SERIOUS THOUGHTS.

Waikato Argus, Volume IV, Issue 275, 16 April 1898, Page 1 (Supplement)

SERIOUS THOUGHTS.

THE FIXED HEAJir. Br Pastor Theodore Monod. The words from the Book of Cod to which I wish to call your attention are in the one hundred and eighth Psalm, the first words: "0 God, my heart is fixed." It must be confessed, my brethren, that these words, that word " fixed" especial!y, have a somewhat antiquated appearance. " Fixed " —we hardly know whit the word means uow-a-days. In fact, we are being taught more and more that nothing is fixed : and sarcly in a sense, and in a very large and important sense, this is true. An old philosopher summed up his whole system in two great words that meui " everything is flowing " : things are as a stream that runneth ahvay. And so it is. Nothing is fixed. Between the beginniug and the end of this service, do you know how many miles we shall have travelled ? I suppose we have all known the figures, aud have all forgotten them ; but tlvs much we all know, that we are travelling at a terrific rate all the time. The earth is just rolling round an appomted path. But our heart may be fixed. Need I stop to define what the heart means ? My friends, a mm who wants to know what his heart is does not appear to have much of it. The heart is the man. " What a mau thinketh in his heart, that is he." What is your aim, your disposition, your passion ? What do you waut ? What do you seek ? That is your heart. It has not much to do with your thinking : it is desired, willing, being. When I say of a baby that his liearb is fixed, I mean it is fixe! on his mother. She is the whole world to him, all he wants aud desires—her look, her smile, her arms, her breast : he is satisfied. Hii heart is fixed.

By-anrl-by, as he grows, if he is the boy he ought to be, his heart is still fixed on his mother. Then, by-aud by, of course, his heart will begin to move and flutter after a certain fashion ; aud by-and-by he will say again, and in another fashion —" My heirt is fixed " ; and may he be the founder of a true Christian household. But will that be euough for him ? When he has found every pure affection that can warm and fill his heart, is he satisfied ? No, surely not. Man's heart cannot rest in man, in the love of father or mother, of wife or child, of sister or brother. Man's hsart was made for God, and cxn only rest in Go 1. As long as a man's heart does not rest in God, lib is as a bird that is in a cage, and not in the air ; as a 'fish on the sand, and not in the water. "Man's heart." says St. Augustine, "is made for God, and remains restless as long as it has not found its rest in God."

Now, brethren, need I show you that there tire many whose hearts are not fixed at all, who have not found that sure resting - place ? There may be, there probably are, those here whose heart is still restless, still purposeless, still seeking here and there they know not what. They are fixed, it may be, for a season oil pleasure. Has pleasure satisfied you ? Have you found rest there ? Young men, who think perhaps that is the thing ta live for —pleasure, satisfaction—have you found satisfaction in it ? Satisfaction means " having enough." Have you enough ? The more you know of pleasure, the more it palls upon your taste, the mora you wish for something more, for something unheard of. By-and-by you say : " Vanity of vanities, all is vanity." Now my brother, my sister, whoever you are, from the oldest to the youngest, there is a place for yoa in Christ Jesus, in God. It is for you to say whether you are willing to have it, or not; whether you will dwell there, or not ; whether when God has prepared a pahue for you, at the cost of His Son, yoa will live in a hovel; whether when "all things are yours" in Christ, you will rather go about complaining that you are nothing, and have nothing. You take the Gift of God as a Gift, free Gift of Hi 3 abundant grace, and that Gift covers tho wholo ground. That Gift is everything to you. There is nothing that God has not put in Christ for you. The one thing that remains is for you to open your hearts, and let Christ dwell in you. Then will your heart be fixed. Observe, not fixed upon the Gifts of God, but upon God Himself. You may have more or less sense of God's presence, more or less joy and peace. These may come and go according to some littfe change in health, or in the weather ; but the presence of God is there always. Ysu should begin every day with this one thought: My heart is fixed upon God, come what may. It may be a day of joy, or of sorrow ; a very quiet dty, or a very busy day ; a day where God gives me—as probably He will to many hero this week —new opportunities for hearing of Him and of His work, or a week when He keeps me imprisoned in a rjom on a bed of sickness : but my heart is fixod. God is tfere.

Tho day will come when we shall feel that all human things are unfixed, and restless, and passing away. People will say: "He is passing away." What a great mi-take ! The fact is that, when a man whose heart is fixed on God oouies to die, at that very moment he knows nud feels, as never before, that ho is fixed in the presenoe and iu tho love of God. "The world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but ho that doeth the will of God abideth for ever." Turn to the Psalms where wa bogau : '' My flesh and my heart faileth; bat G>d h the strength of my heart, and my portion for ever." (F).