The light of the body is the eye
The single eye
The eye is evil when the vision is incorrect, double; is single when it lays hold of one object with clearness and firmness.
Shut the eye, or if the eye is diseased so as not to be able to see any one object distinctly, and we have the body full of darkness. This is true in the moral universe.
1. Intellectually. He whose judgment is uncertain, &c. He who has clear plans, &c.
2. Morally. He who has clear conceptions of right and wrong; with what freedom and strength he walks forward. There is light in him; there is light before him.
3. Spiritually. What does it mean to have a single eye in the religious world? It means more than supreme love to God. It means that the whole mental and moral nature of the man must be right in its conceptions of religious truths. This may be summed up in five points.
(1) Man must live for ever. The eternal, vital principle is in him. Suicide is not possible.
(2) Man, as a sinner, needs transformation into God’s character.
(3) Christ has come from heaven to work the transformation--the atonement.
(4) The necessity for a personal, affectionate faith.
(5) The only way of safety is the exercise of this faith at once. (R. S.Storrs, D. D.)
Singleness of heart
Whatever a man regards as his chief good, on that, his heart--his supreme affections--will be fixed; and by that will all his specific opinions, affections, desires, purposes, and actions be regulated and controlled. What, then, the eye is to the body, the practical estimate and regard which a man forms of his chief good is to the whole moral character. If the eye be incapable of vision, the whole body is doomed to all the evils of utter darkness. So, if the practical estimate which men form of their good be not according to the truth and reality of things, the whole moral man is doomed to error, to sin, and to ruin. To illustrate and confirm this truth I re-mark--
I. THE PRACTICAL ESTIMATE WHICH EVERY MAN FORMS OF HIS CHIEF GOOD RESPECTS EITHER GOD OR THE WORLD AS ITS OBJECT. These are the only sources of good, of any kind or degree, which are opened to man.
II. THIS PRACTICAL ESTIMATE DETERMINES ON WHICH OF THE TWO OBJECTS THE HEART IS FIXED. Here, it is necessary to distinguish carefully between a speculative estimate or judgment, and that which is practical. Let us consider the influence of this state of mind:
1. On a man’s knowledge and belief of the truth. No one can have attentively considered human nature, without seeing how much the opinions of men are affected by the state of the heart; and how much more perfectly they understand those subjects which it is for their interest to understand, than any others. If a man’s heart, then, be right with God, the great truths which God has revealed to influence man to act up to this end of his being will be truths which he will especially wish to understand. It is on this principle that our Saviour has declared that if any man will do His will he shall know of the doctrine.
2. This state of mend, described in the text, decides the nature of all specific and subordinate affections. Light and darkness cannot be in the same place at the same instant. God and mammon cannot reign in the same heart. And when the glory of God is the light of the soul, like the splendours of the sun, it extinguishes the lesser lights which glitter before a worldly mind. The Lord and Creator of the heart there fixes His throne, and all the affections of the inner man bow to Him as their supreme Lord.
3. This state of heart will have the same influence on the external conduct. The man who has not the love of God in him may indeed be faultless in many points, but his conduct will be greatly deficient and erroneous in externals. He will do and he will neglect to do many things which it were impossible should be done or neglected, did he carry with him a continual sense of God’s presence. But where the heart--the governing aim--is right, there is a principle which tends to bring everything right. There may indeed be some occasional deviation; but deviation will be an interruption in the general course of conduct. There will be a principle of correction within, which will discover, regret, and reform what is amiss. For the principle is a universal principle; a supreme regard to God will lead to one duty as well as to another--to acts of kindness as well as to acts of devotion. It will resist and correct little sins as well as great sins; for the same authority reaches to one as to the other, and that authority is God’s. It is also a uniform principle. It allows of no intermission of duty--sanctions no neglect of duty--admits of no indulgence of a beloved sin. For the authority which controls the man is God’s authority, and it is ceaseless and eternal like Himself. It is a pure and holy principle. It tolerates no iniquity--no moral imperfections. It points to the highest purity; it aims at God’s perfect likeness. Concluding remarks:
1. Those whose hearts are supremely devoted to the world have reason to suspect that they embrace some serious practical error.
