What is faith? Faith is the eye of the soul. The eye, simply by looking, appropriates that which is outside itself, taking in the fashion of the object before its vision. Through the lens, the appearance of that upon which the gaze is fixed enters the marvelous chamber of the eye, then is focused on that marvelous layer of tissue called the retina, and straightway, via the optic nerves, the form of that which is without is written in living shape and color upon the brain. Then that which is seen is conveyed to the understanding, and by appropriation becomes our own. This window of the eye simply allows the character of the objects outside entrance into the chamber of which it is the light.
The Word of God is that wherein the Son of God is presented to us. There we see Him. The eye does not create; it receives. Such is faith. It does not toil or labor; it receives. “Look unto Me,” says the Lord, and whosoever looks, lives; he has received Christ whom his faith has seen.
Faith occupies itself with that which is outside the believer, and by so doing Christ is formed in the believer’s heart. As we look on Him, He becomes our own. There is thus set up an answer within the heart to Him whom faith sees outside. What we gaze upon is, as it were, formed in our hearts; Christ is appropriated. Too many, who would really “see Jesus,” do not see Him, because their thoughts are turned inward, trying to find that which can only be discovered by looking outward. They close the eye of faith, and then use the mind to seek to discover that which can never be seen so long as the eye is blinded.
H. F. Witherby