to understand the law of your mouth.” I like to see the Christian show the rigidity of that Puritan, who said that he could not even in a word swerve from the truth he believed, although there would be a living or an opportunity of preferment to be had by complying. “Oh, but,” said another, “others have made long gashes in their consciences: could you not make a little nick in yours?” Ah, you know what those “little nicks in the conscience” always come to! When once you begin the rip, how swiftly it runs from the top to the bottom of your conscience! Beware of nicks of the conscience; let your prayer be, “Lord keep me! Keep away from me those sins the wrong of which I hardly know, but whose wickedness and woefulness are open before you. Let me never trifle with a sin because it does not look so black or cause such shame as some other iniquities.” Christians will too often indulge wrong habits and tolerate doubtful customs, until transgressions seem to them as if they were unavoidable, and gladly they would persuade themselves that they are harmless. There was an officer who kept a leopard in his house, a tame leopard, which had been born in captivity, and had never known what liberty was. It had grown up as tame as a domestic cat, until one day, when the master was asleep, it gently licked his hand. Now, it so happened that he had scratched the skin during the day, and a little blood oozed out as the creature’s tongue was drawn repeatedly over the wound. The taste of the blood aroused the wild demon spirit of the beast at once, and had it not been promptly shot, its once beloved master would have been its victim. In like manner those little household sins which do not look like the foul destroyers that they are, will one of these days reveal their true nature, and you will have to chase them from your soul, and drive them to their native haunts. It is not right that they should lodge under your roof. Chase them away before they put you into greater danger. They must be doomed or you will have no peace. They must be destroyed, for your life is in jeopardy. When the thief cannot break in at the door himself, he finds a child, and puts him through the little window, and then the great door is speedily opened. So little sins open the door for a great sin. Men who have appeared to be impervious against obvious temptations to commit a crime, have often been inveigled by specious allurements. The temptations have come in the garb of virtue, and their disguise has not been cast aside until the way of escape has been cut off. “Keep me, then, as the apple of the eye,” means, “keep me from little things that defile, and little flaws that disfigure or utterly deface the godliness of character.”

13. IV. Do you not think, brethren, that THE SENSITIVENESS OF THE ORGAN OF VISION may suggest another lesson to be drawn from this prayer, “Keep me as the apple of the eye?” That is to say, make my heart tender, and my conscience quick and impressionable.

14. There is nothing more sensitive than the eye. If anything were moved near your hand or arm in the dark, you might not feel its motion, but the eye is keenly perceptive even of a current of air. It is affected by anything passing near it, as you may readily notice for yourselves. God has made the apple of the eye so sensitive for its own protection, so that it may shrink from rash exposure. So, if we are kept as the apple of the eye, we shall be endowed with this particular faculty, a tender sensitivity that shrinks with nervous trepidation from the presence of evil. If the eye grew dull and callous instead of being impressionable, it would be in immediate danger, and probably would be soon destroyed. The sensitivity of the eye is its own protection: it foresees the peril and avoids it. Our hearts, my brethren, must in like manner to some extent carry within themselves, by God’s grace, their own instincts of self-protection. Wesley seized on this thought, and paraphrased it aptly when he wrote the verse — 

   Quick as the apple of an eye,
      Oh God, my conscience make;
   Awake my soul when sin is nigh,
      And keep it still awake.

Are there not some men whose senses are never exercised to discern good and evil? They walk in such darkness that they stumble on a sin before they detect it in their path, or a ponderous temptation will run over them and overturn them without their once perceiving the headway it was making, and the necessity of making their escape. There are some noses that would not be disgusted by the foulest smells, nor would they be delighted though the daintiest perfumes were permeating the air with their fragrance. But there are other noses quick and delicate, which soon perceive the noxious odour; it activates their sense while it pollutes the air. The insensitive are exposed to all kinds of miasma and pestilence because they do not perceive the danger; while those to whom the odour is repulsive would shun it immediately, and never rest until the noxious matter that might have bred disease is removed. We need a spiritual sensitivity that shall be quick and apprehensive of the faintest smell of sin. Only feel that it is loathsome, and you will easily convince yourselves that it is dangerous. You will not require the minister to come down and admonish you of his suspicions, or exhort you to avoid the first signs of a wrong practice. You will not need a mother or father to say, “My dear child, that is a treacherous step you are about to take.” The conscience should be a ready indicator; if in good keeping it would be a wonderful tattle-tale. It will startle you from your lethargy. It will arouse you as with an alarm, for it will cry aloud, “You are going astray; you are falling into error; you are wandering after evil; you are setting yourself up to do iniquity.” God give us this sensitiveness. I delight to see it in young converts. Ah, some of us in the early stages of conviction were half afraid to put one foot before another for fear of doing wrong. Oh that you could sustain that tenderness of heart! It ought to increase. Do your diligence to keep the heart holy, for out of it are the issues of life. With some of you I fear there is a degree of dulness that does not indicate the refinement of your taste in spiritual things. We ought as we get nearer to heaven to become more and more jealous of approximation or contact with anything that defiles, abhorring the very trail of the serpent; shuddering at even the appearance of sin; loathing the atmosphere that is corrupted by evil conversation. Keep me, then, just like you keep the eye through its own sensitivity.

