THE HEART WON - TWOFOLD

THE HEART WON - TWOFOLD

When there is real purpose to win Christ, the Lord is unceasing in His succour. The more the heart is won by Christ, the more is it dissatisfied with everything else, though it may try many things to satisfy it. It is a great thing when the heart is fully won by Christ. There are two ways of winning it; or to speak more accurately, to be won perfectly, it must be won in a twofold way. Jonathan is won, because of what David did, Ruth is won because of what Naomi is to her. The woman in Luke 7 sets forth the first; Mary of Bethany the other. In one, He is my relief; in the other, He is my resource. The heart is fully won when it knows Him as its one resource; but it must feel its need of Him thus first. When the heart is won because of what Christ has done, which is the Jonathan state, there is awakened in it a sense of dissatisfaction apart from Him; and in order to quiet or relieve this, many things or exploits are undertaken, which relieve while they engross, but no longer. But when the heart is set on winning Christ, or on having Him as its gain, it has discovered that which only can satisfy it. This is a great discovery, and not as common as people think or say. Now once your heart is really set on having ^[p. 400] Christ as its gain, you have come to the Ruth state; and then many of the good works which one did in the Jonathan state, though right in themselves, will become more a duty than an exploit, or an engrossment. They will fall very low in comparison with the one great, absorbing, satisfying occupation, which now rules the heart, and distances every other.

You have a true purpose to get on; if you exchange the word ‘on’ for ‘up’ it would help you much, because the danger with you is the sense of acquisition. Now when you are seeking to get up, or to have Christ as your gain, the more you do so, the less will you have the sense of acquiring. Here is your first check; but because your purpose is true, the Lord has been unceasing in all His ways (as the Father too), first in providing you with everything you could want; but in another way, in your health, etc., clipping your wings. You have everything here, but in a cage. Secondly, you have made your duty, schools, etc., primary things with your heart; you have pursued it as if it could afford you nearness to Christ. I commend the schools, as a duty of a landed proprietor, but they are not the chief service of a heart set on winning Christ. They are not primarily Christ’s things; and while you put them in that position, they will be like dust in your eyes, which not only causes pain to the eyes, but also deprives you of light, and you neither know the cause, nor can you see where the dust is.

There is neither joy nor strength, but as I am in the line of the Spirit of God. When I am really for Christ, I am in concert with the Holy Spirit, and I must have both joy and strength. Though I visit the infirmary for incurables, or be beaten in the streets, nothing can deprive me of the Friend within.

Thus, as it appears to me, two things, or rather the remnants of two things, conspire to depress you. I believe that if you rise every day with the cry to the Lord, that your heart might simply follow the purpose ^[p. 401] which He in His grace had set there - even to win Christ, that you will be amazed at the way things will appear to you, and how your own heart will expand, and regard everything. This is my unfeigned desire for you.