Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 15, 1857
ON KEEPING THE HEART. No. 11.
Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.—Proverbs iv, 23.
(Concluded)
I now proceed to improve and apply the subject:
I. You have seen that the keeping of the heart is the great work of a Christian, in which the very soul and life of religion consists, and without which all other duties are of no value in the sight of God. Hence, to the consternation of hypocrites and formal professors, I infer,
1. That the pains and labors which many persons have undergone in religion are of no value, and will turn to no good account. Many splendid services have been performed by men, which God will utterly reject: they will not stand on record in order to an eternal acceptance, because the performers took no heed to keep their hearts with God. This is that fatal rock on, which thousands of vain professors dash and ruin themselves eternally; they are exact about the externals of religion, but regardless of their hearts. O how many hours have some professors spent in hearing, praying, reading and conferring! and yet, as to the main end of religion, they might as well have sat still and done nothing, the great work, I mean heart-work, being all the while neglected. Tell me, vain professor, when did you shed a tear for the deadness, hardness, unbelief or earthliness of your heart? And do you think your easy religion can save you? If so, you must invert Christ's words, and say, Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leadeth to life, and many there be that go in thereat! Hear me, ye self deluding hypocrite; you who have put off God with heartless duties; you who have acted in religion as if you had been blessing an idol; you who could not search your heart, and regulate it, and exercise it in your performances; how will you abide the coming of the Lord? how will you hold up your head before him, when he shall say, O you dissembling, false-hearted man! how could you profess religion? with what face could you so often tell me that you loved me, when you knew in your conscience that your heart was not with me? O tremble to think what a fearful judgment it is to be given over to a heedless and careless heart, and then to have religious duties instead of a rattle to quiet and still the conscience!
2. I infer for their humiliation, that unless the people of God spend more time and pains about their hearts than they ordinarily do, they are never like to do God much service, or to possess much comfort in this world. I may say of that Christian who is remiss and careless in keeping his heart, as Jacob said of Reuben, Thou shalt not excel. It grieves me to see how many Christians there are who live at a poor, low rate, both of service and comfort, and who go up and down, dejected and complaining. But how can they expect it should be otherwise, while they live so carelessly? O how little of their time is spent in the closet, in searching, humbling, and quickening their hearts!
Christian, you say your heart is dead, and do you wonder that it is, so long as you keep it not with the fountain of life? If your body had been dieted as your soul has, that would have been dead too. And you may never expect that your heart will be in a better state until you take more pains with it.
O Christians! I fear your zeal and strength have run in the wrong channel; I fear that most of us may take up the Church's complaint: "They have made me the keeper of the vineyards, but mine own vineyard have I not kept." Two things have eaten up the time and strength of the professors of this generation, and sadly diverted them from heart-work.
1st. Fruitless controversies, started by Satan, I doubt not for the very purpose of taking us off from practical godliness, to make us puzzle our heads when we should be inspecting our hearts. How little have we regarded the observation: "It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace, and not with meats, (that is, with disputes and controversies about meats,) which have not profited them that have been occupied therein." How much better it is to see men live exactly, than to hear them dispute with subtlety! These unfruitful questions, how have they rent the churches, wasted time and spirits, and taken Christians off from their main business! What think you, would it not have been better if the questions agitated among the people of God of late had been such as these:—"How shall a man distinguish the special from the common operations of the Spirit? How may a soul discern its first backslidings from God? How may a backsliding Christian recover his first love? How may the heart be preserved from unreasonable thoughts in duty? How may a bosom sin be discovered and mortified?" &c. Would not this course have tended more to the honor of religion and the comfort of souls? I am ashamed that the professors of this generation are yet insensible of their folly. O that God would turn their disputes and contentions into practical godliness!
2d. Worldly cares and incumbrances have greatly increased the neglect of our hearts. The heads and hearts of multitudes have been filled with such a crowd and noise of worldly business that they have lamentably declined in their zeal, their love, their delight in God, and their heavenly, serious, and profitable way of conversing with men. How miserably have we entangled ourselves in this wilderness of trifles! Our discourses, our conferences, nay, our very prayers are tinged with it. We have had so much to do without, that we have been able to do but little within. And how many precious opportunities have we thus lost? How many admonitions of the Spirit have passed over unfruitfully? How often has the Lord called to us, when our worldly thoughts have prevented us from hearing? But there certainly is a way to enjoy God even in our worldly employments. If we lose our views of him when engaged in our temporal affairs, the fault is our own. Alas! that Christians should stand at the door of eternity, having more work upon their heads than their time is sufficient for, and yet be filling their heads and hearts with trifles!
