“A New Heart Will I Give You”

In all the family of God, in spiritual things there is but one heart which is a new heart, the gift of sovereign grace (Ezekiel 11:19). Those who were savingly wrought upon under the discourse of the Apostle Peter were of one heart (Acts 4:32). It is the heart God looks after, “My son, give Me thine heart” (Proverbs 23:26a)—that new and living heart which I have put within thee. It is not a piece, not a corner of the heart that will satisfy the Maker of the heart. The heart is a treasure, a bed of spices, a royal throne where He delights to dwell. God does not look at the beautiful order of our prayers to see how well put and harmonious they are; nor yet at the length of them, or at the number of them, but how hearty they are. There is no prayer acknowledged, approved, accepted, recorded, or rewarded by God but that wherein the heart is sincere and entire. As God loves a broken and contrite heart, so He hates a divided one.

In some of your confused moments, when all appears wild within you and your heart is going after every object but Him who is the one thing needful, you may be tempted to pass a severe sentence upon yourself—that you are altogether deceived and that you in reality know nothing about the matter. If the Light of life never had shone into your heart, you never would have had such a killing sight of yourself. It was the same with dear Paul when the light of truth broke in upon his heart; he saw that all his righteousness was as filthy rags.

Now I close in upon you a little closer and, if possible, drive you into such a corner that all the wiles of Satan and the unbelief of your heart cannot make anything of you but a child of hope. All born of God feel a conflict within them against those secret sins which are only obvious to the eye of God and your own soul. Now, for a moment, ask yourself this question: Is it possible for nature to combat with secret sins? “That which is born of the flesh is flesh” (John 3:6a), and so it will remain. It must be a supernatural power and principle that puts a soul upon conflicting with the inward motions and secret operations of sin such as you have experienced. Let us put it into the balances of the sanctuary, and we shall find its weight. You cannot write “Tekel” upon it (Daniel 5:27). In Romans 7:23 the apostle complains of a law in his members warring against the law of his mind. You see, the war was within doors; it was a fight within him, and this made him cry out, “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” I know you have been in that book of lamentations.

So, David cries out, “Who can understand his errors? cleanse thou me from secret faults” (Psalm 19:12). The hairs of our head may be numbered; the stars appear in multitudes, yet some pretend to reckon them; but who can number our sins? Before we can recount a thousand, we shall commit a thousand more. Your soul, like that of the psalmist, has panted after a cleansing from them in the atoning blood.

I will bring forth some scriptural evidences of a tender and new heart, all of which I believe can be found in your experience:

• A new heart is sensible of the church’s and saints’ sufferings. It weeps with them that weep (Romans 12:15). A new heart waits upon God in all the means of grace, watching for some glimpse of the favor of God and for a word of comfort, and earnestly craves a token for good (Psalms 30:5 and 86:17).

• A new heart is an enquiring heart (Psalm 27:4). Grace in the heart of believers will seek after and enquire for the grace in God’s heart. Our everyday trials and temptations, fears and sinkings bring us into an inquiring position and make us earnest therein. He that comes to visit a friend on the weighty matters of life and death will be full of it, as Abraham seeking unto God for Sodom (Genesis 18:31&32).

• A new heart is under the control of grace (Romans 5:21). It opens, shuts, and expands, just as grace puts forth its influence or withdraws. It is dependent upon the Lord for everything.

• A new heart is a hungering and thirsting heart—after Jesus Christ and His salvation (Matthew 5:6)—out of a deep sense of real need; it also hungers and thirsts after righteousness from a view of the loveliness there is in righteousness.

I have written these things in hope to stir up your “pure mind by way of remembrance” of those things which God in mercy has done for your soul; for thereby we are comforted and revived in the midst of our faintings and discouragements (Jonah 2:7). When distressed with fears, burdened with guilt, and the burden of affliction presses sore, even the strongest in faith are broken down and lose all courage. Yet, when enabled to seriously reflect that God is faithful and upon what He will be unto His people, or what at any time He hath been unto us, it cheereth and reviveth the heart. “O my God, my soul is cast down within me: therefore will I remember Thee” (Psalm 42:6a). Blessed down-casting which drives us to so sure a Rock of Refuge as Thee, O Lord! If self were to furnish comfort, we should have poor fare. Thou art sometimes low in spirit, deeply sorrowful, thy soul is often cast down within thee. The old enemy then whispers that the Lord hath forgotten us. So, we cry out, “Wherefore hidest Thou Thy face, and forgettest our affliction and our oppression?” (Psalm 44:24). However, it is one thing what the afflicted believer says in the heat of temptation, another what the Spirit of truth says for the comfort of the saints. A woman may forget her sucking child, “Yet will I not forget thee” (Isaiah 49:15). The fact is, we forget God (Psalm 106:21). We forget how kind, gracious, and merciful God is to His afflicted people— how ready He is to hear their complaints when they pour out their souls before Him. We forget His lovingkindness to us in seasons past. O Lord, the covenant God of Israel, do of Thy great mercy enable us to remember Thee in the proclamation of Thy great name as “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth” (Exodus 34:6). Thou art, indeed, a meet object for the trust of poor, desolate creatures like us. We are poor; Thou art rich in grace; we are weak. Thou art mighty; we are miserable; Thou canst make us happy.

“What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31). Nevertheless, you may say, I cannot at all times trace to my satisfaction that the presence of God is with me. If the Lord is not with you under all your troubles and deep distresses, why do you not cast off prayer, neglect hearing, and forsake the assembling of yourself in the house of prayer with the Lord’s people?

You, in common with all the Lord’s people, are the objects of Christ’s special care: “For the eyes of the Lord run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew Himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward Him” (2 Chronicles 16:9a). There is not one saint in any dark corner of the world, under any straits or troubles, but God eyes him and will take singular care of him. Be it remarked He will always suit His care to His people’s condition. God cares for His people actively, for He preserves, protects, and makes provision for them. God is above you and beneath you (Deuteronomy 33:26&27); He is before and behind you (Exodus 33); He is on your right hand and on your left (Psalm 16:8). God is in thee— in thy sighs, in thy secret cravings after the truth, in thy confessions of sin, in thy hope, in thy faith, and in every grace which springs up in thy heart. Therefore, fear not, for the Lord is with thee.

I conclude, wishing my dear daughter after the new covenant order every mercy. Read the first three verses of Psalm 20, and may the Lord apply them as the portion of thy soul.

Thine to serve,

—Southill, England, November 28th, 1879

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