WHOSE HEART THE LORD OPENED.

 

Whose heart the Lord opened.
Acts 16:14

 
EVERY heart by nature is closed against God,
  and nothing can open a sinner’s heart but
  invincible power.
 
It takes the same power to open a sinner’s heart
  as it did to create the world, or
  to raise the dead body of Jesus from the grave.
 
Until the heart is opened,
  the word will not enter,
  sound conviction will not be felt,
  the light of the knowledge of the glory of God
  in the face of Jesus Christ will not be received.
 
The preacher may preach,
  judgments may thunder, mercy may call,
  but until God open the heart all is vain.
 
The Lord works by means,
  the means generally are his word and ordinances.
 
Something he throws the heart wide open at once,
  and the change is striking, startling, and apparent to all.
 
Sometimes he opens it by degrees, and
  then the change is gradual and almost imperceptible.
 
But if the heart be at all opened,
  God has done it; and being once opened,
  it is never quite closed again.
 
He opened and no man shutteth.
 
May the Lord open our hearts, and
  open them wide, that we may receive Christ, and
  with him the whole body of gospel truth!
 
Lord, not only open our hearts,
  but enter and fill them with thy glory.
 

Of every heart thou hast the key,

Command that mine may yield to thee

May hear thy whisper in thy word.

And opening now admit the Lord.

 
James Smith 1849