THE HEART by B. F. Manire

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Mar 3, 1887

THE HEART.

By B. F. Manire

THE great trouble with man is a heart-trouble; his great disease, a heart-disease. The heart being right, all else is right; the heart being wrong, all else is wrong. When the fountain-head is pure, the waters that flow from it are pure and refreshing; but when the fountain-head is unclean, its waters are foul and poisonous. On this point the testimony of the Scriptures is full and explicit.

There is a boundless wealth of wisdom for the young in Solomon's admonition to his son: "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." Of a man, he says: "As he thinketh in his heart, so is he." The Saviour declares: "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: these are the things which defile a man." Men, therefore, in their moral character and conduct, are just what their hearts make them.

In the recovery of man from the dominion of sin, the Lord begins with the heart. He applies the remedy at once to the seat of the disease. The healing power of the gospel, when received into the heart, sends its life-restoring currents throughout the entire being. Speaking of the return of his people from a period of sad apostasy, the Lord says, through Jeremiah: "And I will give them a heart to know me, that I am the Lord; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God; for they shall return unto me with their whole heart." Through Ezekiel, he says: "A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh."

The great prominence of the heart in the work of conversion is shown by the wonderful effect of the gospel on those who heard it when it was first preached both to Jews and Gentiles. The heart was opened to attend to the things spoken to the apostles and others. Men were pierced through the heart with the conviction of their own sin in crucifying the Lord of glory. Both men and women believed in Jesus with all the heart, obeyed from the heart, and rejoiced in heart, when they were "delivered from darkness" and "translated into the kingdom of God's dear Son." Indeed, this was one of the distinguishing features of the New Covenant in contrast with the Old, as foretold by Jeremiah, and repeated by Paul. "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts; and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people." The gospel, therefore, is addressed to the heart, is received into the heart, and is enjoyed by the heart. A religion that does not purify the heart is false and ruinous in the highest degree.—B. F. Manire, in Christian Standard.