The Farmville herald. (Farmville, Va.) 1957-current, 1961-05-05
Out Of The Heart
Lesson for May 7, 1861

changed its m aiming in the
course of time. When the He
brews. who wrote the Bible, used
it, they seldom meant the physi-
cal organ Of the body - that
was not understood until about
400 years ago. They usually
meant it as a figure of speech.
So do we. but with difference.
When English speaking people
use the word heart" they most
often mean the emotions, es-
pecially connected with love or
the capacity for love. But when
Hebrews used that word in their
language, they usually meant the
whole inner life," all there is in
man that is not physical, all that
cannot be observed with micro
scopes or cut with microtomes,
all that cannot be weighed or
measured on any scale.
In the cart
I'm the heart" when you
meet that phrase In the Bible
does not mean in the place where
you pack your emotions. where
you get your thrills. It means
in the whole inner self. It means
in the mind. in the habits. in the
attitudes of life. Two things are
specially mentioned In the Pro
verbs which have been selected
for our study this week. that
should be kept lin the heart"
One is the Commandments. the
will Of God for human life. That
is the place where they have to
be written to do any good The
Ten Commandments in a book,
in a scroll hanging on the wall,
carved into a corner stone or in
scribed in a stained glass win
dow you can shut your eyes
to these, or you can forget them.
But write them on your heart
and you can't forget them. Well.
some will say, memorized the
Commandments and still often I
don't keep them = that's because
you just put the Commandments
into your brain. and your brain
forgets pretty easily. They have
to be inscribed. cut deeply as
with an engraver's tool, into your
whole inner life. your mind,
spirit. attitudes. emotions. per-
sonality, The whole YOU. The
other thing prov. 4:2O-2n is
my words" that is to say the
words of wisdom. Wisdom has to
be put inside and kept inside.
knowledge can be put in books
and set on a reference shelf. But
wisdom has to be carried around
with you. and you can't carry
wisdom in a book-bag.
Had it ever struck you that the
Bible never uses the expression,
with half your heart?" The
English expression "half-heart-
ed" is not meant as compi-
ment. A half hearted effort is a
feeble one. A half-hearted assent
is a yes" that has echoes of
mo" in it. No young man wants
a girl to tell him she loves him
with half her heart. Psychiatrists
talk nowadays about split per-
sonalities. and that's exactly
what half-a-heart means.
Especially is this true: Trust
in the Lord with all your heart. :"
This doesn't mean we should
never have any self-confidence
1t does not forbid us to trust our
friends or even ION OCCASION
perfect strangers. 1t does hold
before us the truth that half
trusting God is like climbing the
Alps fastened to the guide with
a half-tied rope.
Out of the cart
Out of the abundance OF the
heart mans mouth speaks,
said Jesus of Nazareth. The
heart is not safety-deposit
box opened only on rare &C.
casions. The heart is not a slow
growing plant blooming once in
a lifetime. The heart is always
outflowing. we cannot help it. We
cannot keep ourselves to our
selves. even if we shut. our
mouths and refuse to speak to
any one, we are still giving
away what kind of persons we
are. For the heart is the way
you are. inside. and sooner or
later the heart gives itself away.
Out of the heart flow the
Springs of life prov. 4:23>
and this means more than words.
Part Of the deep meaning of this
great truth is this: II you arc
going to be a spring of life. aud
not Of death. 10 those around
you. if your life Is to revive
others lives as a spring in the
desert reyives falnting trav-
eler. it can only be 50 if there
is within YOU a life that over
flows. The heart that boards its
life for itself. perisheS.
BASED on outlines copyrighted
by the Division Of Christian Edu-
cation, National Council of the
Churches of Christ in the U. S. A.
Released by Community Press
Sr'aee.)