The Tribune. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1951-19??, 1953-01-03

a mans heart that imam
makes him unclean. What, exact.
ly, does heart mean, in the
Bible? 1t could mean a number of
things that it does not mean.
1t is seldom used, in the Bible.
in the literal sense of the physical
organ that pushes the blood around.
No ancient peoples knew the true
physiology of the heart. Also, the
Bible writer's seldom, if ever, use
the word in our common figurative
sense of emotion, or the emotional
life. If we today say that a certain
PERSONS heart rules his head, we
mean by that, that his intellect is
not as strong as his feelings. A
smart and inscriptions lawyer, in
addressing a jury, will Gas he
might say) go for their hearts,
not for their heads" That is, he
expects them to be swayed by
prejudice and emotion, not by the
facts in the case But this too is
not the Bible meaning of heart"
Certainly it is never balanced off
against the mind or the intellect.
Bible Meaning of Heart"
Even in modern times, with all
our passion for scientifically ac-
curate terms, there is no one word
which means just what this word
heart means in the Bible. There
the heart stands for the center of
the personality as whole If we
used such words as core" or
root or handspring of life,
we should be getting at the idea.
1t is not emotional, though it af-
fects the emotions. 1t is not in
tellectual, though it lies back Of
thinking. 1t does not quite mean
character, rather it means the tap
root of character.
Let us try to illustrate it. Tell the
same piece of news to several peo-
ple--Say the report of some acct
dent or disaster, and see how they
react. One will be quite indifferent,
one will burst into tears, another
will laugh, another will say,
Cant we do something to help?"
NOW what makes the difference?
All have heard the same words,
but the words have different eff
fects. In Bible language, the rea-
son is that they have different
hearts. The inner makeup is some
thing deeper than what the eyes
see or the ears hear, il is deeper
than the brain, it lies at the bot
tom of the feelings. When the
Bible speaks of a persons heart,
it is not speaking of the way he
acts or talks or feels or thinks; it
means the way the man is.
God Sees Through Paint
If there was one sort of per-
son for whom Jesus had no use
whatever, it was hypocrite. A
hypocrite is person who has
learned the fatal trick of short
circuiting his heart from his out
ward actions. The hypocrite turns
a smile on and off as he would turn
water faucet, not because he
feels like smiling or frowning, but
because he thinks smile is called
for; he will say one thing and
think another. His apparent emo
tons, language, actions, have no
more relation to his real inner
self than the actions of clown in
circus. A clown can act very
funny with his painted smile,
though inwardly full of bitterness
or grief. He acts comical because
he is paid for it, not necessarily
because he feels gay.
Jesus liked people who live from
within, who have no short-circuit
between what they are on the out
side and what they are on the in
side. He did not care much for a
fig-tree which was really nothing
but figs stuck on thorn bush. This
is why the Bible has so much to
say about the heart. II God has q
mans heart, he has the man.
tBssee on sutilaes eopyrishtsa b. tne
Division 81 ChrirttaR EGHcnffsn. Ma
tienel CssneD 81 che Churebss 81 Chstct
she D.s.A. Released W WNU