Moral Nearsightedness by H. C. Trumbull

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 2, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 26.

Moral Nearsightedness

By H. C. Trumbull

"He that lacketh these things is blind, seeing only what is near." Clear and correct eyesight is an exception in the world. Many are color-blind. Many are short-sighted. Many see imperfectly; their two eyes not seeing alike. Many, who suppose that their eyesight is good, have serious defects of vision. It is the same in the mental and moral world, as in the material. Many fail to see nice distinctions between right and wrong. Many get only a one-sided view of any truth they look at. Many cannot see a hand's-breadth ahead of them in their estimates of spiritual forces. Yet not all the morally short-sighted, and all the morally blear-eyed persons, even in the Christian church, are aware that their moral eyesight is defective. If more church-members would bring their eyes to the testing of this spiritual oculist, more of them would have evidence, beyond questioning, that they are more near-sighted, and nearer blind, than they had before suspected.—H. C. Trumbull.