THE DESIRE OF HEART AND FLESH —

 THE DESIRE OF HEART AND FLESH — THE LIVING GOD. Sibbes well observes that the desires of the heart are the best proofs of saintship; and if a man wishes to know whether he is really a saint or no, he can very soon find out by putting his finger upon the pulse of his desires, for those are things that never can be counterfeit. You may counterfeit words; you may counterfeit actions; but you cannot counterfeit desires.

1. Every saint has within his breast that which is actually born of God, and therefore it cries out after its own Father.

2. Every believer has the Spirit of God dwelling within him, and if he has the Spirit of God dwelling within him, it is only natural that he should desire God.

3. The experience of earth often makes you long more for God. After you have discovered the hollowness, the disappointing nature of the world.

II. THE INTENSITY OF THIS DESIRE.

1. It is an intensity that drowns all other desires "Crieth out for God." I passed a little child the other day being led by the hand by a kind-faced policeman; and as the little thing walked by his side, I could hear it amidst its sobs, continually crying, "Father! father! father! father!" Yes, in this great city-full of people, the only face the child waned to see was the face of its father. He knew he had lost a father's hand, for he had wandered from a father's side, and he wanted father back again. "My heart and my flesh crieth out for God." Just as a lost child cares not for a million faces it may meet along the road — it wants to look at its father's face — so the true born child of God can rest satisfied with nothing short of a sight of his God. "My heart and my flesh crieth out for God."

2. It is an intensity of desire that creates pain. The language of our text is the language of a soul which can bear its anguish no longer in silence. It is a cry extorted by inward pangs.

(A. G. Brown.)

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