Chapter 16: Use Your Senses
Chapter 16: Use Your Senses
"To discern both good and evil." - Heb. 5:14.
THE FIVE SENSES of the body have their correlatives in the soul. From earliest childhood we naturally use the outward. The eye, ear, nose, mouth, and sense of touch are under constant requisition. But there are thousands of Christians in whom the senses of the soul are dormant and useless. They have eyes, but they see not; ears, but they hear not; mouths that do not taste, and hands that cannot feel. And it is for this reason that they always remain in the babe condition, needing to be fed by spoon, and to be wheeled about in a perambulator.
The great use of ministers, to many people, is to serve as nurses, perpetually feeding, carrying, soothing, or supplying with sweetmeats and comfort.
If we are ever to grow out of the babe into the mature state, we must learn by reason of use to exercise our senses to discern good and evil (Heb. v, 14).
Let us take the senses of the soul in order -
THE SENSE OF SMELL. - The wholesomeness, or otherwise, of natural objects is largely indicated by their odours. What is fragrant is for the most part wholesome; what is noisome, deleterious to health. We ought to very thankful for the bad smells in the world, where they indicate the presence of corruption and death. They have been arranged by a Divine providence in order to warn us away from places and substances that would depress and imperil health. Imagine a world in which hurtful things were inodorous, or attractive in their scent! In how many cases should we be lured to ruin! God has labeled hurtful things "Poison" by their deterrent and noxious odours, which repel us as far from them as possible.
The nose, therefore, preserves us from many an unseen danger. It is a great privation to be without the sense of smell. Its loss is the forfeiture of one of the warning signals on the road of life. A quick scent enables one to escape from the neighbourhood of disease-breeding spots. I had an illustration of this the other day. On my return from America I found my sense of smell greatly sharpened by the sea-voyage, and was able to detect the presence of a sewage farm which had escaped the observation of my friends, securing for them as well as for myself immunity from the effects of undesirable contact with sewage matter. How often, too, a whiff of foul odour has made one turn immediately aside, hold the breath, and make for fresh air!
In the soul there is a similar power. God has endowed us with a marvelous sensitiveness to the presence of evil, when it is yet at a distance. Before the evil thing has come within measurable distance of the soul, whilst it is only a whiff in the air, we may become aware of it, and shelter in Jesus. One of the gifts of the Spirit is to make us quick of scent in the fear of the Lord, quick to detect the proximity of all that was inconsistent with the fear of God. (Isa. xi. 3, marg.)
Let us ask for this sensitiveness - it will enable us to keep out of the way of temptation. With a shudder we shall escape, as Joseph did, from the room where the pestilence may lurk beneath silks or satins, and the fragrance of eau-de-Cologne.
THE SENSE OF HEARING. - Solomon asked for an understanding (literally, a hearing) heart. Every musician knows the importance of a good ear. However fine the quality, or strong the power of a voice, if the ear fails to detect the slightest dissonance with the pitch of the instrument, excellence as a singer is unattainable. To sing flat is bad enough; but to sing flat and not know it, is unpardonable. You can do nothing with the unsensitive ear. On the other hand, you may train the ear to almost any degree of delicacy, so that it can appreciate shades of tone which are undiscoverable by ordinary listeners.
Do you not think sins against charity committed by the tongue are due to a want of education and refinement in the ear of the soul? That singer would not sing flat if her ear were trained and quick. No; and that Christian would not be able to pass on those questionable stories, or retail those unkind statements, if his ear were trained to the chords of the heart of God.
THE SENSE OF SIGHT. - The apostle complains of people who were near-sighted, and could not see afar off. It is a terrible affliction. Hagar's tears made her short-sighted, and she saw not the fountain of water. Elisha's servant was too near-sighted to see the horses and chariots of fire around him. Demas was too blind to look beyond the present evil world, and failed to see the unseen and eternal things that filled the vision of Paul.
But short-sightedness is not the main disease of the eyes. The Lord says that we may see double, as though we suffered from a squint. It is said that Edward Irving suffered from a squint which spoilt the front view of his face, because, as a baby, he slept in a cot which had a large hole in its side, and he contracted the habit of looking through it as he lay. Whether that be so or not, there are plenty of professing Christians whose eyes do not move on the same axis; one is directed to heaven, the other to earth - -one to God, the other to man. Such may well stumble in the noon-day.
All along the path of life are stumbling-blocks and pitfalls, which at any moment may involve us in terrible falls. Near-sightedness, or obliqueness of vision is alike to be dreaded. Only when the eye is single, can the whole body be full of light. But when the light that is in thee is darkness, how great is the darkness! and he that walketh in darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. How eagerly do we need that Jesus should lay his hands on our eyes that we may see all things clearly.
THE SENSE OF TASTE. - This too is a marvelous preservative of health and life. We can tell almost invariably what is good for food by the taste. Rotten fruit, diseased meat, uncanny tinned oysters, are immediately rejected by the palate as unfit to go further into the body. It would seem as though a janitor sat at the gate of the digestive organs, carefully testing every substance as it passed, admitting or rejecting. We know well enough when food will nourish us.
So the soul has taste. Instantly it can distinguish wholesome from unwholesome words. It recognizes the Bible as being good and healthful food, sweeter than honey and the honey-comb. It detects the flavour of deity in the Bible, and this is the best proof of its inspiration. You may not be able to argue or define it; but you are aware of its presence in the Bible as nowhere else.
And whenever you are conscious that a story-book, or a newspaper paragraph, or a conversation is unwholesome, be sure to eject it as suddenly and forcibly as you may. Exercise this sense!
THE SENSE OF Touch. - Be very sensitive to the touch of Jesus. Very often He gives a touch, light as a feather, which is the signal that danger is near. Be warned by it. Harden not your heart.
Be equally sensitive to the touch of the weary and heavy laden. They will come near you in the throng and press of life. Be on the alert for such, and stay to ask as Jesus did, "Who touched me?" Like Him, we should be easily touched by the feeling of men's infirmities.
But all these senses, like those of the body, will grow with use, becoming daily more delicate and sensitive, discerning between good and evil, and causing us to develop from babyhood into maturity.