HEART.
The hypocrites in heart heap up wrath.—Job, xxxvi. 13.
The heart knoweth his own bitterness; and a stranger doth not intermeddle with his joy.—Proverbs, xiv. 10.
The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?—Jeremiah, xvii. 9.
A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh.—Ezekiel, xxxvi. 26.
Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.—Matthew, v. 8.
A good man, out of the good treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is good; and an evil man, out of the evil treasure of his heart, bringeth forth that which is evil: for of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaketh.—Luke, vi. 45.
Hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.—Romans, v. 5.
With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.—Romans, x. 10.
That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.—Ephesians, iii. 17.
I care not, so my kernel relish well,
How slender be the substance of my shell;
My heart being virtuous, let my face be wan,
I am to God, I only seem to man.
Quarles.
So now the soul’s sublimed, her sour desires
Are re-calcined in Heaven’s well-tempered fires;
The heart restored, and purged from drossy nature,
Now finds the freedom of a new-born creature;
It lives another life, it breathes new breath,
It neither fears nor feels the sting of death.
Quarles.
Heaven’s Sovereign saves all beings but Himself
That hideous sight—a naked, human heart.
Young.
The Almighty, from His throne, on earth surveys
Naught greater than an honest, humble heart;
An humble heart, His residence! pronounced
His second seat, and rival to the skies.
Young.
Wash, Lord, and purify my heart,
And make it clean in every part,
And when ’tis clean, Lord, keep it too,
For that is more than I can do.
Thomas Ellwood.
A temple of the Holy Ghost, and yet
Oft lodging fiends; the dwelling-place of all
The heavenly virtues—charity and truth,
Humility, and holiness, and love—
And yet the common haunt of anger, pride,
Hatred, revenge, and passions foul with lust;
Allied to heaven, yet parleying oft with hell.
Pollok.
Consider well. The heart is a deceiver,
O, paltering with it, in some double sense,
Thou’st shunned, perhaps, the word that would condemn thee,
E’en while thy will was partner in the crime.
Schiller.
Thou too, my heart, whom He, and He alone,
Who all things knows, can know, with love replete,
Regenerate and pure, pour all thyself
A living sacrifice before His throne!
Christopher Smart.
Walk in the light! and sin, abhorred,
Shall ne’er defile again;
The blood of Jesus Christ, the Lord,
Shall cleanse from every stain.
Walk in the light! and thou shalt find
Thy heart made truly His,
Who dwells in cloudless light enshrined,
In whom no darkness is.
Bernard Barton.
All our actions take
Their hues from the complexion of the heart,
As landscapes their variety from light.
William Thompson Bacon.
Would’st thou the life of souls discern?
Nor human wisdom nor divine
Helps thee by aught beside to learn;
Love is life’s only sign.
The spring of the regenerate heart,
The pulse, the glow of every part,
Is the true love of Christ our Lord,
As man embraced, as God adored.
Keble.