THE HEART DEMANDED.

'My son, give me thine heart."-PROVERBS xxiii. 26.

ALL kinds of false religion which have been practised in the world may be resolved into a vain attempt to supply the place of giving the heart to God. It is of the utmost importance to trace all religious conduct to its source, and to fix in our minds that this is the root of all piety which is acceptable to God, the giving him our heart.

Let me propose for your consideration a few of the reasons and grounds on which this duty is obligatory.

He is entitled

In the first place, God deserves our hearts. to them by claims which it is impossible to resist. The favours we receive from God bind us by grateful attachment to give him our hearts. All the blessings we have enjoyed in the course of our existence, all we now enjoy, and all we hope to partake of, flow from the unmerited bounty of our heavenly Father. From him cometh every good and perfect gift, James i. 17. The care and tenderness bestowed by Providence upon our earliest years, it is evident, we had no share in procuring. It was God who poured that tenderness into the hearts of our parents, of which we received the benefit. It was God who conferred upon us all those blessings which have distinguished us in the subsequent years of our lives, who raised up all those connexions and friends, and endearing relations in life, from which our comforts have sprung. He is the Cause of all causes, the ultimate Spring of all good, though he uses second means; the Benefactor and the Author of all being. If, then, there be any claim which gratitude has upon our hearts, this claim is enforced by God.

Besides, the infinite excellences of the Divine nature themselves are such as challenge our highest regard. All that is excellent in the creature is derived from God. The lustre of his perfections eclipses every thing in heaven or on

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earth. The beauty of his character is such as, when properly perceived, excites the highest admiration, and fills up the whole centre of perfection. God, separate from the benefits derived from him, is in himself, entitled to our highest esteem. In the second place, we ought to give God our hearts, because this is the great and principal demand he makes upon us. He is not only entitled to our hearts, but he demands them at our hands. This is the principal requisition he makes of sinful men, My son, give me thine heart.” This is the sum and substance of all the precepts of the Divine law. When God solemnly delivered his laws to the children of Israel in the wilderness, this was the principal, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This," says our Saviour, in explaining the law, "is the first and great commandment," Matt. xxii. 37, 38. All the precepts of religion are summed up in this, because a love to our fellow-creatures dictates an attention to all those subordinate rules of general conduct upon which their happiness depends. "Love is the fulfilling of the law;" it works no ill to its neighbour, Rom. xiii. 10; and so love to God implies a coincidence of our will with his, the patient endurance of all he inflicts, and the prompt discharge of all he prescribes-the due homage and affection of worship; not merely the prostration of the body and the language of the lips, but the expression of the heart; the root of all clearly is the heart. "Man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart." 1 Sam. xvi. 7.

All the substitutes which men can possibly devise, where the heart is not really devoted to God, will be of no account in his sight. The language of the deepest humiliation, and the expression of the most ardent attachment, will be an abomination in the sight of God, if the heart does not accompany them, if they are not streams proceeding by a direct course from that fountain. He strips off every disguise, and looks to the heart. This is the great requisition the Divine Being makes at our hands. He asks not splendid temples, costly sacrifices, nor pompous forms of worship. The universe is so formed as in many respects to reflect his glory and grandeur; but nothing in created nature, nothing in external worship, is acceptable to him, where the heart is foreign and alien to him. There is no place so satisfactory for him to rest in as the heart of his intelligent creatures: a mind penetrated with a sense of sin, touched with gratitude, glowing with love, and prostrating itself in the deepest humiliation before him-this is the place of his rest, and he bows the

heaven itself, and comes down to take possession of such a temple as is furnished by the heart of that man.

Another reason why we should give him our hearts is, that he alone can fill our hearts. There is nothing out of God that is sufficiently capacious and permanent to fill the heart of man. The natural heart forms to itself ideas of happiness that never will be realized, notions of felicity to which there is nothing answerable in the whole circle of created things. It dwells, as it were, in a land of shadows, and images to itself a greatness which the infinite abysses of space are not able to comprehend. Nothing can satisfy that general thirst after happiness which exists where God is not apprehended and enjoyed. Ask that man who has been the most successful in his worldly affairs, whether he has had his heart filled with its objects. Ask the avaricious man, whether he has accumulated wealth enough to fill the void in his heart. He has engrossed much of it, but he is not satisfied. Ask the ambitious man whether he is satisfied with honour, whether he has enough of the applause of the world, whether power has poured itself upon him in a sufficiently copious stream. So far from it, it has only irritated his passions, and rendered him more susceptible of censure, more touched by contempt, more affected by reproach. The void in his heart widens, and he becomes more eager after glory. Thus it is that there is a void in the human heart, which is never completely satisfied until the love of God is shed abroad there. The chasm widens in proportion as created objects fall into it. The particular appetite may be satisfied for the moment, but the thirst after general happiness is increased. But God is sufficient to fill the heart of manyes, of all men-and to diffuse rapture and joy over the inhabitants of heaven itself. No mind is so capacious, no heart is so large and extensive, that God cannot fill it; no desire so great, but there is sufficient in the beneficence of God to satisfy it.

