'We fear this wondrous rule of Thine, Because we have not reached Thy heart; Not venturing our all on Thee, We may not know how good Thou art.'

Jean Sophia Pigott.

Chapter X.

Our hearts kept for Jesus.

_'Keep my heart; it is Thine own;_ _It is now Thy royal throne.'_

'It is a good thing that the heart be established with grace,' and yet some of us go on as if it were not a good thing even to hope for it to be so.

We should be ashamed to say that we had behaved treacherously to a friend; that we had played him false again and again; that we had said scores of times what we did not really mean; that we had professed and promised what, all the while, we had no sort of purpose of performing. We should be ready to go off by next ship to New Zealand rather than calmly own to all this, or rather than ever face our friends again after we had owned it. And yet we are not ashamed (some of us) to say that we are always dealing treacherously with our Lord; nay, more, we own it with an inexplicable complacency, as if there were a kind of virtue in saying how fickle and faithless and desperately wicked our hearts are; and we actually plume ourselves on the easy confession, which we think proves our humility, and which does not lower us in the eyes of others, nor in our own eyes, half so much as if we had to say, 'I have told a story,'

or, 'I have broken my promise.' Nay, more, we have not the slightest hope, and therefore not the smallest intention of aiming at an utterly different state of things. Well for us if we do not go a step farther, and call those by hard and false names who do seek to have an established heart, and who believe that as the Lord meant what He said when He promised, '_No_ good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly,' so He will not withhold _this_ good thing.

Prayer must be based upon promise, but, thank G.o.d, His promises are always broader than our prayers. No fear of building inverted pyramids here, for Jesus Christ is the foundation, and this and all the other 'promises of G.o.d in Him are yea, and in Him amen, unto the glory of G.o.d by us.' So it shall be unto His glory to fulfil this one to us, and to answer our prayer for a 'kept' or 'established' heart. And its fulfilment shall work out His glory, not in spite of us, but '_by_ us.'

We find both the means and the result of the keeping in the 112th Psalm: 'His heart is fixed.' Whose heart? An angel? A saint in glory? No! Simply the heart of the man that feareth the Lord, and delighteth greatly in His commandments. Therefore yours and mine, as G.o.d would have them be; just the normal idea of a G.o.d-fearing heart, nothing extremely and hopelessly beyond attainment.

'Fixed.' How does that tally with the deceitfulness and waywardness and fickleness about which we really talk as if we were rather proud of them than utterly ashamed of them?

Does our heavenly Bridegroom expect nothing more of us? Does His mighty, all-constraining love intend to do no more for us than to leave us in this deplorable state, when He is undoubtedly able to heal the desperately wicked heart (compare verses 9 and 14 of Jeremiah xvii.), to rule the wayward one with His peace, and to establish the fickle one with His grace? Are we not 'without excuse'?

'Fixed, trusting in the Lord.' Here is the means of the fixing--trust. He works the trust in us by sending the Holy Spirit to reveal G.o.d in Christ to us as absolutely, infinitely worthy of our trust. When we 'see Jesus'

by Spirit-wrought faith, we cannot but trust Him; we distrust our hearts more truly than ever before, but we trust our Lord entirely, because we trust Him _only_. For, entrusting our trust to Him, we know that He is able to keep that which we commit (_i. e._ entrust) to Him. It is His own way of winning and fixing our hearts for Himself. Is it not a beautiful one? Thus 'his heart is established.' But we have not quite faith enough to believe that. So what is the very first doubting, and therefore sad thought that crops up? 'Yes, but I am _afraid_ it will not remain fixed.'

That is _your_ thought. Now see what is G.o.d's thought about the case.

'His heart is established, he shall not be afraid.'

Is not that enough? What _is_, if such plain and yet divine words are not? Well, the Gracious One bears with us, and gives line upon line to His poor little children. And so He says, 'The peace of G.o.d, which pa.s.seth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus.' And again, 'Thy thoughts shall be established.' And again, 'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee.'

