Resolutions and Inclinations.
By J. Clarke
MEN resolve and re-resolve, and thus resolutions are broken repeatedly, until (very often) the person who makes them becomes discouraged and gives up trying to reform. His mind has been enlightened, he sees he must conform to the word of God or be lost; he resolves, and, full of courage, he is sure he shall keep his vows. But temptation comes, and his resolutions are swept away as the winter floods sweep the floating ice, once so firm and solid. Again he resolves, and again, and again, until often he sinks in despair, or runs madly in what he terms the sphere fate has allotted to him. Why is this? Ah, his mistake lies in this: when he made his vow to reform, he either forgot, or overlooked, the fact that inclination was stronger than resolution. He did not consider that the inclinations or affections of the heart, strengthened by habit, were as much stronger than the resolutions of the understanding, as the floods which swell the waters of the mighty stream are stronger than the ice with which the frosts of winter have encased it. A man will, in the end, follow his inclinations, or affections; for the present, circumstances may hinder him, or fear, or interest, may lead him to deny his darling sin; but according to the laws of nature he will eventually follow the bent of his inclinations. The Scriptures truly teach that the carnal mind cannot become subject to the law of God; and here in a nutshell is the whole doctrine of man's moral inability, about which men called divines have wasted much paper, ink, lungs, and temper. Well, then, what shall the poor man do, who has resolved, and re-resolved, again and again, until he has lost all respect for himself, and almost lost his hope in God? Why, the case is plain: let him (if he has become fully convinced of his own utter helplessness) cry to God to change these unwholesome inclinations, these vile, perverted affections, and set up Jesus Christ in the heart. Let him cry to God that Jesus may be formed within him the hope of glory; or let him cry to God as David did, "Create within me a clean heart, and renew within me a right spirit." Now he has got the clue, (the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him), he needs no new and oft-repeated, oft-broken resolutions now. No, for with his newly-formed acquaintance, the pure Spirit of God dwelling within him, he runs with joy in the way of God's commandments, the law written on his heart has reversed his inclinations and affections; the knot is untied, the mystery solved.
J. CLARKE.