BELOVED, the Most High presents Himself as a Suitor this morning. He asks for thy heart. It is His workmanship, He wants it to be His habitation. He made it by His power, He wants to rule it by His grace. He will not be satisfied with anything else. If He have the heart, He has all; if He has not the heart, He has nothing. Let us surrender our hearts to Him this morning, and every morning. Let us ask Him to sanctify them by His grace, to fill them with His Spirit. To engrave on them His image, to keep them by His power, and to fill them with the fruits of holiness. If the heart is given to God, the life will be according to His word. If He rule in us, we shall walk as Jesus walked. If our walk is not holy, our religion is but a form. "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in Him." Oh, how awful, to think and profess that we are the Lord's, and yet to have the heart under the influence of sin, Satan, and the world! Jesus says, "MY SON, GIVE ME THINE HEART." Let our reply be, "Lord, take my heart, reign and rule in it for ever."
O Jesus! wounded Lamb of God, Come, wash me in Thy cleansing blood; Take my poor heart and let it be For ever closed to all but Thee; Unloose my stammering tongue to tell, Thy love immense, unsearchable.
Written by James Smith for his own flock around 1840, but such was the demand that by 1846 over thirty thousand copies where in circulation.
James Smith was a predecessor of Charles Spurgeon at New Park Street Chapel in London from 1841-1850. He also ministered with great blessing in Cheltenham. His devotional, The Believer's Daily Remembrancer, subtitled Pastor's Morning and Evening Visit, was very popular in its own day, and has received a new lease of life through recent republication.
BELOVED, the Most High presents Himself as a Suitor this morning. He asks for thy heart. It is His workmanship, He wants it to be His habitation. He made it by His power, He wants to rule it by His grace. He will not be satisfied with anything else. If He have the heart, He has all; if He has not the heart, He has nothing. Let us surrender our hearts to Him this morning, and every morning. Let us ask Him to sanctify them by His grace, to fill them with His Spirit. To engrave on them His image, to keep them by His power, and to fill them with the fruits of holiness. If the heart is given to God, the life will be according to His word. If He rule in us, we shall walk as Jesus walked. If our walk is not holy, our religion is but a form. "He that saith, I know Him, and keepeth not His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in Him." Oh, how awful, to think and profess that we are the Lord's, and yet to have the heart under the influence of sin, Satan, and the world! Jesus says, "MY SON, GIVE ME THINE HEART." Let our reply be, "Lord, take my heart, reign and rule in it for ever."
O Jesus! wounded Lamb of God, Come, wash me in Thy cleansing blood; Take my poor heart and let it be For ever closed to all but Thee; Unloose my stammering tongue to tell, Thy love immense, unsearchable.