And Elisha prayed, and said, Lord, I pray thee, open his eyes, that he may see. And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha.
2 Kings 6:17
Having the use of our physical eyes, which allows us to behold the great works of God, such as the Sun, Moon, and Stars, and to recognise the glory of God in them, is a great blessing. What person would be willing to lose their eyesight in exchange for the entire world, given that it reveals so much of God’s glory? Now, if the eye, which can only perceive these natural phenomena, is so precious, then what can be said of the eye of faith? It may rightly be called precious faith, for it admits into the soul the glory of God, the excellences of Christ, and the great things of eternal life. These are brought into the soul by faith, in their reality and power, to elevate the heart, fill it with joy and peace in believing, and carry the soul through all the trials of this world. Oh, the eye of faith is a precious eye! The eye of the senses is precious because it enables us to see tangible objects, but the eye of reason is even more precious because it can make visible things that are not seen by the senses. Reason can reason its way up to God Himself. It is the incredible excellence of a rational being that God has endowed with the ability to reason from effect to cause and from one cause to another until ultimately arriving at God, the first cause of all. This is a remarkable gift for which we should thank God. But now, if the use of reason is so excellent because it provides evidence of rational things, then we should strive to hold this precious faith in even higher esteem. This faith provides us with evidence of the glorious things of God, the faith that God has placed in our hearts for the very purpose of enabling us to receive those glorious and hidden mysteries of godliness that are of infinite importance to our eternal well-being.
Jeremiah Burroughs. The Saint’s Treasury.