2. Our subject shows us the substantial difference between the saint and the sinner, and how great that difference.
3. Our subject shows the necessity of maintaining a right state of heart.
4. Our subject shows those who are destitute of true religion what they must do to obtain it. They must settle it with themselves that their false views of the world must be corrected, and their hearts taken from it and be fixed on God. Cost what it may, this must be done. (N. W. Taylor, D. D.)
Self-deceit
As the bodily eye is of great use and importance to the animal life, to the direction of its powers, and to the enjoyment of it; so there is an interior eye of the mind of equal importance and usefulness to the direction of our highest capacity, and to the chief ends of our beings, which is the sense of good and evil, both natural and moral; or, the judgment of the soul concerning their difference, and the methods of pursuing the one, and avoiding the other. Now we must remember, to begin with, that there is a great disparity between the case of the external sight and the distempers to which it is liable, and the judgment of the mind with which it is compared. External vision does not depend upon our own choice; nor are we either to be praised or blamed for it; an obstruction in the eye-sight may be a man’s infelicity, it is not his fault; but in the other case we are strictly and properly agents, charged with the care of ourselves, and with the improvement of our own powers and faculties, so that be may attain their true ends. Here, by the single eye, is meant the virtue of simplicity, without reserve or hesitation hearkening to, and following the pure voice of conscience, not using any artifice, colouring, or false disguise, nor suffering any bias or prejudice to rest on the mind whereby it may be imposed upon or misled. The evil eye is disease of the mind, very malignant, and extremely dangerous; what less can be meant by total and most deplorable darkness? but it is a voluntary contracted distemper.
I. THE DANGER OF SELF-DECEIT.
1. This is plainly taught in Scripture (see Proverbs 16:2; Isaiah 5:20).
2. We can see instances of it within the range of our own observation. How common is it for men to make solemn professions of religion, and declare their confident hopes of acceptance with God, while yet it is notorious that they continue in a vicious course of life? And how shall this be accounted for, without supposing the grossest self-deceit?
II. THE CAUSE OF SELF-DECEIT. In general, it is some prevailing corrupt affection or passion. The immediate result of vicious affections and unruly passions thoroughly possessing the hearts of men, is an unfairness in all their inquiries concerning their duty.
III. THE MEANS whereby this fatal disease of the mind and error of the judgment is contracted and confirmed.
1. A false imagination.
2. Wrong notions respecting sin.
3. Feeble ineffectual purposes of future amendment and obedience.
IV. THE EXTENT of this self-deceit. In some it affects the whole character and life. Such is the case described in the text, where the eye is supposed to be evil, the judgment totally perverted, the light turned into darkness which has got entire possession of the mind, and misled it in its chief concerns, its moral integrity and its future happiness. But, in some lower degree it is common to mankind; and scarcely is there any one altogether free from it, that is, who is not in some particular instances misled in judging of himself and his own conduct, through remaining self-partiality and self-ignorance. (Bishop Abernethy.)
I. SHOW THE INFLUENCE WHICH MEN’S PRINCIPLES HAVE UPON THEIR PRACTICE. The judgment of the mind is the guide of life and for the most part, men’s outward actions are governed by their inward sentiments and opinions. They form to themselves some design, and lay down some principle or other; and this, whatever it be, gets the ascendant of everything else, is most of all in their minds, and has the prevailing sway in their actions. And thus it must needs be, as long as men do not act by any natural necessity, by any blind instinct or impulse, nor are under the power of giddy chance, or overruling fate and destiny, but are rational and free agents, and left to their own liberty and choice: they cannot but be determined by their judgment and opinion of things, and square their actions according to the notions and principles they have imbibed.
The effects of good and bad principles
II. CONSIDER THE DIFFERENT EFFECTS OF GOOD AND BAD PRINCIPLES.
1. Of the good effect and influence of good principles. If our eye be single; if we are free from all false notions and corrupt opinions; if we have a true judgment of what is our chief happiness, and wherein it consists; what is the great end of life, and what are the ways which lead to that end; our whole body will be full of light. Discretion will then guide us, and understanding will keep us; and our whole life and all our actions will be ordered right and have an uniform tendency to promote our true interest. We shall then be steady and constant in the pursuit of the “one thing needful,” without ever standing still, or diverting to any other end. This will prove our best security both against the enticements of our own lusts, and the allurements of the world.
