John Austin

People say, “Seeing is believing.” Not according to poet George MacDonald. “Seeing is not believing,” he said, “it is only seeing.” John records in his gospel an account of a man born with congenital blindness (John 9). Jesus restores his physical sight, which later leads to the restoration of the man’s spiritual sight. Since the healing takes place on a Sabbath, the man is rigorously interrogated by the religious authorities. At the story’s end, the Pharisees ask Jesus, “Surely, we aren’t blind, are we?” (John 9.40). Jesus answers in so many words, ‘You better believe you are blind.’ I tell you, the irony in this story is unmistakable: a blind man sees, while sighted people remain blind to the things of God. A man with no formal religious training has his eyes opened while the religious establishment, with all their learning, are blind as bats. Stevie Wonder said, “Just because a man lacks the use of his eyes doesn’t mean he doesn’t see.” As we sing in John Newton’s “Amazing Grace” hymn, “I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.”
John Austin (1613-1699) was a teacher at St. John’s College in Cambridge, England who became a Catholic, necessitating his resignation from this Protestant university. He became a lawyer, joined a literary society for Catholic writers, and produced a series of devotionals for fellow authors. At their urging, he published the devotionals under the pseudonym William Birchley to secure a wider audience among Catholics and Protestants alike. His fearless self-scrutiny earned him respect among his Puritan contemporaries. He composed several hymns to accompany his devotionals, including “Open my Eyes, My Soul and See.” John Wesley thought enough of the hymn to include it in his original 1739 hymnbook. At the outset of his seven-stanza, four-line hymn, John Austin acknowledges his “sliding feet” and “stubborn sins.” His hymn closes with words that lead us into prayer: