"Man's heart, by nature, is not true. It is neither true to
himself nor to God. In some respects it may be said to be true to himself and
his fellow men, when it is true to his own interests and true to his usual
character, or when it is true to the friendships and affections of earth. In
the last of these respects we often hear of the heart's truth. We hear how
truly hearts beat in affection for each other. We hear of friends being true
to friends, so as to maintain their mutual constancy unshaken amid distance,
suffering, and peril. But in all this, how seldom is it that we hear of hearts
that are true to God and to Christ.
What is a true heart? It is not a perfect heart, for where is
that to be found on earth? It is not a heart where sin has no place at all, and
where all is holy and spiritual, for who, save the spirits of the just made
perfect, have reached this stature? It is not a heart that never wavers, never
saddens, never droops, never languishes, never grows cold, for that we must
seek a brighter world and a more genial clime.
A true heart is one that has ceased to misunderstand and
mistrust the character of God, that takes that character simply as it is
revealed in grace, and rests where God would have the sinner to rest, on His
forgiving love. A true heart is one that has ceased to suspect God or to look
upon Him as an austere and hard master. The trueness of the heart consists in
its right apprehensions of the character of God; in "knowing the
Father" as He has made Himself known to sinners in Christ Jesus. To be
true to God is to know Him as the gracious One, as the pardoning One, as the
sin-hating, yet sinner-loving God. He who has not yet seen enough of Him in the
Cross, as to dispel all his wicked doubts and guilty fears, is not yet true to
God.
A false heart is one which does not know the Father. Its views
of God’s character are distorted and dim. It seeks, in self-righteousness, to
do something or feel something which may draw towards it the favor of God, and
it cannot rest or trust without finding this. It does not understand the entire
freeness of the grace revealed in Jesus…”
-By Horatius
Bonar 1808-1899 Scotch Minister, Hymn Writer
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