2. The ill influence and effect which bad principles have upon us. It is necessary for us to have some principles or other, if we would have our life answer any purpose. Without this, we are like the double-minded man, whom St. James describes, who “is unstable in all his ways” (James 1:8), who has no particular interest to serve, but is divided between several; between the interest of this world, and of the other. Such a man is always weak and wavering, unstable and inconstant in all his actions. He has several ends to serve, which many times cross one another; and so he pursues none of them vigorously; but while he is moving towards one, inclines to another; and like a needle between two loadstones, is ever in a trembling posture, and doubtful state of mind. This is the condition of a man that has no principles at all. Next to this, it is as bad to have no good principles, no true principles of religion and virtue; for without these we shall be exposed to every temptation, and liable to change with every wind.
Having no fixed principle within us, we shall adhere to nothing upon any firm grounds; but shall be ever varying, as the complexion of our body, or the temper of our mind, or the circumstances of external affairs happen to alter. We shall be superstitious at one time, careless or profane at another; now a sceptic, and then a dogmatist; of one religion to-day, and of another to-morrow, and the next day of neither; and at last, perhaps, of no religion at all. As long as the world goes well with such a man as this, and he finds his interest in his duty, he will be loyal to his prince, true to his country, and faithful to his friend; but whenever the times alter, and these virtues are out of fashion, and become the object of scorn and reproach, and cannot be practised without apparent hazard to his own private interest, he will basely desert them, and will be sure to save himself, whatever becomes of everybody else. And this will put him upon any acts of treachery and injustice, of force or fraud, which are necessary to compass his self ends.
III. HOW MUCH IT CONCERNS US TO FURNISH OUR MINDS WITH GOOD PRINCIPLES, and to take care that no ill principle whatever prevails over us. Application:
1. Hence appears the great usefulness and necessity of knowledge and understanding, especially in religion and matters of a moral nature.
2. From what has been said, it appears how cautious we should be in the choice of our principles; as much as we should be in the choice of a guide to conduct us through an unknown and difficult way.
3. Hence appears the great evil and mischief, both the sin and the guilt, of imposing upon men’s understandings, misinforming their judgments, and instilling false notions and principles into their minds, since this is to betray them to a guide that will assuredly mislead them, and instead of conducting them to heaven, will bring them into the pit of destruction.
4. And lastly, what has been said, should excite us to endeavour after this single eye, not only as it means in general a sound and impartial judgment, but in that literal sense which has already been hinted, as it imports singlemindedness, the having but one grand purpose and design, one ruling principle and affection, and that is serving God, and saving our own souls. (Dr. Ibbot.)
The universal influence of Christian principles
Consider the extensive influence of the state of heart described by the expression--“If thine eye be single.”
1. As it respects a man’s religious opinions. I do not assert, that if the state of a man’s heart be right with God, his belief will be always right; but this I maintain, that the state of his heart will very much influence his faith: so that if his heart be not upright with God he will be greatly disposed to error; and, on the other hand, if the state of his heart be right it will tend gradually to correct what was erroneous in his creed, and to give him just views of religious doctrines.
2. The state of the heart will greatly influence the state of the affections. I mean, that if a man’s real aim is to serve God, this will tend to bring all his affections and dispositions into a right state. For let a man be truly desirous of pleasing God, the tendency of this desire will be first to lead him to a better acquaintance with the character and perfections of that Being whom he now honours as his Supreme Master. And where the heart is thus turned to the frequent contemplation of Him whose attributes are infinitely glorious, what must be the result but an increasing conviction that He alone ought to be feared, and loved, and trusted?
3. The general conduct will be under a right influence wherever the heart is sincere towards God; that is, if a man’s grand aim is to please and serve God, it will produce a course of moral conduct worthy of a religious profession.
4. And lastly, the right state of the heart will influence, in a very remarkable degree, the future progress in religion. (J. Venn, M. A.)
