Heart
Writing on the Heart. — I have marvelled at the expression used in the text, “I will write my law in their hearts.” To write on a heart must be difficult work but to write in a heart, in the very centre of the heart, who can do this but God? A man cuts his name upon a tree in the bark, and there it stands, and the letters grow with the tree; but to cut his name in the heart of the tree — how shall he accomplish this? And yet God doth divinely engrave his will and his law in the very heart and nature of man!
The Burglar in the Heart. — I do not believe that a man becomes a villain all at once. He puts his soul to school, his thoughts are his teachers, or rather they are the school-books in which his soul reads; and at last he be comes capable of transacting the deeds of a scoundrel. If you think long upon any sin, the chances are that, as soon as the temptation to that sin comes, you will commit it. I have known persons produce a monomania by constant brooding upon one object. I did once know a man who was constantly apprehensive that he was be ing poisoned by people; and I always stood in trepidation for that man, lest he should poison himself. If you will harbor the thought — if you will ruminate on any sin, turn it over, and advise with it on your pillow; your affability will disarm your fear; and the traitor you have harbored will betray you before your suspicions are aroused. Beware, then, of all thoughts of sin. If you show a thief all the locks and bolts and bars in your house, and tell him how the cellar-window could be opened, or the back-door be made to give way, do not be surprised if, one of these nights, you should find all your goods stolen. If you introduce these evil thoughts into your habitation, you cannot wonder at the consequence, however startled your friends may be at the detection.
Tainted Food. — When I am asked to read a heretical book I think of good John Newton. Dr. Taylor, of Norwich, said to him: “Have you read my Key to the Romans?” “I have turned it over,” said the doctor. “And is this the treatment a book must meet with which has cost me so many years’ hard study; you ought to have read it carefully, and weighed deliberately what comes forward on so serious a subject.” “Hold,” said Newton, “you have cut me out full employment for a life as long as Methuselah’s. My life is too short to be spent in reading contradictions of my religion. If the first page tells me the man is undermining truths, it is enough for me. If I had the first mouthful of a joint tainted, I do not want to eat it through to be convinced; I ought to send it away.” Having the truth confirmed in us, we can laugh all arguments to scorn; we are plated in a sheet of mail when we have a witness within us to God’s truth. All the men in this world can not make us alter one single iota of what God has written within us.
Keeping the Heart Pure. — It would be of little use for our water companies to keep their reservoirs full, if they did not also keep them pure. I remember to have read a complaint in the newspaper of a certain provincial town, that a tradesman had been frequently supplied with fish from the water company, large eels having crept down the pipe, and sometimes creatures a little more loathsome. We have known such a thing as water companies supplying us with solids when they ought to have given us nothing but pure crystal. Now, no one likes that. The reservoir should be kept pure and clean; and unless the water comes from a pure spring, and is not impregnated with deleterious substances, however full the reservoir may be, the company will fail of satisfying or of benefiting its customers. Now it is essential for us to do with our hearts as the company must do with its reservoir. We must keep our hearts pure; for if the heart be not pure, the life can not be pure. It is quite im possible that it should be so.
The Wicked Heart. — An officer in India had tamed a leopard. From the time when it was quite a kitten he had brought it up, till it went about the house like a cat, and everybody played with it; but he was sitting in his chair one day asleep, and the leopard licked his hand — licked it in all innocence; but as he licked, the skin was broken, and the taste of blood came to the leopard, and from that moment it was not content to dwell with men. It rushed forth to kill, and was no more at ease till it reached the jungle. That leopard, tho tamed, was a leopard still. So a man, sobered by moral motives, but unchanged in heart, is a fallen man still, and the taste of blood, I mean the taste of sin, will soon reveal the tiger in him. Wash a Russian, and you find a Tartar; tempt a moralist, and you discover a sinner! The thin crust of goodness, which is formed by education, soon disappears under temptation. You may be every thing that looks like good, but except you have been born again you must remember you are still capable of the direst evil.
The Trouble Within. — The wise man saith, “As a bird that wandereth from her nest, so is a man that wandereth from his place.” It is not the box that makes the jewel, nor the place that makes the man. “Oh, but any where rather than this!” Yes, and when you get into the place you now covet, you will pine to be back again. A barren tree is none the better for being transplanted. A blind man may stand at many windows before he will improve his view. If it is difficult to produce good works where you are, you will find it still difficult where you wish to be. He who said that he leaped so many yards at Rhodes, was asked to do the same feat at home; surely the place could not take away his strength, nor give it to him.
Oh, sirs, the real difficulty lies not without you, but within you.
Gospel Hardened. — It is quite possible for a minister to preach too long to any one set of people, if they get so accustomed to the tones of his voice that they are never aroused. The “click, click” of the mill gets to be so custoinary to the miller that he goes to sleep. Over in Bankside, I am told, when a man is first put inside a boiler while the rivets are being fastened, he cannot stop long, the noise is so dreadful, but after a time the boiler-maker gets so used to the horrible din that he can almost go to sleep inside. Well, now, so it really is under any ministry when the people get gospel-hardened. The Hardening Heart. — Have you ever seen sponges that have been turned into flints? Well, that is a slow process, it takes a long time. The like process, however, is gradually happening to you; every year you are getting more flinty. The drip, drip, drip of this world’s care and sin is petrifying you. You are getting stony. It strikes me the best time to repent in is this moment; and the very best season in which to fly to Jesus is now. Ere yet the clock has ticked again your heart will have grown more callous. It certainly does not soften. When will there be any influence more potent than there is now to help you?