3. I infer, lastly, for the awakening of all, that if the keeping of the heart be the great work of a Christian, then there are but few real Christians in the world. If every one who has learned the dialect of Christianity, and who can talk like a saint; if every one who has gifts and parts, and who can make shift to preach, pray, or discourse like a Christian: in a word, if all such as associate with the people of God and partake of ordinances may pass for Christians, then indeed the number is great. But alas! how few can be found, if you judge them by this rule,—how few are there who conscientiously keep their hearts, watch their thoughts, and look scrupulously to their motives! Indeed there are few closet-men among professors. It is easier for men to be reconciled to any other duties in religion than to these. The profane part of the world will not so much as meddle with the outside of any religious duties, and least of all with these; and as to the hypocrite, though he may be very particular in externals, you can never persuade him to undertake this inward, this difficult work; this work, to which there is no inducement from human applause; this work, which would quickly discover what the hypocrite cares not to know; so that by general consent this heart-work is left to the hands of a few retired ones, and I tremble to think in how few hands it is.
II. If the keeping of the heart is so important a business; if such great advantages result from it; if so many valuable interests be wrapt up in it, then let me call upon the people of God every where to engage heartily in this work. O study your hearts, watch your hearts, keep your hearts! Away with fruitless controversies and all idle questions; away with empty names and vain shows; away with unprofitable discourse and bold censures of others, and turn in upon yourselves. O that this day, this hour you would resolve upon doing so!
Reader, methinks I shall prevail with you. All that I beg for is this, that you would step aside oftener to talk with God and your own heart; that you would not suffer every trifle to divert you; that you would keep a more true and faithful account of your thoughts and affections; that you would seriously demand of your own heart at least every evening, O my heart, where hast thou been to-day, and what has engaged thy thoughts?82If all that has been said by way of inducement be not enough, I have yet some motives to offer you.
1. The studying, observing, and diligently keeping your own heart, will surprisingly help you to understand the deep mysteries of religion. An honest, well-experienced heart is an excellent help to the head. Such a heart will serve for a commentary on a great part of the Scriptures. By means of such a heart you will have a better understanding of divine things than the most learned (graceless) man ever had, or can have; you will not only have a clearer, but a more interesting and profitable apprehension of them. A man may discourse orthodoxly and profoundly of the nature and effects of faith, the troubles and comforts of conscience, and the sweetness of communion with God, who never felt the efficacy and sweet impression of these things upon his own soul. But how dark and dry are his notions compared with those of an experienced Christian!
2. The study and observation of your own heart will powerfully secure you against the dangerous and infecting errors of the times in which you live. For what think you is the reason why so many professors have departed from the faith, giving heed to fables? why have so many been led away by the error of the wicked? why have those who have sown corrupt doctrines had such plentiful harvests among us, but because they have met with a race of professors who never knew what belongs to practical godliness and the study and keeping of their hearts?
3. Your care and diligence in keeping your heart will prove one of the best evidences of your sincerity. I know no external act of religion which truly distinguishes the sound from the unsound professor. It is marvelous how far hypocrites go in all external duties; how plausibly they can order the outward man, hiding all their indecencies from the observation of the world. But they take no heed to their hearts; they are not in secret what they appear to be in public; and before this test no hypocrite can stand. They may, indeed, in a fit of terror, or on a death-bed, cry out of the wickedness of their hearts; but such extorted complaints are worthy of no regard. No credit, in law, is to be given to the testimony of one upon the rack, because it may be supposed that the extremity of his torture will make him say any thing to get relief. But if self-jealousy, care and watchfulness be the daily workings and frames of your heart, you have some evidence of your sincerity.
4. How comfortable and how profitable would all ordinances and duties be to you, if your heart was faithfully kept. What lively communion might you have with God every time you approach him if your heart was in a right frame! You might then say with David, "My meditation of Him shall be sweet." It is the indisposition of the heart which renders ordinances and secret duties so comfortless to some. They strive to raise their hearts to God, now pressing this argument upon them, then that, to quicken and affect them; yet they often get nearly through the exercise before their hearts begin to be interested in it; and sometimes they go away no better than they came. But the Christian whose heart is prepared by being constantly kept, enters immediately and heartily into his duties; he outstrips his sluggish neighbor, gets the first sight of Christ in a sermon, the first seat from Christ in a sacrament, the first communication of grace and love in secret prayer. Now if there be any thing valuable and comfortable in ordinances and private duties, look to your heart and keep it; I beseech you.
