VOL. XIX

VISION

A lecture was given in Camp Sheridan by a noted Colonel on "How to shoot." He referred to an article that had appeared in a current magazine on "shooting straight." In it the author said that when your eye got the sight your brain telegraphed to your trigger finger FIRE -the word fire being in startling letters. "This," said the Colonel in effect, "is nonsense. It would very likely result in flinching." And he went on to say, that when the eye got the sight, what the brain should wire quietly to the trigger finger is what Admiral Dewey said to his captain in Manila harbor, when he had his ships all arranged to suit him, "You may fire when ready, Gridley."

In other words, the eye should say to the trigger finger, "I will hold the sight here, so all will be well when you pull there." This has a clear application to life. One of life's problems is Vision; it is to think clearly. To see with the spiritual eye the task-to outline it-to grip it surely, certainly; and then to let the action take care of itself. What is sight to the eye is insight to the spirit. Once the Vision is clear, spirit can say, "You may act when ready, Will," or it may say, "It matters not when or where you act; I am going to hold the sight here." Now and again the beginner in shooting will find he hits the mark to his surprise when he pulls the trigger by accident-unexpectedly. The secret was,

NO. I

that he had the sight and did not confuse the shot by dwelling on his fingers. He acted spontaneously from a true sight and hit the mark. This is the reason children go so surely to the mark in their sincerities; their acts are unconfused by the wrong kind of thought. It is a spontaneous rush from inner sources of spiritual truth, "Except we become as little children we may not vision the kingdom of God."

The thought that makes for flinching and confusion, is the thought that dwells on the act, on the process, and not on the sight-the insight. Once get the vision of the right-the good-the true-then holding it let the act come as it may. When we turn our eye from the objective to the practical difficulties; when we allow considerations as to how the shot will affect this or that, our career, our friends, our status, we confuse the issue. The shot is a flinch. It makes for confusion. It does not fly to its mark. It is as though the gunner should actually take his eyes off the mark entirely and look around at the spectators while he shot. How many do this in the spiritual realm? How many miss the goal of the high calling as it is in Christ Jesus, because they are looking anywhere than towards the mark of that calling. How many have failed to vision that calling altogether in this our crucial day!

When one considers the Life of the Master, how much of His time was given

A lecture was given in VISION Camp Sheridan by a noted Colonel on "How to shoot." He referred to an article that had appeared in a current magazine on "shooting straight." In it the author said that when your eye got the sight your brain. telegraphed to your trigger finger FIRE -the word fire being in startling letters. "This," said the Colonel in effect, "is nonsense. It would very likely result in flinching." And he went on to say, that when the eye got the sight, what the brain should wire quietly to the trigger finger is what Admiral Dewey said to his captain in Manila harbor, when he had his ships all arranged to suit him, "You may fire when ready, Gridley."

In other words, the eye should say to the trigger finger, "I will hold the sight here, so all will be well when you pull there." This has a clear application to life. One of life's problems is Vision; it is to think clearly. To see with the spiritual eye the task-to outline it-to grip it surely, certainly; and then to let the action take care of itself. What is sight to the eye is insight to the spirit. Once the Vision is clear, spirit can say, "You may act when ready, Will," or it may say, "It matters not when or where you act; I am going to hold the sight here." Now and again the beginner in shooting will find he hits the mark to his surprise when he pulls the trigger by accident-unexpectedly. The secret was,

NO. I

that he had the sight and did not confuse the shot by dwelling on his fingers. He acted spontaneously from a true sight and hit the mark. This is the reason children go so surely to the mark in their sincerities; their acts are unconfused by the wrong kind of thought. It is a spontaneous rush from inner sources of spiritual truth, "Except we become as little children we may not vision the kingdom of God."

The thought that makes for flinching and confusion, is the thought that dwells on the act, on the process, and not on the sight-the insight. Once get the vision. of the right-the good-the true-then holding it let the act come as it may. When we turn our eye from the objective to the practical difficulties; when we allow considerations as to how the shot will affect this or that, our career, our friends, our status, we confuse the issue. The shot is a flinch. It makes for confusion. It does not fly to its mark. It is as though the gunner should actually take his eyes off the mark entirely and look around at the spectators while he shot. How many do this in the spiritual realm? How many miss the goal of the high calling as it is in Christ Jesus, because they are looking anywhere than towards the mark of that calling. How many have failed to vision that calling altogether in this our crucial day!

When one considers the Life of the Master, how much of His time was given.