dwell therein." As Creator and Lord of all, he might claim every one of our hearts. But he hath another title, more endearing and engaging we were sold under sin, and were being dragged away to everlasting darkness and misery, when the Father of mercies kindly interposed; his bowels yearned to see his perverse and rebellious children perishing; so he said, "Deliver them from going down into the pit, for I have found a ransom.' Thus "we are not our own, but are bought with a price."→→ Shall I tell you what that price was?-why, then, "You were redeemed not with corruptible things, such as silver and gold; but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot.

And now, what think you? Is God unreasonable in his demands, when he says, "My son, give me thine heart?"-Paul, writing to Philemon, says, "Wherefore, though I might be much bold to en join that which is convenient, yet for love's sake I rather beseech thee." So here: God might enjoin you, upon your peril, to surrender your hearts immediately; and declare, that, if you hesitate a moment, he would strike you instantly into hell: but, for love's sake, he appears all the Father, beseeching his froward and stubborn children to be reconciled to him, and put themselves again under his protection and care. If a parent were to come to you, and weep over you, and even kneel to you, and in the tenderest expressions remind you with what solicitude he watched over you in your infancy and childhood; how much he has laid out upon you already, and how much more he intends to do for you; and then with tears should entreat you to

love him, and be dutiful to an aged and affectionate father, and not send his grey hairs with sorrow to the grave; I am persuaded there is not one of you but would melt into tears, and, if you could speak at all, would pour out the warmest professions of love and duty. And yet, affectionate and compliable as you would be to an earthly parent, your heavenly Father, it seems, may ask, and entreat, and beseech, and demand, and you be unaffected and insensible under all-though he asks but for his own; what he made, what he maintains, what he purchased. What is all our parade about justice and honesty! With what face can we boast of rendering to "Cæsar the things which are Cæsar's,” while we refuse to give unto " God the things which are God's ?"

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942. Because God alone can keep the heart.

"deceitful above all

This is another reason why we should give them to him. It is certain we cannot keep them ourselves they that know them best have acknowledged, that they are things, and desperately wicked." But perhaps you do not think so. "You do not know but your hearts are very good, and as well under command as you could wish.' And why? because you only try them in things which suit their inclination! Let me propose a trial. Bid your hearts, then, forsake the sine that most easily besets you bid them hate it with perfect hatred bid them love the Bible the better for forbidding it, and denouncing the wrath of God against it. Try that, and then tell me what your hearts are. But I need not wait for your testimony, when so many Christians, who have been well aware of the treachery of their hearts, and have kept them

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with all the diligence they could, have complained, that in the holiest places-when they have been in the house of the Lord, and at the table of the Lord, and when the immediate presence of God made them think themselves secure yet even then their hearts have started aside, like a broken bow, and ran away after any feather that accidentally blew we keep our hearts! when principalities and powers, and spiritual wickednesses in high places, are combined against them? Impossible. We might as well hold the winds in our fists, or bind Satan himself with a cord, and make the prince of darkness our prisoner.-We keep our hearts! Angels, that excel in strength, could not keep them. Nothing but the mighty power of God is equal to it. Down upon your knees, therefore, to the Father of spirits, and beseech him to undertake for you. Take with you words, and say unto him, "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously so will we render the calves of our lips. Asshur shall not save us; we will not ride upon horses; neither will we say to the work of our hands, Ye are our gods.' (Hos. xiv. 2) we renounce all dependance on our own arm, or on any arm of flesh; Lord, keep us; Lord, save us, or we perish.' And if the Lord should be pleased to say, My son, I consent to receive thee; and since thou canst not keep thy heart thyself, I will keep it for thee;' then you will be safe. So saith the Psalmist: "He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High, shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou.. trust his truth shall be thy shield and buckler." (Psal. xci. 1, 4.) So saith a greater than he :." My,

Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and none is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." (John x. 29.)-Be content to leave them there. If ever you should (as sometimes, through an overweening presumption on your own wisdom and watchfulness, you may) discharge God of his trust, and take your hearts into your own keeping ; as sure as ever, and as soon as ever, you do this, you fall: the enemy, that lieth in wait to deceive, seizes the favourable opportunity, and your hearts are gone before you suspect them to be in danger. I repeat it, therefore, again; when you have put your hearts into God's hands, be content to leave them there. Safer they cannot be. He that keepeth thee will not slumber. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.... The Lord is thy shade upon thy right hand :"" and the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”— It was this made the Apostle, amidst all his perils, so composed and cheerful. How sweetly does he sing! "Nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to keep what I have committed to him against that day." (2 Tim. i. 12.) Can they say this, who have given their hearts to the world, or sin? Can they meet trouble, can they meet death, with serenity and exultation, confident of their safety for eternity? It requires no answer.

3. Because God alone can heal our hearts.

Our hearts are not only exposed to enemies without, but infected with distempers within ; distempers so malignant and mortal as to baffle the utmost efforts of human skill to cure. What can you do your

selves, or what can the wisest and holiest men on earth do, towards sanctifying, or softening, or enlarging, or strengthening your hearts? You might as well think to cure the stone by a plaster on the forehead, as to heal the distempers of the heart by human counsels and exhortations. For example.

As to the impurity of the heart.-Some may be better varnished over than others (to allude to our Saviour's comparison of whited sepulchres,) but all are naturally full of all manner of uncleanness. "Out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornication, theft, false witness, blasphemy: these are the things which defile a man :" and sooner might the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots, than a natural man cleanse his heart from all or any one of those fleshly lusts. Some there are, who are vain enough to think they can do it; and, when God hath pointed them to the Fountain he hath opened for sin and for uncleanness, they have been ready to say, as Naaman to Elisha, “Are not Abana and Pharpar, rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? may I not wash in them and be clean ?" (2 Kings v. 12:)Will not our own tears wash away sin as well as the blood of Christ?'-Again: there are others who are vain enough to think they have done it, because they have set up an external reformation, though the stain upon the conscience is as deep a crimson as before. Perhaps, with a great deal of labour, they may make one small stream a little clearer and weeter than it used to be; but, having no salt to rast into the fountain-no grace to purify the heart all will be presently as foul and putrid as ever,

བབས