5. An acquaintance with your own heart will furnish you a fountain of matter in prayer. The man who is diligent in heart-work, will be richly supplied with matter in his addresses to God. He will not be confused for want of thoughts; his tongue will not falter for want of expressions.
6. The most desirable thing in the world, viz., the revival of religion among a people, may be effected by means of what I am urging upon you.
O that I might see the time when professors shall not walk in a vain show; when they shall please themselves no more with a name to live, while they are spiritually dead; when they shall be no more a company of frothy, vain persons; but when holiness shall shine in their conversation, and awe the world, and command reverence from all that are around them; when they shall warm the heart of those who come near them, and cause it to be said, God is in these men of a truth. And may such a time be expected? Until heart-work becomes the business of professors, I have no hope of seeing a time so blessed! Does it not grieve you to see how religion is contemned and trampled under foot, and the professors of it ridiculed and scorned in the world? Professors, would you recover your credit? would you obtain an honorable testimony in the consciences of your very enemies? Then keep your hearts.
7. By diligence in keeping our hearts we should prevent the occasions of fatal scandals and stumbling-blocks to the world. Wo to the world because of offences!
Keep your heart faithfully, and you will be prepared for any situation or service to which you may be called. This, and this only can properly fit you for usefulness in any station; but with this you can endure prosperity or adversity; you can deny yourself, and turn your hand to any work. Thus Paul turned every circumstance to good account, and made himself so eminently useful. When he preached to others, he provided against being cast away himself; he kept his heart; and every thing in which he excelled seems to have had a close connection with his diligence in keeping his heart.
9. If the people of God would diligently keep their hearts, their communion with each other would be unspeakably more inviting and profitable. Then "how goodly would be thy tents, O Jacob, and thy tabernacles, O Israel?" It is the fellowship which the people of God have with the Father and with the Son that kindles the desires of others to have communion with them. I tell you, that if saints would be persuaded to spend more time and take more pains about their hearts, there would soon be such a divine excellence in their conversation that others would account it no small privilege to be with or near them. It is the pride, passion and earthliness of our hearts, that has spoiled Christian fellowship. Why is it that when Christians meet they are often jarring and contending, but because their passions are unmortified? Whence come their uncharitable censures of their brethren, but from their ignorance of themselves? Why are they so rigid and unfeling toward those who have fallen, but because they do not feel their own weakness and liability to temptation? Why is their discourse so light and unprofitable when they meet, but because their hearts are earthly and vain? But now, if Christians would study their hearts more and keep them better, the beauty and glory of communion would be restored. They would divide no more, contend no more, censure rashly no more. They will feel right one toward another, when each is daily humbled under a sense of the evil of his own heart.
10. Lastly:—Keep your heart, and then the comforts of the Spirit and the influence of all ordinances will be more fixed and lasting than they now are. Do the consolations of God seem small to you? Ah, you have reason to be ashamed that the ordinances of God, as to their quickening and comforting effects, should make so light and transient an impression on your heart.
Now, reader, consider well these special benefits of keeping the heart which I have mentioned. Examine their importance. Are they small matters? Is it a small matter to have your understanding assisted? your endangered soul rendered safe? your sincerity proved? your communion with God sweetened? your heart filled with matter for prayer? Is it a small thing to have the power of godliness? all fatal scandals removed? an instrumental fitness to serve Christ obtained? the communion of saints restored to its primitive glory? and the influence of ordinances abiding in the souls of saints? If these are no common blessings, no ordinary benefits, then surely it is a great and indispensable duty to keep the heart with all diligence.
And now are you inclined to undertake the business of keeping your heart? are you resolved upon it? I charge you, then, to engage in it earnestly. Away with every cowardly feeling, and make up your mind to encounter difficulties. Draw your armor from the word of God. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in its commands, its promises, its threatenings; let it be fixed in your understanding, your memory, your conscience, your affections. You must learn to wield the sword of the Spirit (which is the word of God) familiarly, if you would defend your heart and conquer your enemies. You must call yourself frequently to an account; examine yourself as in the presence of the all-seeing God; bring your conscience, as it were, to the bar of judgment. Beware how you plunge yourself into a multiplicity of worldly business; how you practise upon the maxims of the world; and how you venture at all to indulge your depraved propensities. You must exercise the utmost vigilance to discover and check the first symptoms of departure from God, the least decline of spirituality, or the least indisposition to meditation by yourself, and holy conversation and fellowship with others. These things you must undertake, in the strength of Christ, with invincible resolution in the outset. And if you thus engage in this great work, be assured you shall not spend your strength for naught; comforts which you never felt or thought of will flow in upon you from every side. The diligent prosecution of this work will constantly afford you the most powerful excitements to vigilance and ardor in the life of faith, while it increases your strength and wears out your enemies. And when you have kept your heart with all diligence a little while; when you have fought the battles of this spiritual warfare, gained the ascendancy over the corruptions within, and vanquished the enemies without, then God will open the gate of heaven to you, and give you the portion which is promised to them that overcome. Awake, then, this moment; get the world under your feet; pant not for the things which a man may have, and eternally lose his soul; but bless God that you may have his service here, and the glory hereafter which he appoints to his chosen.
"Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant, make you perfect in every good work to do his will, working in you that which is well pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen."—Flavel.
THE JOYS OF THE NEW EARTH.
No sickness there,
No weary wasting of the frame away,
No dread of Summer's bright and fervid ray,
No hidden grief,
No wild and cheerless vision of despair;
No vain petition for a swift relief.
No tearful eye, no broken heart are there.
Care has no home
Within that realm of ceaseless prayer and song;
Its tossing billows break and melt in foam
Far from the mansions of the spirit throng.
The storm's black wing
Is never spread athwart celestial skies;
Its wailings blend not with the voice of Spring,
And some too tender flow'ret fades and dies.
No night distils
Its chilling dews upon the tender frame;
No morn is needed there! the light which fills
The land of glory, from its Maker came.
No parted friends
O'er mournful recollections have to weep—
No bed of death enduring love attends
To watch the coming of a pulseless sleep.
No withered flower,
Or blasted bud, celestial gardens know!
No scorching blast, or fierce descending shower,
Scatters destruction like a ruthless foe.
No battle word
Startles the sacred hosts with fear and dread;
The song of peace, Creation's morning heard,
Is sung wherever angels' footsteps tread,
Let us depart,
If home like this await the weary soul!
Look up, thou stricken one! thy wounded heart
Shall bleed no more at sorrow's stern control.
THE SCRIPTURE AUTHORITY AND OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH EXAMINED
By Rev. W. M. O'Hanlon
From the Bibliotheca Sacra and American Biblical Repository.
THE SCRIPTURE AUTHORITY AND OBLIGATION OF THE SABBATH EXAMINED.
BY REV. W. M. O'HANLON, BURNLEY, LANCASHIRE.
(Concluded)
So far, even those who are opposed to the idea of any special sanctification of the day "under the law," would probably go; but there were profounder principles involved, and more sacred and diviner requirements enjoined, to which they are not willing to assent. An elaborate attempt was made by Spencer, in the seventeenth century, to prove that only a cessation from labor was demanded by the Jewish statute. And this dogma, advocated by him in his work on the Hebrew ritual, received the sanction of writers from whom better things might have been expected. Vitringa, for example, observes: "The lawgiver commences with the summary of the commandment, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy, and then explains, in the latter part, what keeping holy implies. This continuation contains directions to cease from work, and to extend this rest to others. And wherever this command of God is repeated, we find only the injunction to abstain entirely from work, which proves, in our opinion, that the keeping holy of the seventh day consisted merely, as the words of the commandment read, in entire abstinence from work." But this view is irreconcilable with the general teaching of the Old Testament Scriptures, which must surely be regarded as supplying the best commentary upon the meaning of the statute. We cannot do better, than here refer83the reader to the remarks of Hengstenberg, in which he argues for a more exalted conception of the Jewish law, showing that the peculiar, the double sacrifice, offered on the Sabbath [Num. xxviii, 10] the strong and special exhortations as to the study of the law of the Lord, [Deut. vi, 6, 7; Lev. x, 11,] the ancient practice of the synagogue worship, [2 Kings iv, 23,] and the injunction requiring "a holy convocation" on this day, [Lev. xxiii, 3,]—all, more or less directly, serve to demonstrate the loftier character and claims conceded to the Sabbath under the Mosaic economy. Vitringa, indeed, endeavors to set aside the idea of assemblies for worship taking place on that day, by proposing to render the words in Leviticus, "a proclamation of holiness." But as Hengstenberg has shown, Isa. iv, 5 disproves this, where the same Hebrew word is employed; he might have added Isa. i, 13, and Num. xxviii, 18-25, as also demonstrative of the falsity of this rendering. Such holy convocations or assemblies were doubtless signalized by the presentation of sacrifice, where this was lawful. But as this was lawful only in one place, when the people had settled in the promised land, these convocations must have been designed elsewhere, throughout the tribes, only for such moral and religious purposes as could be realized apart from sacrificial services; while in all instances and in all situations, the elements of instruction and spiritual worship must, more or less, have found a place in these assemblies. This, then, was not only a special period for the cultivation of domestic piety, for it was "the Sabbath of the Lord in all their dwellings;" but throughout all their borders, the seventh day was to be one of "holy convocation" likewise; so that provision was thus made for the development of religion, in all its social aspects, in immediate connection with that day which had been, from the first, "blessed" and "sanctified" of God. We read in Ex. xvi, 29, that the Israelites were commanded not to move out of their places on the Sabbath day; but it is evident this prohibition had reference only to their going forth to gather manna in the wilderness; for the law of "convocation" required them to leave their habitations for the public service of God on the seventh day. And the prescription of that service, as we have seen, amply refutes the position of those who would limit the meaning of the fourth commandment to a mere cessation from accustomed labor.
