_THE LAW IN THE HEART_
"_I will put My laws into their hearts._"
--HEBREWS x. 16-22.
Everything depends on where we carry the law of the Lord. If it only rests
in the memory, any vagrant care may snatch it away. The business of the
day may wipe it out as a sponge erases a record from a slate. A thought is
never secure until it has passed from the mind into the heart, and has
become a desire, an aspiration, a passion. When the law of God is taken
into the heart, it is no longer something merely remembered: it is
something loved. Now things that are loved have a strong defence. They are
in the "keep" of the castle, in the innermost custody of the stronghold.
The strength of the heart is wrapped about them, and no passing vagrant
can carry them away.
And this is where the good Lord is willing to put His laws. He is wishful
to put them among our loves. And the wonderful thing is this: when laws
are put among loves they change their form, and His statutes become our
songs. Laws that are loved are no longer dreadful policemen, but
compassionate friends. "O! how I love Thy law!" That man did not live in a
prison, he lived in a garden, and God's will was unto him as gracious
flowers and fruits. And so shall it be unto all of us when we love the law
of the Lord.