The eye, the light of the body
What is the world, says one, without the sun, but a dark melancholy dungeon? What is a man without eyes, but monstrous and deformed? The two eyes are two luminaries, that God hath set up in the microcosm, man’s little world. When God would express His tender love unto His people, He calls them the apple of His eye. “He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of His eye.” And the like phrase St. Paul makes use of, when he speaks of the love of the Galatians unto himself: “I bear you record, that if it had been possible, ye would have plucked out your eyes, and have given them to me.” The Emperor Adrian, with an arrow, by accident, put out one of his servant’s eyes; he commanded him to be brought to him, and bade him ask what he would that he might make him amends. The poor man was silent; he pressed him again, when he said he would ask nothing, but he wished he had the eye which he had lost, intimating that an emperor was not able to make satisfaction for the loss of an eye. So the light of Divine truth is infinitely more valuable than all other blessings. If we come short of this, there can be no substitute found. If the soul should be lost, the whole world can afford us no relief. The Latin verses Adrian addressed to his soul, and translated by Pope (“Vital Spark,” &c.) are well known. (C. Buck.)
Intensified light
Fresnel, by forming one vast reflector from many small ones, produced a glare eight times as intense as had previously been known. Shining out from a lighthouse, it could be seen as far as the earth’s curvature would permit. Buffon, by collocating several hundred small mirrors, and causing the flame of a galvanic battery to play upon their focal centre, melted, in two minutes, the hardest metals, and set wood on fire at a distance of two hundred feet. The hostile ships of Rome, lying in the harbour of Syracuse, were wrapped in flames, we are told, by the fierce power of a compound sun-glass which Archimedes made. These facts are suggestive. If we unite in reflecting the rays of Him who is the Sun of Righteousness, stirring scenes will follow. It can but cause a sweeping revival; and the more flames there are, thus joined, the intenser will be the effect. Candles long hidden under bushels should, therefore, be uncovered. Their proper place is on a candlestick. “Ye are the light of the world,” and should help illumine it. Candles should also be trimmed. Many smoke. They need snuffing. The wick of formality is too long. The flame is feeble, and flickers. It looks like a rushlight, and ought to flash like a star. It is dimly lighting a single home, and might brighten a whole street. With every blaze clear, and every candle in its place, uniting their light, “as flame plays with flame,” a tremendous religious disturbance would speedily be heard of in all directions. Light never fails to make a stir. As sunrise rouses a sleepy world, so would a burst of “spiritual brilliancy” awaken the unconverted. (J. S.Breckenridge.)
Uncovering the light
Mrs. Godolphin testified to the truth at the corrupt Court of Charles II., and thus proved herself to be the worthy successor of the three Hebrew children and the saints in the household of Caesar. Lady Huntingdon was a brave witness-bearer in the aristocratic circles of the eighteenth century. William Wilberforce carried his convictions with him whithersoever he went--whether to the drawing-room, to Parliament, or to the hustings. To Thomas Carlyle, in our own generation, a drawing-room meant only so many square feet of infinite space, and he was just as ready to speak forth the truth that was in him, and to protest against shams and make-believes, in the gilded saloons of nobles and princes as when he was seated in his own arm-chair. (R. Abererombie, M. A.)
Seeing double
Be not like the foolish drunkard, who, staggering home one night, saw his candle lit for him. “Two candles!” said he, for his drunkenness made him see double, “I will blow out one”; and as he blew it out, in a moment he was in the dark. Many a man sees double through the drunkenness of sin. He thinks that he has one life to sow his wild oats in, and then the last part of life in which to turn to God; so, like a fool, he blows out the only candle that be has, and in the dark he will have to lie down for ever.
Peacefulness resulting from having a single eye
A South Sea Island preacher said: “In the olden time I had two wives; and what was the result? There was no peace for me, day or night, on account of the jealousy and scolding of these women. Christianity came, and I put away one of my wives. Now peace reigned in my home. It is even thus with a heart divided between Christ and the world. Choose one or the other. Don’t strive to keep both. Be Christ’s wholly; and then, as a spouse united to one Lord, you will dwell in perfect peace.” (“Jottings from the Pacific,” by
W. Wyatt Gill, B. A.)
Take heed of unillumined darkness
In France, every carriage, or cart, or waggon, must, after sundown, carry a light; and quite right too. On our mountain-roads, where should we be if our carriage encountered a hay-cart just at the turn of a road or at the edge of a precipice? It is very curious to see a little lantern gleaming out from a moving hill of hay, but it is in every way the correct thing. How we wish that all our acquaintances carried a light! Be they good or bad, we are glad to know where they are, and where they are going, for then we know how to deal with them. Your dark men are dreadful men. They seem to be afraid of discovering their own whereabouts, and we know not whether they are friends or foes. We are bound to drive warily when these people are about; and we should in their neighbourhood be doubly careful to keep our own lamp burning brightly. (C. H.Spurgeon.)
