LARGENESS OF HEART
"God gave Solomon largeness of heart." -- I Kings 4:29.
The crying need of this age is for men with big, noble hearts. The heart is the channel through which God pours rivers of living waters. All the mightiest forces in the religious world are in the heart. The heart is the seat of the affections, that mighty love force.
There is nothing greater than love. Love is one of the mighty forces by which God governs the human family. Says E. M. Bounds, the praying preacher, "It is the heart and not the head which makes great preachers. The heart counts much every way in religion. The heart must hear in the pew, the heart must speak in the pulpit. In fact, we serve God with our hearts. Head homage does not pass current in heaven."
The tendency of this day is to exalt brains, and give more time to the culture of the head than the heart. A theological school that will lay emphasis on the heart, and turn out preachers with great hearts is the need of this age.
Let us turn and read the text again, "And God gave Solomon wisdom and understanding, exceeding much, and largeness of heart." Unless our hearts keep pace with our heads, we are in danger of becoming top-heavy and lopsided in our Christian life.
Largeness of heart will show itself in magnanimity of soul. Such a one is too big, noble and great to stoop to do a little, mean, underhanded thing. Such a heart never schemes, or secretly pulls wires for a place. This magnanimous soul readily forgives all injuries and never thinks of holding a grudge. This big soul had rather forgive than to have the feeling of sweet revenge. The heart in which the comforter dwells is too big for unkindness to have a place.
Look at Joseph's attitude toward his brethren; not only forgiving them, but taking them into his big, noble heart and giving them the best of the land. No wonder he is held up as a type of the Saviour.
Largeness of heart will show itself in moving men heavenward. "The heart is the savior of the world." Men who have moved the masses Godward were men of big hearts. The little heart has no capacity for great things. The beauty of largeness of heart is its roominess. It has room for God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. It is big enough for the whole human family to dwell in.
A big heart is a sympathetic heart. The Holy Ghost can only flow freely through a tender heart. As the electric current flows best over a copper wire, the Holy Spirit follows the channel of tenderness, and is conveyed to others through a tender, yearning heart. That is why God used the mighty Finney and General Booth. They were both Christlike men.
There are tens of thousands of professed Christians who may get to heaven, but they will never be used very much in this world, because they are narrow, little, and crusty in the heart nature. Oh, for a breaking up until everything hard, harsh, and stubborn is melted out of us.
There are a great many Christian persons who are good, straight, and radical, but there is something in their nature which needs a crushing and grinding to fine powder. I don't care what you may have in the way of learning, brilliancy, strength, eloquence, and a strong personality; without a tender heart you will never prove to be great soul winners.
You may be orthodox and be able to explain the first and second blessing nicely, but without the heart force, it is the mere "letter that killeth." It lacks the breath of spring morning.
Largeness of heart will show itself in a larger prayer life. God the Holy Ghost is seeking for vessels through which He can pour His prayers. Paul in Romans 8:26, writes: "Likewise the Spirit helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered."
The highest form of prayer is the divinely inspired prayer. The Holy Spirit, being God, has all knowledge and knoweth what things we need. He creates the strong desire in our hearts to pray for certain things. If we follow up His leadings, He then fans our desires into a heavenly flame until they are caught up into the all-prevailing, intercessional current of the Spirit and thus are borne to the ear of God.
The Bible speaks of three forms of prayer: Ask, seek, and knock. The knocking is the highest of the three. The word "knock" implies a closed door. The man in the parable who went to borrow bread at midnight, brings out this thought. His asking did not open the closed door, but because of his importunity, his persistent knocking, the man within arose and gave as many loaves as he wanted. Anyone can walk into an open door, but it takes patience and determination to hold on, when the doors of heaven seem to be closed. Blessed is the man who will not faint, nor take "no" for an answer, but holds on until the closed door swings open wide and the child of God walks into the treasure house of the King. "Lord, teach us to pray."
Largeness of heart will show itself in a love-life. Narrow-minded, little-hearted people never love. It takes a big, roomy heart to love. There is nothing higher, deeper, nor sweeter than heavenly love. It is the sum and substance of the Christlike life.
The central current running through some lives is courage; they are the "defender of faith." In others it is faith that heads great movements; in others it is teaching, great illumination of the Bible, but God's choice for us is love. God wants to dissolve us in divine love. Says G. D. Watson: "Have you fallen in love with the overflowing idea of universal love? Are your dreams, thoughts, prayers, and studies all centered on being lost in love? Do you pant to have your whole being dipped in the dew of love, or to change the figure, entirely consumed in the ecstatic fire of love, that you would gladly yield up all other talents, and graces, and crowns and rewards in order to reach such a consummation?"
"To be dissolved in love the soul prefers to take the lowest place to let others have the big end of the bargain, to prefer that others have the honor, to delight in happiness and elevation of others, and love to pour itself out for its fellows. It is the nature of divine love to encourage, brighten, and lift up, when the soul is dissolved in love, this will be one of its marks."
Largeness of heart means an enlarged vision. Vision in action has tunneled the mountains, cabled the oceans, connected continents, conquered the air and annihilated space until we can speak and our voices are heard around the world. So in the Spiritual world we need a larger vision. We need a greater conception of Jesus. We need to know Him as our great High Priest, as our coming King. We need a larger vision of His word. We do not need a new Bible, but spiritual eyes to grasp the deep things as they shine from the inspired word.
The great men of the Bible were men of vision. Joseph was called a dreamer, but he dreamed his way from a prison cell to become the Prime Minister of Egypt. Moses lived as seeing Him who was invisible and became the law-giver and leader of Israel. It was a vision that held him steady through all the wilderness experience. Later God took him up on the Mount and there gave him a vision of the Tabernacle, the outward court, the holy place and the Holy of Holies. Before he descended from the holy mount God reminded him that he was to build everything in accordance to the pattern: shown him in the holy mount. It would pay us to take stock and ask ourselves if we are building according to the divine pattern. Without a vision there can be no progress, or advancement in the heavenly life. We need a large vision on all lines.
It is one thing to have a clean heart, and a very different thing to have all the faculties so subdued, and pervaded with divine love, as to have them act as if by instinct from the heart of Christ. We mean by a love life, to reach that stage where all the mental faculties are turned into gentle, loving action, so that judgments, opinions, decisions are formed slowly, discreetly, with instructive kindness. To live a love life, let us remember first of all that such a life must be chosen. This does not come to us by mere chance, or a matter of course, nor as an out-working of sanctification, but it is a condition that must enter into our whole being; it must be definitely prayed for. In the Spiritual life there is always room for us to choose between the excellent, the more excellent, and the most excellent way.
"Even after Israel had crossed the Jordan into the Canaan land, there was ample variety of possessions in mountains, valleys, sunny slopes, vineyards, and orchards with their golden ripening fruit, all of which may typify the manifold phases of a holy life, developed beyond heart purity."
Largeness of heart will save us from a thousand petty things, such as criticism and fault-finding. We will simply ignore such things and press on. This noble-hearted soul is running a race, and is too great and big to stop to answer the hiss of a serpent's tongue. Such a race of Christlike men are the saviors of this world; they lead the sons of men to the green pastures and the sun-kissed hills of the better things of life. God help us not to be content with present attainments, but to press our way on to the larger, sweeter, and deeper things of God.
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