An Honest and Good Heart

February 7.

Obey my voice, and I will be your God,
and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all
the ways that I have commanded you,
that it may be well unto you.

JEREMIAH 7, verse 23.


And oft, when in my heart was heard
Thy timely mandate, I deferred
The task, in smoother walks to stray;
But thee I now would serve more strictly,
if I may.

W. WORDSWORTH.


Pray Him to give you what Scripture calls
"an honest and good heart," or "a perfect heart;"
and, without waiting, begin at once to obey Him
with the best heart you have. Any obedience is
better than none. You have to seek His face;
obedience is the only way of seeing Him.
All your duties are obediences. To do what He
bids is to obey Him, and to obey Him is to
approach Him. Every act of obedience is an
approach--an approach to Him who is not far
off, though He seems so, but close behind this
visible screen of things which hides Him from us.

J. H. NEWMAN.


As soon as we lay ourselves entirely at His feet,
we have enough light given us to guide our own steps;
as the foot-soldier, who hears nothing of the councils
that determine the course of the great battle he is in,
hears plainly enough the word of command
which he must himself obey.

GEORGE ELIOT.