Again we ought to give our hearts to God as a certain means, and the only means, of introducing peace into our hearts. When we have given our hearts to God, and he is enthroned there, the necessary consequence will be, a degree of peace will prevail there. Until this is effected, there will be a collision and an interference between the claims of religion and those of the world, which can never be adjusted. There will be a contradiction between the convictions of conscience, those convictions which depravity can never totally erase, and the unsanctified desires of the mind, which can

never be reconciled. The Jews were accustomed to offer their salutations to their friends in these terms, "Peace be with you.' In doing this, they expressed a wish that their friends might possess all those good things which friendship could dictate. They wished them health, peace of conscience, the favour of the Supreme Being; every thing was comprehended in the term " peace." But the Scriptures tell us that the wicked have no peace: "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked." Isa. lvii. 21. This is equivalent to saying that the wicked have no true happiness; for in denying that they have peace, the Scriptures deny that they have true happiness. And this will appear to be the case the more we explore the subject. Conscience will be heard, and her "still small voice" will destroy all peace. The consciousness that a man is not right, that he is under the threat of God, will destroy his enjoyment, perplex his mind, and fill him with inward confusion. He will read his character as Belshazzar did, on the wall even of a palace. Oh, how many things may, in the hand of God, be the means of bringing his sins to his remembrance, and of disquieting his mind; so that even in the midst of mirth his heart is heavy, and the countenance betrays the tumult of the soul!

Besides this, there will be a predominance of anxiety arising from the very nature of worldly care, until we have given our hearts to God. The solicitude about the affairs of the world will grow and strengthen till it becomes overwhelming. The love of God is the master passion which will cast out the evil and tormenting effects of worldly care. The solicitude, the restlessness, and anxiety, of which many men appear to be the subjects, are not the effect of any great calamity, but of the constant insecurity with which earthly things are held; and nothing will cure this great disease of the mind but the love of God.

In addition to this, the edge of the calamities of life will be blunted by giving our hearts to God. He who has given his heart to God, is secure with respect to his main interest. He is able, after every calamity, to go into the sanctuary, and sing, "Although the fig-tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls: yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation." Hab. iii. 17, 18. Yes, he will rejoice in God as his salvation. He carries his riches with him, because he is rich towards God; his happiness with him, because no being can destroy

it. No angel can step between him and the eternal throne, and intercept his prayers or the communications of the Divine favour. The love of God shed abroad in his heart, and the influences of the Divine Spirit, are the great means of allaying the anxiety of the human mind, and of introducing peace and serenity, a peace which "passeth all understanding," joy and peace in believing.

Did

Another peculiar reason for giving our hearts to God is, because the Divine Being has manifested himself to us under such characters as are calculated to attract our hearts. God appear in Scripture in no other character than that of an avenging Judge, it would be impossible to give him our hearts, upon the principles at least of human nature;-but "God is love." 1 John iv. 8. "God was in Christ," before the world began," reconciling the world unto himself." 2 Cor. v. 19. It is the peculiarity of the gospel, that while it represents God in all the terrors of his justice, these are united with all the riches of his mercy. "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." John iii. 16. He was pleased to compassionate us in our sinful state. He spreads out the arms of paternal tenderness to us. His language is, "Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else." Isa. xlv. 22. "Fury is not in me." Isa. xxvii. 4. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." Isa. lv. 7. Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price." ver. 1. This is the language of Divine mercy; and is it not calculated, especially when connected with the fact of the only begotten Son of God dying on the cross, to attract our hearts? Is it not calculated to destroy enmity, to speak peace to them that are afar off, and to them that are nigh? There is no impediment, then, with God; the impediment is only in ourselves.

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In the last place, I would observe, as another inducement to give our hearts to God, that it will be the most effectual preparation for death and eternity. Could the sinner flatter himself that he could for ever remain at a distance from God, he might anticipate a sort of peace without giving his heart to God, though he would be disappointed in the result; but