having assumed its truth without examination, and others having assented to it after laborious disquisition, we still discover the evidences of unbelief in the disposition or desire to depart from the` living God, in an unwillingness to acknowledge and respect his authority, in the distrust of his providence, in a murmuring against his dispensations, which could not exist if the heart so believed as to feel. It is a sad thing, and yet as common as it is sad, to have the understanding speculatively satisfied with proofs, while the heart has no share in any one fact that is proved, while it burns with no spiritual love, receives no Saviour, welcomes no Sanctifier, looks for no futurity, anticipates no heaven, and dreads no hell; yea, is as cold and dead as though these were but names and fables! How many, then, give evidence of this heart of unbelief, whose creed is the creed of the Church of God, the very "faith once delivered to the saints!" Let all who have a serious concern for their soul's salvation look well to the matter, and "examine themselves, whether they be in the faith."

To a certain extent, "this unruly evil, full of deadly poison," is represented as under the control of man. We are to "take heed that it be. not in us." There is a personal care to be exercised by each individual over his own soul. To God indeed it appertains to give and to preserve the spirit of faith. But his agency is exerted

through our instrumentality. His never closing eye watches with those who watch for themselves. His effectual aid strives with those who are working out their own salvation. We can conceive, on the part of the wicked, of a course of thought and action, which shall plunge them into the lowest depths of error and corruption, where they will be shut out from every ray of light and truth, and whence it shall be morally impossible for them to rise again. And we may, on the other hand, imagine to ourselves a holy prudence, a determinate purpose in the righteous, which will nerve to that powerful grasp of faith, that will never relax its hold upon life.

To this ripeness of the faith, however, the careless and the unguarded can never come. It is the heritage of those only who have made “ a covenant with their eyes," and "set a watch before the door of their lips." Unbelief is secretly introduced, but it is rapidly developed and matured. "While men sleep" ""the enemy" soweth it. Like Jonah's gourd, it "cometh up in a night;" but, alas! not like it, to wither in the morning sun. In reference to it, well then may we hear and apply the warning of our Lord, "what I say unto you, I say unto all, Watch."

Would to God, that before taking leave of this subject, I could awaken the reader to a just estimate of the guilt and danger of this all-pervading principle; this "sin which doth so easily beset

us." It is the worm that lieth at the root of all excellence it is the canker that destroys all that is fair and lovely in hope. The first sin that stained and cursed the earth, came through unbelief. It was thought, that " God had said, but would not do it; that he had spoken, but would not make it good." And it is not extravagant to suppose, that it will be the last sin which will insult the Majesty of heaven, and be charged in the long catalogue of human crime. My reader! in the day when "the books shall be opened," may it not be found charged against us, for he against whom it is written," shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him" for ever.

105

CHAPTER VII.

THE DIVIDED HEART.

"Their heart is divided; now shall they be found faulty." "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart." "My son, give me thine heart."

"He that loveth father or mother more than me, is not worthy of me."

HUMAN language, in its general structure, is highly figurative, and some of its boldest figures occur in the use of epithets. These, from their secondary and merely adjunctive character, avoid all suspicion of figure; and yet they involve some of the most spirited and most striking tropes to be found in the whole compass of language. In regard to mind and spirit, to mental and moral affections, the foundation of them all will be found in the ascription to these, of attributes belonging only to matter. Thus the epithets applied to the spiritual heart, all refer primarily to the natural or fleshly heart, and wonderfully does the material here illustrate the immaterial part. A DIVIDED HEART, is no uncommon expression. Its ordinary import is as well understood as its use is familiar.

Yet few analyze the expression, or consider its strength. Let us, then, trace it to its origin. Let us apply it, in the strictness of the letter, to the natural heart. Imagine that heart to be divided, severed, or rent in twain! What would either part be worth in the physical economy? Would it carry on the process of circulation? Could it even preserve the animal vitality? Would it be at all better to the man than if he had no heart? The answer to these questions is obvious; and the inference comes with force to the mind, of the utter worthlessness of a divided spiritual heart in the spiritual economy-of half a heart presented unto God; and we are, therefore, ready to admit, that when the heart is thus divided, men must be "found faulty." We see the reasonableness of the injunction, "My son, give me thy heart"-thy whole heart; and we are at no loss to discover why it should be the great commandment of the law, that we should "love the Lord our God with all our mind, and all our strength, and all our soul."

The writer was in momentary doubt, as to the place in the work which this chapter of right should occupy. As the heart that has not been at all given unto God, but is unreservedly given to the world and to sin, cannot with propriety be said to be divided, the state contemplated must therefore belong either to the partially convinced, the almost Christian, or to the too worldlyand