" your heart shall live." This expression deserves peculiar notice. The heart of an unavvakened man is dead, and sense- less as the nether millstone. The Gospel, with all its alluring promises, may be proclaimed ; but he feels it not : it has no allurements for him ; nor do its denunciations of judgment excite alarm. But let a person begin to seek after God aright, and " a new heart will be given to him, and a new spirit be put within him." " The heart of stone will be taken away, and a heart of flesh" be substituted in its place. Then will all his views, desires, and pursuits, become changed : being alive to God, he will be alive to all holy exercises, and find his happiness in the enjoyment of his God. This is the explana- tion whicli the Psalmist himself gives of the expression in another psalm : " They shall praise the Lord that seek him ; your heart shall live for ever^"]
Nor let any one be discouraged on account of his poverty —
[The poor of this world are not less regarded by Jehovah than the rich. And those who are spiritually poor, are objects of his peculiar care. Not one such person will he ever over- look. Though surrounded by myriads of holy angels, he will not sufier them to attract his attention in comparison of a poor and contrite soul. No : " Unto this man will I look," says he, " even unto him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at my word." There is not a sigh which such an one utters, but it is heard by him, and is as music in his ears : and every tear he sheds is treasured up by him in his vial. But, not to rest on mere assertions, let us look at an example. In the Prophet Jeremiah, we find a poor mourning penitent, just such an one as we are speaking of,' and there we may see in what light he is viewed by God: " I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus : Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke : turn thou me, and I shall be turned ; for thou art the Lord my God. Surely, after that I was turned, I repented ; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh : I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my youth." Now hear what God says to all this : " Is Ephraim (that is. Is Jiot Ephraim) my dear Son ? Is he not a pleasant child? for since I spake against hirn, I do earnestly remember him still : yea, my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, saith the Lord^." This shews what favour the poor shall find in his sight ; and gives the full explanation of those words, " The Lord heareth the poor."]
a Ps. xxii. 26. 1' Jer. xxxi. IS — 20.