15. V. Should we not make it our prayer, too, that God will KEEP US AS THE EYE OUGHT TO BE KEPT?

16. It should be single. “The light of the body is the eye: therefore, when your eye is single, (good) your whole body is full of light; but when your eye is evil, your whole body is full of darkness.” Keep me single minded, Lord, consecrated wholly, and devoted to you alone. The eye should be clear. Any speck on its retina would obscure our view of the landscape. With “an inlet so small,” as one of the poets writes, “that a grain might close it,” the eye needs to be cleansed. God has provided arrangements for this without disturbing the beautiful mechanism of the little orb. Take heed, beloved, that the eye of faith is kept clear. We need to be sprinkled with the precious blood, and washed with clean water very often, so that we may be always pure, consciously sanctified. The clean water you know is the cleansing water which came with the blood from the heart of Christ, who through the Eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God; by it the conscience is purged, and the heart made clean, actively and passively sanctified to God. The eye needs to be far seeing. It is a great pity when the eye can only see a short distance. We strain our natural eye to see some ship far out at sea, that looks perhaps like a speck on the horizon, or we want to stretch our vision far over mountain and valley, river and lake, from some lofty Alp, encompassing the entire prospect at a glance. But oh! it is good when our soul can take a wide view, and embrace the grand perspective which revelation unfolds, free from cloud and vapour, not pestered with the cares of the day thus obscuring the immortal joys that await our arrival at the city of the blessed; not earthbound, and absorbed by incidents that transpire within the tick of this clock, but prospecting the fields of light beyond, where moments, hours, days, years, and centuries of years are unknown. Raise your eyes, Christians. May you shall catch a glimpse of the better land,

   Where everlasting spring abides,
      And never withering flowers;
   Death, like a narrow stream, divides
      That heavenly land from ours.

May the Lord keep us as the apple of the eye, sensitive, clean, clear, single eyed, and far seeing.

17. My brethren, the eye is kept and preserved as an ornament. Certainly the most expressive feature of the human body is the eye, and it is the most capable of making the countenance beautiful. Take away the eye from that fair face — that eye of hazel or of blue, or that black eye that looks you through and through and burns your heart as with coals of fire — how dull, unimpassioned, and senseless it would be! “A beautiful eye,” it has been somewhere said, “makes silence eloquent; a kind eye makes contradiction assent; and an enraged eye makes beauty itself to be deformed; for it is this little member which gives life to every part about us.” Take the sparkling eye away from the sweetest face, and how sadly you have marred it. Your marble statues — some of them almost speak — fail to convey the impression of life, because there is no eye. That lack of eye is lack of all that is lifelike. Let every Christian pray God that, just as the eye is the ornament of the body, so he may be kept as an ornament to the Christian church. What are the ornaments of the church of God? Are they the wealthy and respectable members? or are they the learned and intellectual members? These, my dear friends, are ornaments from man’s too carnal point of view; they will often secure the most notice among their fellows, but they are not ornaments from God’s point of view unless there is something higher to commend them than the accidents of rank or education. The greatest ornaments of the Christian church are those who labour most diligently, those who pray the most fervently, those who are most filled with love, those who are most Christlike in temper and disposition, the most humble, the most teachable, the most patient in suffering, the most persevering in service, those who commend the gospel of the grace of God by their entire life and conduct — such are the ornaments of the church of God. And the eye of faith sheds lustre on all other features of character. I tell you, that when spirits more pure than ours go all around the church and count its towers, and note well her bulwarks, it never enters into their thoughts that one part of the building was smeared with the yellow hue of wealth; or that another part of the building was decorated after the classic manner of Corinth and Athens; they only think of the jasper light and of the sapphire glow of spirituality and holiness as it flashes bright in the sunlight of God over hearts that have been sanctified by the Holy Spirit. Pray that you may be made an ornament of the church, your light shining before men, being kept as the apple of the eye to shed lustre on the saints all around, and in your degree to illuminate this dark world.

