deep ditch right across thy way home; if it in any way leads thee astray,
or lets in upon thee thine enemies--then, surely, thou wert better to be
without that eye altogether. Pluck it out, then; or, what is still
harder to go on all your days doing, pluck the evil thing out of it. Shut
up that book and put it away. Throw that paper and that picture into the
fire. Cut off that companion, even if he were an adoring lover. Refuse
that entertainment and that amusement, though all the world were crowding
upto it. And soon, and soon, till you have plucked your eye as clean of
temptations and snares as it is possible to be in this life. For this
life is full of that terrible but blessed law of our Lord. The life of
all His people, that is; and you are one of them, are you not? You will
know whether or no you are one of them just by the number of the
beautiful things, and the sweet things, and the things to be desired,
that you have plucked out of your eye at His advice and demand. True
religion, my brethren, on some sides of it, and at some stages of it, is
a terribly severe and sore business; and unless it is proving a terribly
severe and sore business to you, look out! lest, with your two hands and
your two feet and your two eyes, you be cast, with all that your hands
and feet and eyes have feasted on, into the everlasting fires! Woe unto
the world because of offences, but woe much more to that member and
entrance-gate of the body by which the offence cometh! Wherefore, if
thine eye offend thee--!

3. 'Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight
before thee.' Now, if you wish both to preserve your eyes, and to escape
the everlasting fires at the same time, attend to this text. For this is
almost as good as plucking out your two eyes; indeed, it is almost the
very same thing. Solomon shall speak to the man in this house to-night
who has the most inflammable, the most ungovernable, and the most
desperately wicked heart. You, man, with that heart, you know that you