Light in every part
We went one cold, windy day to see a poor young girl, kept at home by a lame hip. Her room was on the north side of a bleak house. It did not look pleasant without or cheerful within. “Poor girl,” I thought, “what a cheerless life is yours, and what a pity your room is on the north side of the house.” “You never have any sun,” I said; “not a ray comes in at these windows. It’s too bad. Sunshine is everything. I love the sun.” “Oh!” she answered, with the sweetest of smiles, “my Sun pours in at every window and through every crack.” I looked surprised. “The Sun of Righteousness,” she said, softly. “Jesus--He shines in here, and makes everything bright to me.” Yes! Jesus shining in can make any spot beautiful, and make even one bare room a happy home.
A fountain of light
Men’s experiences are too often like illuminated houses when a great victory or a great peace is celebrated. On such occasions men buy candies two or three inches long, and put them into little bits of tin sockets, and stick them up at every pane of glass, and light them, so that they may be seen by everybody that goes by in the street. And was there ever anything more beautiful? That is just like folks under preaching, and often in revivals of religion. They have little bits of enthusiasm, little bits of candles, that will not burn an hour. And after they have gone out how much tallow there is on the window, and on the carpet, and all about! Now, if men, instead of having these petty illuminations, would establish in themselves a fountain of light, how much better it would be! (H. W. Beecher.)
Take heed.
Cautions
1. Take heed of the great leading error of the worldly, who, in their practical judgment, prefer earthly to heavenly things, and thus are involved in spiritual darkness. Take eternity into account, if you would estimate things according to their real value, and would think and act as well-informed persons.
2. Take heed of shutting your eyes altogether against the light, of averting your thoughts altogether from the truth, and of resolving to persist wilfully in ignorance. There are none so blind as those who will not see.
3. Take heed of leaning to your own understanding. There are some persons who, being naturally uncommonly sagacious, or who, fancying themselves so, are so wrapped up in self-conceit as to undervalue the true light. Take heed of trusting in human learning, if you have had an opportunity of becoming learned. It is very melancholy that there are so many who rest in this to the neglect of the wisdom which is from above. Take heed of infidel and irreligious philosophy, falsely called philosophy. Reason is a noble endowment, and its right exercise is incumbent, but there are false reasonings of which you should be aware.
4. Take heed of the pride of self-righteousness; for it will blind you to your own demerit, and to the glory of Christ’s finished work, and to the way of pardon and acceptance by faith alone.
5. “Take heed and beware of coveteousness”; for it perverts the judgment and the affections. The love of money causes many “to err from the faith.”
6. Take heed of the love of sin in general, and the indulgence of any particular sin. There can be no doubt that the love of sin exerts a fatal influence in perverting the understanding, and keeping men in darkness. There are many who “love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil.”
7. Take heed of a spirit of envy, malice, and uncharitableness. This is called in Scripture an evil eye: “Is thine eye evil, because I am good?” said our Lord. The indulgence of this spirit shows that the true light has not entered the soul, and tends still to keep it out.
8. Take heed of unfounded prejudice and partiality; such a bias will lead you astray, and render your understanding as incapable of judging of truth as a jaundiced eye is of colours. Take heed of every sinister end, every improper design. This is, perhaps, peculiarly intended by an “evil eye.” See that you have an honest, sincere, upright, single design. (James Foote, M. A.)
The light which is in thee
Of the light within us
I. THE EVIL WE ARE WARNED AGAINST. Turning the light within us into darkness. To help our understanding of this, let us consider with ourselves those intolerable evils which bodily blindness, deafness, stupefaction, and an utter deprivation of all sense, must unavoidably subject the outward man to. For what is one in such a condition able to do? And what it he not liable to suffer? And yet doing and suffering, upon the matter, comprehend all that concerns a man in this world. If such a one’s enemy seeks his life (as he may be sure that some or other will, and possibly such a one as he takes for his truest friend) in this forlorn ease, he can neither see, nor hear, nor perceive his approach, till he finds himself actually in his murdering hands. He can neither encounter nor escape him, neither in his own defence give nor ward off a blow; for whatsoever blinds a man, ipso facto disarms him; so that being thus bereft both of his sight and of all his senses besides, what such a one can be fit for, unless it be to set up for prophecy, or believe transubstantiation, I cannot imagine. These; I say, are some of those fatal mischiefs which corporal blindness and insensibility expose the body to; and are not those of a spiritual blindness inexpressibly greater?
