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How then does Satan put out the eyes? It is by occupying us wholly with things down here on earth. I do not think for one moment that they are necessarily wrong things. Of course they may be, but a man may be engrossed in what is perfectly lawful, and thus become spiritually blind. An excuse made by one was, "I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come." Was he to ignore this relationship, which God had distinctly formed for man's blessing? No; but since Christ has come to bring into heavenly blessings, these earthly ones were not to rob the soul of them (nor were they to be put before them), and this was, and is, their tendency. Hence the Lord says in the same chapter, "If any man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple." He touches here the greatest earthly blessings, and shows that they may be a real hindrance; for a disciple follows Christ from earth to heaven NOW (and not when he dies merely), and we cannot be truly His disciples here unless we come into this scene from the place whence HE came. "As Thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world." (John 17:18.)