18. The eye is not only an ornament, but its function in the body is of the greatest usefulness. How sad a deprivation is the loss of sight, or to lose even a portion of its power how grievous the detriment! The eye is in some respects the most useful part of the mechanism of our bodies; it benefits all our limbs. So, brethren, ought we to be profitable and conducive to the good of others. When we pray, “Keep me as the apple of the eye,” it behoves us to remember the real interest that accompanies our preservation. Are we worth keeping? Not certainly if we are of no use. Who cares to spare and keep a tree that produces no fruit? or who is zealous to keep an eye that does not see? I suppose those who wear glass eyes would rather not lose them, but I would be bound to say they do not prize them as if they were as valuable to their pleasure and profit as ours are whose eyes are of God’s making, and answer his purposes. A genuine Christian will pray to be useful — not to be like a glass eye, a mere counterfeit for appearance sake; but being of God’s workmanship in Christ Jesus, so that he may be preserved with all his faculties in full vigour, lest his strength should be impaired and spoiled, and his capacity to proclaim the praises of God, and minister to the welfare of the church, dimmed or utterly extinguished.

19. You will perhaps think my next remark strange and quaint, but since I have not restricted myself to the immediate sense of the metaphor, as limited by the context, I may be allowed to speak of what relates to the eye. It occurs to me that Solomon has made this shrewd remark, “The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walks in darkness”; and I would venture to give this a spiritual meaning, and, in beseeching the Lord to keep me as the apple of the eye, would entreat him to keep me in the head, that is, to preserve me in Christ Jesus. Of what use would the eye of a man be if it were not in the head? It would have no vitality if it were taken away from the glorious position of honour which is given to it in the face of the living man. So if we could be divided from our living Head — if we, as members of Christ, could be separated from him, it would be all over for us. When we are united to him, as the branch is to the vine, we flourish, we produce fruit; but if we are separated from him we are like the dead withered branches that are gathered up and cast behind the wall where all the rubbish is ignobly burned. The best believer in the world would be only fit for the burning if he were separated from Christ his living Head. “Because I live you shall live also.” So it stands. Christ’s life is our life. The life of the brain is the life of the optic nerve; the eye lives because the brain lives, and because of its place in the Head. The life of Christ is the Christian’s life. You live because of your connection with Christ — because of your vital indissoluble gracious and eternal union with Jesus Christ your covenant Head. May then this be your prayer, “Lord, let me abide in Christ, and may his words abide in me. Let my thoughts abide in him; may I meditate much on him — may my meditation of him be sweet. Let my purposes and resolves abide in him. May I be determined to follow him wherever he goes, to be and to do always in his strength. May my desires always be towards him, desiring to know him and to be found in him — he himself being the summit of all my hopes and the crown of all my delight. Oh let my whole soul be in him! Then I shall be useful, then I shall be an ornament of the body, then I shall be preserved and kept.”

20. I commend this prayer to every believer here. You will often need it: you may need it tonight before you get home. Pray it in the pew now, so that you may have protection from sin — even as you pass along the streets — that you may be preserved to your own door. I have encountered people who have broken their leg on their own stairs: mind you do not fall into sin in your own house, where you think you are most safe, and at times when you could least suppose that you would be in danger. May the Lord help you, and keep you as the apple of the eye.

21. Alas! there are some here to whom this prayer is nothing; they are not Christ’s, they have not believed in him. Here is another prayer for you. It is this: “Lord, save me, or I perish.” The fitness of the prayer is obvious, for the reflection appended to it is true. You are very near to perishing. If you died tonight you must perish for ever. “Lord, save me.” He can do it, he will if you pray to him. His precious blood is shed for the remission of sin. He is always willing to bless sinners. “Lord, save me, or I perish.” Once saved, you may pray to be kept; and he will keep you. “Now to him who is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen.”

[Portion of Scripture Read Before Sermon — Psalms 17]