The Fixity of Habit
Abp. Wm. Alexander. 2 Peter 2:14 Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls… Having eyes full of an adulteress." All who possess eyes at all have them full of something. I have heard one of exquisite aesthetic sensibility, who had seen some of the glorious painted glass at St. Gudule, in Brussels, on a summer day, declare that for days his eyes were "full of those colours, especially the blue." The eye of the woman of "meek and quiet spirit," wherever circumstances may lead her, is full of love. Even so the sensualist's eye is "full of an adulteress," filled full, so that it can hold no more. The eyes are fixed in an evil expression which they can never lose. They give signal to all whom it concerns that they are ever on the watch. That which is choke-full often means, in the original, satiated. But such eyes are insatiate and insatiable. This is one of God's terrible voices of mortal judgment, one of those hints which tell us what a man may become. Let us consider that law of human character which is the foundation of the law of Divine punishment, without which, indeed, the latter cannot be spiritually construed to the spiritual nature. Character, then, as the derivation of the word implies, has a tendency to become, and frequently does become, absolutely stereotyped, from a practical point of view. Generally speaking, up to a certain date, a man may issue a second edition of his moral life, revised and corrected, perhaps even entirely recast. Still a day comes when the second edition, with the "errata" expunged, is not possible any longer. The eye once "full of an adulteress "may be filled with dust, but the ineradicable image has been carried to, and abides for ever in, that "inward eye," which is the "bliss "or bane, the heaven or hell of "solitude." This is a solemn argument for youth, when the vapour of imagination and passion are beginning to condense into habit; for that portion of manhood during which habit is becoming of insoluble density. Let us beware of the lust of the eyes. Be ours the prayer, "Turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity; and quicken Thou me in Thy way." Nor let any who ponders this argument turn from it with a sigh of despair, "For me it is too late." If we have enough of will left to desire earnestly a new mind, it is not too late. Such can still hear the voice — "Him that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out." (Abp. Wm. Alexander.) Parallel Verses KJV: Having eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin; beguiling unstable souls: an heart they have exercised with covetous practices; cursed children: WEB: having eyes full of adultery, and who can't cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing;