Right hands and right eyes are dear to us!

(Excerpt from a letter of William Tiptaft)

"If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow Me!" Matthew 16:24

My dear Brother,
How we find that there are two principles within us continually at war — and how they ever wrestle for mastery! But whatever suits and pleases the flesh, will surely make the soul lean, and bring on spiritual deadness and barrenness.

The more we taste of the pleasures of sin, the more we get blinded and intoxicated by them, and the more anxious to enjoy them in this time-state, whether we go to Heaven or not.

Right hands and right eyes are dear to us, and self-denial is a continual cross!

When we are tried, tempted, and harassed — we want ease and comfort. Yet we daily learn that without ballast, we cannot sail safely on the seas of temptation. We need chastisements, rods, and crosses — to bring us to the throne of grace. We need a daily sense of our vileness and our sins — to constrain us to fly to the only true refuge for poor helpless sinners, who is a Friend in need and a Brother born for adversity.

Yours very affectionately,
William Tiptaft, November 13th, 1839

"If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into Hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into Hell." Matthew 5:29-30