_TRANSFORMING THE HARD HEART_
_The Lord "turned the flint into a fountain of waters."_
--PSALM cxiv.
What a violent conjunction, the flint becoming the birthplace of a spring!
And yet this is happening every day. Men who are as "hard as flint," whose
hearts are "like the nether millstone," become springs of gentleness and
fountains of exquisite compassion. Beautiful graces, like lovely ferns,
grow in the home of severities, and transform the grim, stern soul into a
garden of fragrant friendships. This is what Zacchæus was like when his
flint became a fountain. It is what Matthew the publican was like when the
Lord changed his hard heart into a land of springs.
No one is "too far gone." No hardness is beyond the love and pity of God.
The well of eternal life can gush forth even in a desert waste, and "where
sin abounds grace doth much more abound." Let us bring our hardness to the
Lord. Let us see what He can make of our flint. When we are dry and
"feelingless," and desire is dead, let us bring this Sahara to the great
Restorer, and "the desert shall rejoice and blossom like the rose."