2 Kings 22:19 Because your heart was tender, and you have humbled yourself before the LORD, when you heard what I spoke against this place… I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES IN WHICH SUCH A CHARACTER MAY BE PLACED AND TRIED. 1. It may often have to contend with great difficulties. Observe the illustration of this in the history before us. 2. It may sometimes be surrounded by external difficulties. 3. A tender heart may sometimes misunderstand, and therefore misinterpret, the follies and frailties of other Christians. There must be the knowledge of evil as well as of good in the Christian as in the common life. Stumbling-blocks will be found, though deeply to be deplored, in every section of the Christian Church. II. SOME OF THE INDICATIONS OF A TENDER HEART. All life reveals itself. The tiniest herb or flower that drinks the morning dew reveals itself. Life cannot be hid, and that because it is life. Not always in the same manner, but always in some manner; for as external life is full of variety, from the "cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that groweth on the wall," so inward religious life has its manifold phases, full of variety, full of beauty, and all significant of their Divine origin. Let us notice some — 1. There will be thoughtful interest in religious truth. We cannot conceive of the commencement, much less of the continuation, of a religious life in connection with thoughtlessness. 2. There will be practical co-operation in works of religious activity. Religious life has ever holy work to do, as holy words to say. The commencement of this new life starts with the question, "Lord, what wilt thou have me to do?" 3. There will be devout interest in religious assemblies. The object of Christian assemblies is one — the worship of God and the edification of the Church. In proportion as our heart is penetrated with the ideas proper to, and regulated by the principles of, the Christian life, there will not only be the desire but the determination to avail ourselves of seasons of religious worship for purposes of spiritual improvement. 4. There will be also personal determination to secure religious progress. First the blade, but afterwards, if the blade is healthy, there will be the ear: lovely is the blade in all its tenderness and vigour, so in its season is the maturing ear, that gives promise of the fully ripened and perfectly developed corn in the ear. III. THE BLESSEDNESS OF HAVING A TENDER HEART. Because, 1. It is the disposition produced by the influences of God's Spirit. It is God" who worketh in us both to will and to do." "Every good and perfect gift cometh down from above" 2. Because it will prevent great irregularity if not sinfulness of life. Religion subtracts nothing from the real enjoyment of life. The happiest transaction of life is the hour of consecration to God. 3. Because a tender heart is the sure sign of a regenerate one. "And whom He did," etc. (Romans 8:29.) (W. G. Barrett.) Parallel Verses KJV: Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD. |
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