WHAT GOD REQUIRES by D. F. Ewen

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Tuesday, November 18, 1884

FromAdvent Review and Sabbath Herald, Vol. 61, No. 46

WHAT GOD REQUIRES.

By D. F. Ewen

BY D. F. EWEN.

“My son, give me thine heart.” Prov. 23:26.

The greatest results often succeed our smallest actions; and so, in the same way, the deepest truths of Holy Scripture often underlie the plainest language and the simplest words; for words are only instruments to awaken the feelings of the mind, and through the mind to reach the heart. Oftentimes the simplest words, spoken in season, have a power and a force which whole volumes of eloquence at other times cannot raise; and why? Because that word spoken in season is the word that touches the heart, and rouses the feelings you wish to excite. The request quoted from the word of God carries at once conviction to us: O “my son, hear the instructions of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother.” Carry out in all the difficulties and trials and temptations of life the lessons which you have learned in the sacred sanctuary of home. Let there be a steady obedience to what you have learned. “My son, give me thine heart.” Not going beyond the human meaning, these words are very eloquent and instructive. Lift up the eye around you, and see the atmosphere filled with the hosts of the eternal God, and hear the words spoken to every sinful man. The words then have a force and a meaning which ought to come home to us all, to give God our heart.

God says, “Give me thine heart.” This is the language of tender affection; it is the language of earnest entreaty. It is the language of fatherly love, the will of God to every soul of man. He cannot use a figure you understand better. He cannot employ language which touches your spirit more. It is God speaking to the individual. The words send us back—ought to send us back—to our knees in shame. They ought to make every one of us say, “Father, I have sinned against heaven, and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son; ‘give me the crumbs that fall from thy table, not the plenteousness of thy fatherly banquet.’” We know no one can truly say he is God’s son to the full extent he ought to be,—an obedient, faithful son. And yet God does not wait for our goodness, any more than he does for our merit. He does not wait for our goodness to help us. It is a proof of his love that while we are sinners, he offers us his blessings, and while we are his wayward children—far-away prodigals, denying the Lord who bought us,—that he calls us back. Well may we be ashamed to think how God deals with us, in spite of our conduct toward him. He giveth us all things,—life, kind parents, and friends. He giveth us rain to fructify the products of the earth, and tries to bring us back by the divinest mercy and the most plenteous grace, now blessing and then chastening us, if need be,—how tenderly, how gently, how perseveringly, because we are his children! My child, your heart is the only gift God wants. He asks your thoughts, energy, and time, as well as your substance; but all these gifts are included in the one,—your heart.