Such a limitation, we may further remark, finds no sanction or authority in the writings of the prophets, the divinely inspired interpreters of the laws of God among the Jewish people. The language of Isa. lviii, 13, 14, already adduced, would, if understood in this negative and inferior sense, be stripped of the greater part of its force and beauty; and so also would the words of the same prophet, in chapter lvi: "Thus saith the Lord, Keep ye judgment and do justice, for my salvation is near to come and my righteousness to be revealed. Blessed is the man that doeth this, and the son of man that layeth hold on it; that keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and keepeth his hand from doing any evil." Indeed, it is impossible to examine either the historical or prophetic portions of the Old Testament, without being convinced of the vast importance which the God of Israel attached to this right and religious observance of the day. In the twentieth chapter of Ezekiel we discover the signal influence which the neglect and pollution of the Sabbathic seasons, including of course the weekly Sabbath, had upon the destinies of the entire people. This had been one of the principal causes of the punishment and privation endured in the wilderness (even to their exclusion from the promised land) by the generation which had been rescued from Egyptian bondage. "I would not bring them into the land which I had given them, flowing with milk and honey, which is the glory of all lands, because they despised my judgments, and walked not in my statutes, but polluted my Sabbaths, for their heart went after their idols." And now, this was among the chief national sins which had led the Most High to abandon the people for seventy years, during which they wore the chain of captivity in Babylon, and "the iron entered into their soul;" while Ezekiel, among the captives by the river of Chebar, was inspired of the Lord to recall to their memory the transgressions they had committed, and to urge the duties of penitence, humiliation, and prayer.
We have spoken of "the right and religious observance" of the Sabbath, under the Jewish dispensation, and the tenor of preceding remarks has been, that such observance involved not merely the negative element of rest, but the positive element also of spiritual culture and worship. The portion of Ezekiel just cited serves to corroborate this view, since it is clear that while the Israelites did not, so far at least as their history shows, violate generally the law of rest, they nevertheless were guilty of polluting the Sabbath, and that to such an extent as to subject themselves to national excision; which could therefore only have been through the neglect of those higher principles, for the sake of which chiefly respite from labor was valuable and important.
In estimating the import and usage, the genius and bearing of the Jewish Sabbath, we are in danger of falling into one of two opposite extremes; either underrating its spirituality of character and design, on the one hand, and so submerging it into the rank of a mere outward civil statute; or, on the other hand, transferring the associations of the present economy back to times when God had not revealed himself in such glorious and gracious forms as those which it is our privilege to witness, and thus investing the ordinance with a measure of lustre, such as could not have been realized by worshipers in Jewish synagogue or shrine. Examples illustrating both these extremes might readily be adduced from writers on this subject, who have evidently been guided by their spiritual or unspiritual tendencies, and have not been sufficiently alive to the necessity of exploring fully and impartially the nature and relations of the Sabbathic institute, as given, or rather re-constructed, by Moses, and enforced by the inspired teachers who followed him in long succession. The "keeping" of the day would doubtless take its tone and character from the sphere of religious ideas to which it pertained. The creation of the world, the movements of divine Providence, the preservation of the church, the signal interpositions of God on their behalf as a people, the giving of the law from Sinai, the distinguishing privileges which they enjoyed; these, and such as these, were the highest manifestations of the Divine which had been as yet given. And the study of them would form an appropriate business of the day of public national rest; while the influence which such study exerted, and the measure of the devotion inspired, would depend largely upon the degree of religious susceptibility possessed. The ninety-second Psalm, intended (as the title indicated) for the Sabbath, may be regarded as embodying the highest style of sentiment, and exhibiting the purest and loftiest type of devotion, belonging to the times before the Gospel. But "that which was made glorious, had no glory in this respect, by reason of the glory that excelleth." Far nobler themes, far more wonderful evolutions of the Divine character—those pertaining to redemption—are now to be celebrated by the church of God, under the New Testament dispensation. The shadows have disappeared. The types have vanished. The true light now shineth. A more golden age is running its appointed course. It might then, indeed, be given to a few choice spirits, specially illumined and spiritually elevated above their fellows, to penetrate the veil, and to gaze upon the glories of the coming times, and thus to anticipate, in part, the more exalted visions of the future. But, at best, they could do little more than catch the distant radiance that gilded the mountain tops; whereas the meridian brightness of the Sun of Righteousness is now the cheap and common possession of all who enjoy the Gospel. We have risen to a more elevated position. The church at large has passed from the state of nonage to maturity, from twilight into day. And all her institutions, of whatever kind, must partake of the richer lustre and the higher perfection which pertain to this more advanced, this final stage in the history of the Divine dealings with the children of men, "The law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ."