II. THE DANGER OF FALLING INTO THIS EVIL. It is as in a common plague, in which the infection is as bard to be escaped as the distemper to be cured; for that which brings this darkness upon the soul is sin. And as the state of nature now is, the soul is not so close united to the body as sin is to the soul; indeed, so close is the union between them, that one would even think the soul itself (as much a spirit as it is) were the matter, and sin the form, in our present constitution. In a word, there is a set combination of all without a man and all within him, of all above ground and all under it (if hell be so), first to put out his eyes, and then to draw or drive him headlong into perdition.
III. How AND BY WHAT COURSES THIS DIVINE LIGHT COMES TO BURN FAINT AND DIM.
1. Whatever defiles the conscience, in the same degree also darkens it.
2. Whatever puts a bias upon the judging faculty of conscience, weakens, and, by consequence, darkens the light of it.
3. We now pass from these general observations to particulars.
(1) Every single gross act of sin is much the same thing to the conscience, that a great blow or fall is to the head: it stuns and bereaves it of its senses for a time.
(2) The frequent and repeated practice of sin has also a mighty power in it to obscure and darken the natural light of conscience, nothing being more certainly true, nor more universally acknowledged, than that custom of sinning takes away the sense of sin; and, we may add, the sight of it too. For though the darkness consequent upon any one gross act of sin be, as we have shown, very great, yet that which is caused by custom of sinning is much greater and more hardly curable.
(3) Every corrupt passion or affection of the mind will certainly pervert the judging, and obscure and darken the discerning power of conscience. (R. South, D. D.)
The nature of human actions
I. Consider the nature of human actions, and what dependence they have upon the directing principle, upon the light or understanding that is in the mind of man.
II. Show what power men have over their own actions with regard to the influence of that light or understanding by which they are to be directed.
III. Consider of what consequence it is in matters of religion that men fail not in this first and grand Foundation of all, in the Root, the Spring, the universal Guide and Director of their actions. “Take heed that the light which is in thee be not darkness.” (S. Clarke, D. D.)
Light turned into darkness
If, in those days, which were not characteristically “days of light,” Christ saw it necessary to urge this caution so strongly, we can conceive with how much greater force He would have pressed it now, when Daniel’s prophecy is having such literal fulfilment on every side “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.” Through the avenues of conscience, which is to the soul what the eye is to the body, communications from God are always pouring in. In nature, in providence, but still more by His Word, and by His own inward grace, tie acts upon the man. The understanding is formed, the reason is directed, the affections are moved, the will is urged, holy influences stream in upon the inner being. And this process, up to a certain point at least, in every man’s life, is continually going on. I believe that it is going on in every one of you at this moment. Hence your familiar acquaintance with Divine truth! Hence your sense of sin! Hence your frequent compunctions! Hence your better desires and good resolves! Hence your gleams of heaven! Hence your appreciation and admiration of the real and the true! To what a height that inner “light” is capable of being raised by culture it is impossible for us to estimate, seeing no man has ever cherished it as much as he might. But did we pray, and study, and listen, and obey the “still, small voices” as we ought, there would be no limit to the degree in which the judgment would be directed, the heart softened, the will conformed, the thoughts made sunny, the future assured, the love of God dominant, and heaven foretasted. For “if the eye be single, the whole body is full of light.” If the openings heavenward and Godward be all clear, and unchoked, and free, the whole man is capable, and wise, and happy, and safe; and that is fulfilled which we read so familiarly, and therefore so unintelligibly--“The path of the just is as the shining light, which shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” But it is a truth too certain, that all this “light,” with which God beams upon us, is capable not only of being hindered, and resisted, and destroyed, but, worse than that, of actually being converted into a deeper “darkness”--becoming a medium of spiritual blindness, or casting the soul into a more utter night. For there is no death so locked as that which once lived the most; there is no blackness so black as the shrouded day; there is no soul so dark as the soul that was once illumined! (J. Vaughan, M. A.)