And to prove to us that these promises can be realized in present experience, He sends down to us through nearly 3000 years the words of the man who prayed, 'Create in me a clean heart, O G.o.d,' and lets us hear twice over the new song put by the same Holy Spirit into his mouth: 'My heart is fixed, O G.o.d, my heart is fixed' (Ps. lvii. 7, cviii. 1).

The heart that is established in Christ is also established for Christ.

It becomes His royal throne, no longer occupied by His foe, no longer tottering and unstable. And then we see the beauty and preciousness of the promise, 'He shall be a Priest upon His throne.' Not only reigning, but atoning. Not only ruling, but cleansing. Thus the throne is established 'in mercy,' but 'by righteousness.'

I think we lose ground sometimes by parleying with the tempter. We have no business to parley with an usurper. The throne is no longer his when we have surrendered it to our Lord Jesus. And why should we allow him to argue with us for one instant, as if it were still an open question?

Don't listen; simply tell him that Jesus Christ _is_ on the long-disputed throne, and no more about it, but turn at once to your King and claim the glorious protection of His sovereignty over you. It is a splendid reality, and you will find it so. He will not abdicate and leave you kingless and defenceless. For verily, 'The Lord _is_ our King; He will save us' (Isa. x.x.xiii. 22).

_Our hearts are naturally_-- _G.o.d can make them_-- Evil, Heb. iii. 12. Clean, Ps. li. 10.

Desperately wicked, Jer. xvii. 9. Good, Luke viii. 15.

Weak, Ezek. xvi. 30. Fixed, Ps. cxii. 7.

Deceitful, Jer. xvii. 9. Faithful, Neh. ix. 8.

Deceived, Isa. xliv. 20. Understanding, 1 Kings iii. 9.

Double, Ps. xii. 2. Honest, Luke viii. 15.

Impenitent, Rom. ii. 5. Contrite, Ps. li. 17.

Rebellious, Jer. v. 23. True, Heb. x. 22.

Hard, Ezek. iii. 7. Soft, Job xxiii. 16.

Stony, Ezek. xi. 19. New, Ezek. xviii. 31.

Froward, Prov. xvii. 20. Sound, Ps. cxix. 80.

Despiteful, Ezek. xxv. 15. Glad, Ps. xvi. 9.

Stout, Isa. x. 12. Established, Ps. cxii. 8.

Haughty, Prov. xviii. 12. Tender, Ephes. iv. 32.

Proud, Prov. xxi. 4. Pure, Matt. v. 8.

Perverse, Prov. xii. 8. Perfect, 1 Chron. xxix. 9.

Foolish, Rom. i. 21. Wise, Prov. xi. 29.

Chapter XI.

Our love kept for Jesus.

_'Keep my love; my Lord, I pour_ _At Thy feet its treasure-store.'_

Not as a mere echo from the morning-gilded sh.o.r.e of Tiberias, but as an ever new, ever sounding note of divinest power, come the familiar words to each of us, 'Lovest thou Me?' He says it who has loved us with an everlasting love. He says it who has died for us. He says it who has washed us from our sins in His own blood. He says it who has waited for our love, waited patiently all through our coldness.

And if by His grace we have said, 'Take my love,' which of us has not felt that part of His very answer has been to make us see how little there was to take, and how little of that little has been kept for Him?

And yet we _do_ love Him! He knows that! The very mourning and longing to love Him more proves it. But we want more than that, and so does our Lord.

He has created us to love. We have a sealed treasure of love, which either remains sealed, and then gradually dries up and wastes away, or is unsealed and poured out, and yet is the fuller and not the emptier for the outpouring. The more love we give, the more we have to give. So far it is only natural. But when the Holy Spirit reveals the love of Christ, and sheds abroad the love of G.o.d in our hearts, this natural love is penetrated with a new principle as it discovers a new Object. Everything that it beholds in that Object gives it new depth and new colours. As it sees the holiness, the beauty, and the glory, it takes the deep hues of conscious sinfulness, unworthiness, and nothingness. As it sees even a glimpse of the love that pa.s.seth knowledge, it takes the glow of wonder and grat.i.tude. And when it sees that love drawing close to its deepest need with blood-purchased pardon, it is intensified and stirred, and there is no more time for weighing and measuring; we must pour it out, all there is of it, with our tears, at the feet that were pierced for love of us.

