Belief Influenced by the Heart.
By Henry Seymour
In a letter recently received from a gentleman who stands high in the medical profession, he says: "You speak as though it is in a man's power to believe a thing or not, just as he pleases. Now, it is evident to me that the will has nothing to do with believing. We believe or disbelieve because we cannot help it. Convictions are the result of evidence which we cannot resist. Such facts and evidence may be brought to bear upon the mind with such power, that the man is compelled to believe, whether he will or not, or rather whether it is agreeable to him or not." With all due deference to my learned friend, I affirm that the state of a man's heart has much to do with his belief, and especially so in respect to religious matters. It modifies and moulds his opinions, and oftentimes to a large extent. Here are two men of equal mental endowments. They are alike capable of judging of evidence. And yet, when the evidence is presented, one believes and the other doubts. Why is it so? What makes the difference? It does not lie in their mental capacities nor in the facts in the case, but wholly in the state of their hearts. One is open to conviction. He loves the truth and is willing and desirous to know it. The other is unfavorably biased. He is prejudiced against the truth. He does not love it. He does not wish to believe. Let him have a new heart, a right heart. Let the love of God be shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit, and, all else remaining the same, he will believe just as the other man believes. He will then see the truth as with new eyes, and he will wonder that he did not so see it before. So was it with Saul of Tarsus. And so has it been with thousands and tens of thousands in other instances. The state of many a man's heart blinds his mind to the truth, as in the case of the Jews with respect to Christ. They have no desire to believe that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. And being filled with prejudice, they are in no state to investigate the facts. They are not open to conviction. They have no heart to pray to the "Father of light" that he would open their eyes, and lead them into the knowledge of the truth. They are in this regard like Paine, and multitudes of his disciples. In the distress of his last sickness he frequently called out, "Lord Jesus! help me." And when he was asked whether, from his so often calling upon the Saviour, it was to be inferred that he believed the Gospel, he replied: "I have no wish to believe on that subject." Infidels as a class have no wish to believe. They prefer not to believe. And, instead of examining the evidences with candor, as they ought to do in a matter of so vast importance, they wilfully close their eyes against them, and seek to confirm themselves more strongly in their unbelief. The great corrective of infidelity is a right heart. It springs from an "evil heart." Let the heart be made right toward God, let a man love him, and desire to know and do his will, as all should, and his infidelity will soon be put to flight, as has been seen in thousands of instances. It is not men of weak minds alone that are believers. Men of the most gifted minds that the world has known have been believers. Daniel Webster was one of this class. As he approached his end he strongly affirmed his belief in the Bible, and dictated amongst others the following words to be engraven on his tombstone: "My heart has always assured and reassured me that the Gospel of Jesus Christ must be a Divine reality." The Saviour regarded unbelief as having its seat in the heart, or he would not have characterized it as a sin. Speaking of sending the Comforter, He said: "And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment. Of sin, because they believe not on me." Not to believe on Christ is a sin, and one of the greatest of sins, because the evidence is so abundant and clear. It is so abundant and clear, that a man who has a heart to believe cannot doubt.—Rev. Henry Seymour, in Christian at Work.