^ One of the most famous and valuable diamonds in the world is the " Koh-i-nur," or Mountain of Light, which belongs to the British Crown. This gem was exhibited in the Great Exhibition of 1851, and was an object of special interest. It lay upon a little cushion in a case with glass panels, the inside being lighted up with gas. And there was always a group of people crowding to see it. But it was also an object of peculiar care. For while the whole of the Crystal Palace, which contained so many treasures, was well guarded, a special watchman paced to and fro
' Lockhart, Life of Sir Walter Scott, ch. Ixiii, * Coleridge, Aids to JUJUclum.
PROVERBS IV. 23 247
by day and night to guard the "Koh-i-nur." Even so ought every Christian, above all other valuables that he has to guard, to " keep " his heart, for it is the citadel of his life.^
1. Our nature is evidently not a republic, but a monarchy. It is full of blind impulses, and hungry desires, which take no heed of any law but their own satisfaction. If the reins are thrown on the necks of these untamed horses, they will drag the man to destruction. They are safe only when they are curbed and bitted, and held well in. Then there are tastes and inclina- tions which need guidance and are plainly meant to be subordinate. The will is to govern all the lower self, and conscience is to govern the will. Unmistakably there are parts of every man's nature which are meant to serve, and parts which are appointed to rule, and to let the servants usurp the place of the rulers is to bring about as wild a confusion within as the Preacher lamented that he had seen in the anarchic times when he wrote — princes walking and beggars on horseback. As George Herbert has it —
Give not thy humours way;
God gave them to thee under lock and key.
^ Savage tribes not only fight with poisoned arrows ; they have been known to creep into another tribe's country, and put poison into the wells, so that when the tired soldier, the thirsting woman and child, and the poor beasts of the forest came to the well to slake their thirst, they drank death in every drop of water that passed their lips. Now, would you think a chief stern, or too particular, if at war-time he ordered his people to guard the wells ? Would not such an order be a kind one ? Would not the meaning of it be, " Save your own lives, and the lives of your wives and children " ? Well, your heart, your mind, is the well of your life. If that is poisoned, your best life will die. And the Book that bids you guard it well is not a stern book, but a kind, loving book, that wishes you well, and is your best friend.^
2. Keeping or guarding is plainly imperative, because there is an outer world which appeals to our needs and desires, irrespec- tive altogether of right and wrong, and of the moral consequences
^ C. Jordan, For the Lambs of the Flock, 63. ' J, M. Gibbon, Jn the Days of Youth, 32.
248 THE HEART
of gratifying these. Put a loaf before a starving man, and his impulse will be to clutch and devour it, without regard to whether it is his or not. Show any of our animal propensities its appro- priate food, and it asks no questions as to right or wrong, but is stirred to grasp its natural food. And even the higher and nobler parts of our nature are but too apt to seek their gratifica- tion without having the licence of conscience for doing so, and sometimes in defiance of its plain prohibitions.
^ Many telegraph wires run under and over our streets, over the mountains and under the oceans, coming from scenes of war and of peace, of industry and of learning, of sorrow and of joy, each carrying some swift current. And these wires are gathered at last into some central office of many clicking instru- ments. The operator translates these currents into intelligence, and sends them out in the form of messages of commerce, of war, of crime, or of love. So our five senses are main wires going out into the world about us, gathering observations, sensations, and experience from the streets of the city, the scenes of the country, the companions we meet, the books we read, the pictures at which we look. Another wire goes down, like an ocean cable, into the depths of our own nature, bringing up mysterious messages given by our own consciousness, speaking of God and good, of right and wrong, and of judgment to come. Thus there are wires from heaven above, on which God and good angels are sending messages ; wires from hell below, on which the devil and his angels are sending suggestions, promptings ; wires from men and women about us, conveying subtle trains of thought and of feeling. And the heart of man is the central office into which these wires run, pouring in there this raw material of thought- stuff.i
III.
The Keeper of the Heart.
1. The inherent weakness of all attempts at self-keeping is that, keeper and kept being one and the same personality, the more we need to be kept the less able we are to effect it. If in the very garrison there are traitors, how shall the fortress be defended ? In order, then, to exercise an effectual guard over our characters and control over our natures, we must have an outward • R. Mackenzie, The Loom of ProvidevM, 248.