And what then? Has the flow grown gradually slower and shallower? Has our Lord reason to say, 'My brethren have dealt deceitfully as a brook, and as a stream of brooks they pa.s.s away'? It is humiliating to have found that we could not keep on loving Him, as we loved in that remembered hour when 'Thy time was the time of love.' We have proved that we were not able. Let this be only the stepping-stone to proving that He is able!

There will have been a cause, as we shall see if we seek it honestly. It was not that we really poured out all our treasure, and so it naturally came to an end. We let it be secretly diverted into other channels. We began keeping back a little part of the price for something else. We looked away from, instead of looking away unto Jesus. We did not entrust Him with our love, and ask Him to keep it for Himself.

And what has He to say to us? Ah, He upbraideth not. Listen! 'Thus saith the Lord, I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals.' Can any words be more tender, more touching, to you, to me?

Forgetting all the sin, all the backsliding, all the coldness, casting all that into the unreturning depths of the sea, He says He remembers that hour when we first said, 'Take my love.' He remembers it now, at this minute. He has written it for ever on His infinite memory, where the past is as the present.

His own love is unchangeable, so it could never be His wish or will that we should thus drift away from Him. Oh, 'Come and let us return unto the Lord!' But is there any hope that, thus returning, our flickering love may be kept from again failing? Hear what He says: 'And I will betroth thee unto Me for ever' And again: 'Thou _shalt_ abide _for Me_ many days; so will I also be for thee.' Shall we trust His word or not? Is it worthy of our acceptation or not? Oh, rest on this word of the King, and let Him from this day have the keeping of your love, and He will keep it!

The love of Christ is not an absorbing, but a radiating love. The more we love Him, the more we shall most certainly love others. Some have not much natural power of loving, but the love of Christ will strengthen it.

Some have had the springs of love dried up by some terrible earthquake.

They will find 'fresh springs' in Jesus, and the gentle flow will be purer and deeper than the old torrent could ever be. Some have been satisfied that it should rush in a narrow channel, but He will cause it to overflow into many another, and widen its course of blessing. Some have spent it all on their G.o.d-given dear ones. Now He is come whose right it is; and yet in the fullest resumption of that right, He is so gracious that He puts back an even larger measure of the old love into our hand, sanctified with His own love, and energized with His blessing, and strengthened with His new commandment, 'That ye love one another, as I have loved you.'

In that always very interesting part, called a 'Corner for Difficulties,'

of that always very interesting magazine, _Woman's Work_, the question has been discussed, 'When does love become idolatry? Is it the experience of Christians that the coming in of a new object of affection interferes with entire consecration to G.o.d?' I should like to quote the many excellent answers in full, but must only refer my readers to the number for March 1879. One replies: 'It seems to me that He who is love would not give us an object for our love unless He saw that our hearts needed expansion; and if the love is consecrated, and the friendship takes its stand in Christ, there is no need for the fear that it will become idolatry. Let the love on both sides _be given to G.o.d to keep_, and however much it may grow, the source from which it springs must yet be greater.' Perhaps I may be pardoned for giving, at the same writer's suggestion, a quotation from _Under the Surface_ on this subject. Eleanor says to Beatrice:--

'I tremble when I think How much I love him; but I turn away From thinking of it, just to love him more;-- Indeed, I fear, too much.'

'Dear Eleanor, Do you love him as much as Christ loves us?

Let your lips answer me.'

'Why ask me, dear?

Our hearts are finite, Christ is infinite.'

'Then, till you reach the standard of that love, Let neither fears nor well-meant warning voice Distress you with "too much." For He hath said _How_ much--and who shall dare to change His measure?