TRUE NOBILITY.
If it be an ennobling fact that one can trace his lineage through a succession of illustrious nobles, how much must be the dignity which rests on one who can claim to be a child, not of the royalty that is doomed to die, but of the King of kings, the everlasting Father, who is throned on the riches and the glory of the universe. It is this conviction that dims the splendor of an earthly crown, and sheds a halo of beauty and of dignity upon the head of the orphan and the hovel of the peasant.
Drawing Near to God.
By Editor
The inspired Psalmist said that it was good for him to draw near unto God. He spoke from experience. Some of my readers have had a similar experience. It is a comfort to believe this article will be read by some who know that it is good to draw near to God. What are some of the effects of so doing—effects which led the Psalmist to pronounce it good?
By drawing near to God, we are made to feel that he is love. It is not difficult to form some conceptions of the power, wisdom and justice of God. We can do all this while we remain at a distance from Him. But to know the meaning of the expression, God is love, we must draw near to him, we are in an atmosphere of love. We feel that God is love. All dread and distrust are banished. We see the propriety of the expression, God is love. We have some knowledge of its meaning. It is the most precious knowledge that we can possess.
By drawing nearer to God, the love of sin is destroyed. No man feels any desire to sin when the love of God is shed abroad in his soul as it must needs be, when he really draws near to God. The love of sin still remaining in the converted soul, is the great obstacle to progress, and the great source of sorrow. It is the great business of Satan to multiply occasions for exciting that love, and causing it to lead to action. In repressing it and subduing it, consists the warfare that is carried on by every regenerate soul. While we are near to God, sin has no power. The soul is absorbed in an object so lovely that it can see no beauty in sin. So long as the soul is near to God, so long is the love of sin held in abeyance.
By drawing near to God, we forget the world, its distracting cares, and its tendency to mar our peace, and to lead us astray from duty. We are constrained to have daily intercourse with the world, and it is impossible for us not to be influenced by the scenes and circumstances by which we are surrounded. So far as those influences are unfavorable to holiness, we need at times to withdraw from them, and to fortify ourselves against them. This can be effectually done, only by drawing near to God. Then the world is no longer seen in a false light, and its influence for evil is destroyed.
By drawing near to God we get clearer views of the beauty of holiness. This is the great end of life, the great end of our being—to be holy as God is holy. When we are near to God, we are near to the great exemplar of holiness. We see its beauty and desirableness as we can see it no where else. Being thus in the immediate presence of perfect and infinite holiness, we are in a measure, transformed into the same image. The more we draw near to God, the more holy we shall become. Truly it is good for us to draw near to God.
Meditation and Prayer
MEDITATION and Prayer are like the spies that went to search the land of Canaan, the one views, and the other cuts down; and both bring home a taste of the fairest and sweetest fruits of heaven. Meditation, like the eye, views our mercies; and prayer, like the hand, reacheth them in; or, meditation is like one who goeth abroad to gather in what we want; and prayer, like a ship, brings in what we desire. It is my misery, that I cannot be so perfect as not to want; but it is thy mercy, that I cannot be so miserable, as not to be supplied. Meditation cannot find out a real want, but prayer will bring it an answer of comfort. Lord! if mercy be so free, I will never be poor, but I will meditate to know it; never know it, but I will pray to supply it; and yet not rest, until thou shalt do more for me than I am able to ask or think.