CHAPTER I. ON THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE "Who can know it?" "Ye know not what spirit ye are of.". CAN the heart be known by its possessor? by him whose spiritual being, whose identity and accountability it forms? In other words, can it be known by itself? This is an important question. The interrogative exclamation of the prophet, prefixed to this chapter, seems to assert the negative in the strongest possible manner. The declaration of our Lord to his zealous but vindictive disciples, shows that many do not know their own hearts, nor the motives under which they speak and act. The exhortation of the apostle to a careful examination of self, proceeds upon the same presumption: and facts daily show, that a vast majority of mankind know as little of their own heart, as though it belonged not to them; as little as they do of the unexplored and most re mote regions of the earth, the mere names and positions of which they have only heard. We often hear the expression, that such or such men "have no heart-no soul;" and an ingenious and pious writer, improving upon the hint, and drawing his inferences from the ordinary conduct of the mass of men, has presented us with "a world without souls." These men, to whom the very possession of a heart is popularly denied, feel indeed some of its more common natural affections; they are moved at times by its fiercer passions; and they habitually obey its perverted tendencies. Yet they do all this as it were mechanically, just as the brute follows his instinct; never asking themselves whence the prompting comes-whether it be right or wrong; or what is the state of that exhaustless fund of thought, and spring of feeling and of action from which they daily draw, and which sends its strong current through all the channels of the life. They care for none of these things"-they investigate them not "these things they willingly are ignorant of" -as ignorant as they are of the deepest, the most inscrutable mysteries of God. Automaton-like, they move and act, but do not think; moving and acting from impulse, not from principle. Such men (and alas they are but too numerous !) it is evident cannot and will not know their own hearts, * Rev. J. W. Cunningham. 66 until their true state shall be revealed to them in the searching light, and amidst the full developements of that day, when the secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed. This "Know thyself," was one of the admired dicta of ancient wisdom. This was no more than an exhortation to study and know the heart, for the heart constitutes the moral man. Yet Heathen wisdom, while it gave the precept, could give neither counsel nor aid for its fulfilment. was to be reserved for Revelation. In its fulness and perfection indeed, this knowledge is not to be obtained on earth; for the most exalted saint, through the imperfection of his discernment, and the deceitfulness of nature, will live and die in partial ignorance of self. After his best endeavours to know himself aright, he will have reason to be dissatisfied with the result, and to cry out with the Psalmist, "Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting." To all who are anxious not to remain strangers to themselves, and to the busy little world of thought and feeling within them, we would earnestly recommend the careful and frequent perusal of MASON'S ADMIRABLE TREATISE ON SELF-KNOWLEDGE-a work deservedly dear to the religious public, and one which it is believed has produced as much of spiritual benefit as any |