Tj Dr. William Taylor, of America, tells how, when he was a boy, he once heard a sermon on "appropriating faith." His first question on getting home was, "Father, what is appropriating faith ? " — a circumstance not very complimentary to the preacher. His father replied, " My boy, take your Bible and underline all the me's and my's and the mines, and you will soon find out what ' appropriating faith ' is."
If the me's, mys, and mine's were underscored in Charles and John Wesley's hymns, it would show better than anything else the intense personal force behind the Great Revival.
And out of the glow of Experience came Evangelism. With the early Methodist it was only one step from " me " to the " world." With deep and reverent faith he would sing —
Lord, I believe Thy precious blood, Which at the mercy seat of God,
For ever doth for sinners plead, For me, even for my soul was shed.
But instantly the mind flings itself out to the uttermost limits
1 A. E. Gar vie, A Handbook of Christian Apologetics, 220.
2 H. F. Henderson, Erskine of Linlathen, 57.
EZEKIEL xxxiii. n 211
of the human race. The gift received is a gift for all, and the missionary spirit of Methodism finds glorious expression in the very next stanza —
Lord, I believe were sinners more Than sands upon the ocean shore,
Thou hast for all a ransom paid, For all a full atonement made.1
1 W. B. Fitzgerald, The Hoots of Methodism, 180.
A New Heart.
2I3
Literature.
Ashby (L.), To JVhom Shall We Go? 105.
Carroll (B. H.), Sermons and Life Sketch, 163.
Clark (De W. S.), in Sermons for the International Sunday School Lessons
for 1892, 94. Clifford (J.)> Daily Strength for Daily Living, 261. Dewey (0.), Works, 177. - Dykes (J. 0.), Sermons, 249. Guthrie (T.), in The World's Great Sermons, v. 3. Hutton (R. E.), The Crown of Christ, ii. 75. Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Ezekiel to Malachi, 19. Murray (A.), The Spirit of Christ, 15. Percival (J.), Sermons at Rugby, 169. Price (A. C), Fifty Sermons, ii. 49. Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, viii. (1862), No. 456 ;
xviii. (1872), No. 1046 ; xix. (1873), No. 1129. Talmage (T. de W.), Sermons, i. 85.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), iii. (1863), No. 437. Young (D. T.), The Travels of the Heart, 253. Christian World Pulpit, vi. 125 (D. B. James) ; xli. 219 (J. Fleming) ;
lxxxi. 134 (C. H. Ecob). Church of England Magazine, liv. 81 (C. Clayton). Clergyman's Magazine, 3rd Ser., xiv. 28. Literary Churchman, xxvii. (1881) 106 (J. H. Drew). National Preacher, vi. 321 (E. D. Griffin) ; viii. 199 (S. Smith).
A New Heart.
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. — Ezek. xxxvi. 26.
1. God deals with nations much as He deals with individuals. We may read the Old Testament as addressed to the many or to the one. Very often a man stood for his tribe or class ; often the whole were regarded, irrespective of the doing of the few or of the single soul. A nation was looked on as having a character, and a heart, just as much as a person. It was held to be as strictly accountable for its conduct as any member of the body politic for the exercise of his powers. In this chapter the prophet is speaking to Israel. Colossal sins, grossest idolatries, shameful infidelities, had been long persisted in. Warnings, faithful and constant, had been uttered by the servants of Jehovah, only to be ridiculed and disregarded. At length the cup of the nation's iniquities was full. Affliction, sad and terrible, came. War and pillage, famine and pestilence, and finally captivity and exile, were their portion.
They became indeed " a nation scattered and peeled." They were a shepherdless flock now, in the "cloudy and dark day." Victorious foes exulted over them, holding now in possession their " ancient high places." Heathen orgies were celebrated in the very shrines which they themselves had polluted, and the care and power of Jehovah over His "own people" were despised. To the sorrowing prophet on the distant plains of Chebar there had been given searching messages to be spoken to the false and wicked ones who had led the nation into impiety. The flaming vision of the cherubim had stirred Ezekiel to valiant witnessing. When judgment had wrought its purpose and the repentant were ready to serve the Lord, then the prophet's face was turned toward them in mercy. Of that blessed change and renewing we
2i6 A NEW HEART
have here the promise. It is like a sun-burst through thick and angry clouds that have been pouring their fury on the shuddering earth, which, scattering them, discloses a smiling landscape. The grand mountain ranges of his native land loom up before the imagination of Ezekiel now purified, glorified, and Jerusalem becomes again a praise in the earth. As the energizing cause of this return and restored condition of things, we have the distinct assurance of " a new heart " and " a new spirit " in the children of God.