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points we would, with the Divine assistance and blessing, now solicit your attention.

In the first place, we are here directed to the seat of that great spiritual change required by the Gospel. And this seat, we read, is the heart: "whose heart the Lord opened." Christianity, where it governs truly, governs the whole man. It is the life's blood of the soul, which works its way throughout every part of the moral system. Still the heart is its more immediate

seat. The heart of the unrenewed sinner is the grand seat of that corruption to which he is by nature heir— the palace in which Satan, the ruler of this world, plants his throne; and whence he issues those sinful mandates, to which his deluded subjects yield such ready and cordial obedience. On the other hand, the heart of the renewed Christian is the true seat of that grace by which the corruption of man's nature in his fallen state is cured, and Satan expelled from his stronghold within. As it is "out of the evil treasure of an evil heart," that those "evil thoughts" are brought forth, which are the parents in succession of evil thoughts, evil habits, and evil lives; so it is "out of the good treasure of a good heart," that we must draw those stores of good principles, which are the prompters to all that is spiritually good in temper, character, and conduct. The heart is the fountain of active influence; and till the fountain is purified the streams which flow from it are necessarily defiled. By nature this fountain is in all of us polluted;-not only polluted, but locked and sealed against the grace that can purify it. Yet there are many who overlook this;-and who so

little understand the very first principles of the doctrine of Christ, that they talk of the goodness of their hearts, and complacently indulge in vain self-flattery, when this fountain of pollution has never once been reached by purifying influence. Let them talk, however, as they may, their language is that of ignorance and folly, till such influence break through all its locks and seals, and effect that change that turns it from evil to good.

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This change once effected, it constitutes the change. The heart once gained, it carries the whole man along with it. The grace which rules itself, it sends forth to give law to all the powers of the body and all the faculties of the mind, so that the understanding apprehends, the memory treasures up its stores, and the affections ply their busy ministry, not as servants of sin" but as "instruments of righteousness unto God." The ear is open to discipline—the mouth utters praise— the feet run in the way of God's commandments. And to these obedience becomes easy and agreeable, because the will seconds every command, and the heart supplies the cement which binds duty and inclination together. The opening of the heart therefore unto God, is virtually the surrender of the entire man to his service. And, accordingly, the day which is marked by an event so auspicious, is the first important day of the Christian's earthly history. It is a grand era of his beingthat of his beginning emancipation from the thraldom of sin and corruption, and his admission to "the glorious liberty" of God's redeemed family. Trusting that such are your convictions, and that you look to the heart as the seat of the great spiritual change required

by the Gospel, let us now consider the narrative before us, as it suggests to us

In the second place, the author of this change. Its author, we here learn, is divine. It was the Lord that opened the heart of Lydia, and He who opened hers, can alone open ours-which in their natural condition, while open to Satan the great enemy of souls, and those sinful lusts and desires which he stirs up within, are yet barred against God and all that would secure him any real love or obedience-against the voice of conscience -the ministry of the Word-the sanctifying influence of means, and the lessons, whether of merciful or afflictive providences. Ignorance, unbelief, pride, presumption, sensual desires, earthly passions and pursuits- these and kindred influences springing out of the corruption of our fallen natures, operating, some or all of them, upon the heart of every unrenewed sinner, like the bars of a castle, keep it closed-proof against all the transforming power of saving truth. And this they do in all without exception. The heart is thus shut, not merely in the grossly impure and the stupidly ignorant, but in the amiable, the moral, the intelligent, the outwardly pious—in persons who, like Lydia, wait upon God in the services of religion, and "exercise" themselves "to have a conscience void of offence towards God and toward man."

Who, then, is in such circumstances, to open the heart? Who is to turn the stream of its affections and desires towards God and divine things? Can the sinner do this for himself? As well may we ask, can the blind restore themselves to sight, or the deaf to hearing?

As well may we ask, can the dead quicken themselves to life? For such are the images by which the Word of God every where describes to us man's moral inability as a fallen sinner. Metaphors, it is true, may be interpreted too rigorously; and these, with others of a kindred character, which the Scriptures employ to describe man's condition by nature, if urged beyond a certain point, are unwarrantably strained, and contradict the clear testimony of Scripture to man's responsibility as a rational and moral being. Still, though metaphors, they are intended to have a meaning; and the lowest meaning which, upon any sound principle of interpretation, we can attach to them is, that it is not in fallen man of himself to open his heart to God. Such is, accordingly, the positive conclusion of the apostle. "The carnal" (that is, the unrenewed) "heart," says he, "is enmity against God: it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be." Enmity to God is its very nature; and thus it is devoid of every principle which might dispose it to remove the bars which keep God's enemies within, and God himself without. Influence from without, therefore, must necessarily act upon it, before these very bars can be removed, and access to the heart obtained for Him who can change and renew it.

Whence, then, is this influence to come? Can any other individual do for the sinner what he either will not or cannot do for himself? Doubtless others may do much instrumentally. They may make use of means. These they may ply early and late, addressing the judgment, assailing the conscience, urging the terrors

of the law and the promises of the Gospel, and giving a voice to the events of Providence as they impart lessons of "correction and instruction in righteousness." But all such appliances, though useful and necessary, go after all but a certain way. They may reform but They may stir up the polluted fountain Man may knock at

cannot renew.

within but they cannot cleanse it. the door of the unrenewed heart; and when he knocks with energy and earnestness, he is seldom left without a response in certain movements in the understanding, the conscience, the affections, and the life. But there is none of these that amounts to the opening of the heart to God-none of these that can place Him upon its throne as its cherished Lord; or secure Him a cordial welcome as its abiding tenant. He to whom this work belongs is the Lord himself—the Lord who opened the heart of Lydia-the Lord who has an arm to break every bar; a key to unlock every ward; and who, when he works, gives sanctifying effect to every ray of light in the understanding-to every arrow of conviction in the conscience-to every warm sally of the affections and heart, till all obstacles give way, and the dominion of sin and Satan is no more. Wherever, therefore, we see the heart savingly changed, there we behold not a human but divine work; we behold Him at work upon the heart who at first formed it; and we have cause, with grateful admiration, to exclaim,— "What hath God wrought!" He himself, accordingly, claims it. "A new heart will I give unto you; a new spirit will I put within you; and I will take the stony heart out of your flesh, and give you hearts of flesh."

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