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THE DECEITFULNESS OF THE HEART

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Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 25, 1869

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 33, No. 22.

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THE DECEITFULNESS OF THE HEART.

By Dudley Marvin Canright

“The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? Jer. xvii, 5.
Never was there a more truthful declaration than the above. God, who knows every heart and who has tried all hearts for the last six thousand years, knew full well the truth of this strong language, by this long trial. Yet it is a fact that none but a thoroughly converted, contrite, humble heart will he accept. Man loves to trust in his own ways, and the carnal heart, rather than yield these, will set aside the plainest requirement of God’s law. I have seen many illustrations of this while preaching the present truth, and presenting the claims of God’s law. I often find persons who say that they would do anything, and make any sacrifice to please God and obtain eternal life, if they only knew what to do. They evidently think that they would. They do not know their own hearts. They are deceived. They think that they are very good and willing to do right, but that somehow God is to blame for not giving themmore light and knowledge and making duty plainer. Now, I have seen scores of just such persons have the light of truth presented before them so plainly and clearly, that they would acknowledge that they saw it and saw their duty to keep God’s commandments. They had not a Bible objection to bring. Then did they do as they said they would? Did they obey? Far from it. They now began to plead inconvenience, business, opposition of the world, &c. Here the deception of their own carnal hearts is revealed, and it is plain to be seen that they love the world more than God. How unwise then to trust our own hearts.
D. M. CANRIGHT.
Bank Village, N. H.