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Music For the Soul
Devotional: June 16th

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GOD’S WRITING ON THE HEART

I will put My law in their inward parts and in their heart will I write it, - Jeremiah 31:33

I will put My laws into their mind, and on their heart also will I write them, - Hebrews 8:10

It seems to me that the two clauses in each of these passages are not precisely parallel, but parallel with a difference. I take it that "mind" here means very much what we make it mean in our popular phraseology - a kind of synonym for the understanding, or the intellectual part of a man’s nature; and that " heart," on the other hand, means something a little wider than it does in our popular phraseology, and indicates not only the affections, but the centre of personality in the human will as well as the seat of love. So these two clauses will mean, you see, if we carry that distinction with us, two things - the clear perception of the will of God and the coincidence of that will with our inclinations and desires. In men’s natural consciences there is the law written on their minds; but, alas! we all know that there is an awful chasm between perception and inclination, and that it is one thing to know our duty and quite another to wish to do it. So the heart of this great promise is that these two things shall coincide in a Christian man, shall cover precisely the same ground, as two of Euclid’s triangles, with the same angles, will, if laid upon each other, coincide line for line and angle for angle. Thus it is possible - and, if we observe the conditions, it shall be actual in us - that knowledge and will shall cover absolutely and exactly the same ground. Inclination shall be duty, and duty shall be inclination and delight.

And how is that wonderful change upon men to be accomplished? " I will put, I will write." Only He can do it. We all know, by our own experience, the schism that gapes between the two things. Every man in the world knows a vast deal more of duty than any man in the world does. The worst of us has a standard that rebukes his evil, and the best of us has a standard that transcends his goodness, and, alas! often transcends his inclination. But the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour comes armed with sufficient power to make this miracle an actuality for us all; for it comes to substitute for all other motives to obedience the one motive of love. They but half understand the Gospel who dwell upon its sanctions of reward and punishment, and would seek to frighten men into goodness; and they misinterpret it almost as much who find the chief motive for Christian obedience in the glories of the heavenly state. The Gospel appeals to men, not merely nor chiefly on the ground of self-interest, but it comes to them with one appeal, " If ye love Me, keep My commandments" That is how the law is written on the heart. Wherever there is love, there is a supreme delight in divining and in satisfying the wish and will of the Beloved. His lightest word is law to the loving heart; His looks are spells and commandments. And if it is so in regard of our poor, imperfect human loves, how infinitely more so is it where the heart is touched by true affection for His own infinite love’s sake, of that "Jesus" who is "most desired"! The secret of Christian morality is that duty is changed into choice, because love is made the motive for obedience.

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