God Looks on the Heart

When Samuel was sent by God to choose a king to reign over Israel, his first impulse was to select one of imposing and pleasing physical stature. God, however, quickly rebuked him, saying, “The Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.” Now God’s way has never changed. He still continues to judge righteous judgment by looking “on the heart” instead of regarding the “outward appearance.” Many other statements of Scripture emphasize this; as for instance, in Jeremiah we read, “I the Lord search the heart;” while the writer of the epistle to the Hebrews tells us that “the word of God … is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart;” and then he goes on to say, “All things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.”

The Bible uses the term “heart” to symbolize the receptacle for all one’s inmost feelings, be they good, bad, or indifferent. It talks of all sorts of hearts,—of willing, glad, pure, upright, perfect hearts; and also of wicked, slow, perverse, proud, froward hearts. Jesus said definitely that out of the heart proceed the things which defile. Then it is evident that hearts must needs be purified and made holy if men are to have true hearts,—if they are to express those qualities which make for goodness and greatness, for health and helpfulness. And how can this be done except as God looks in upon the heart and lays bare its inmost recesses? It is therefore absolutely necessary that all human hearts be searched. Each must have the secrets of his heart revealed to him in order that he may relinquish all that is false and win the true.

Men have always known they must experience a change of heart if they would be truly Christian; the “stony heart” must give place to “an heart of flesh,”—hard resistance to Truth must yield to the tenderness of divine Love,—if the Christ is to come in and fill consciousness with good. For generations Christians have believed God’s promise that He would create within them “a clean heart;” but just how this was to be accomplished they have not understood. They have not always wanted to give up the evils which defile; nor have they welcomed the thought that God looks “on the heart.” It has not always seemed to them an unadulterated comfort that nothing is hid from “the eyes of him with whom we have to do.” Mortals would rather have kept some things well out of sight, could it only have been possible!

But Christian Science tells us that right desire and honesty are the first requisites in the process of this heart cleansing. In “Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures” (p. 8) Mrs. Eddy writes, “We never need to despair of an honest heart; but there is little hope for those who come only spasmodically face to face with their wickedness and then seek to hide it.” Great light is also thrown on the subject of the heart when our Leader defines it in Science and Health (p. 587) as “mortal feelings, motives, affections, joys, and sorrows.” Christian Science then points the way very clearly to heart transformation, for it tells us that God is to search our hearts by the light of Truth shining in upon our mortal feelings and motives and affections. Could there be a surer method for uncovering all that is mistaken and wrong, all that is impure and unholy?

It is light alone which reveals the hidden things of darkness. Each mortal heart is as Stygian night with its human beliefs all mixed with error, when lo! the light of Christian Science begins to shine in upon the false concepts of feelings and purposes, upon the human affections and joys and sorrows! And still, how we are tempted again and again to shut the door of our heart and not let the light shine in! It seems more than we can bear,—this uncovering of the mistaken nature of our hearts’ contents. But oh, to remember always that it is the light of divine Love which is piercing the gloom, exposing the falsities, showing the evil nature of the misconceptions! It is “God with us,” searching our hearts, uncovering all that is unlike good, in order that error may be rebuked and proved unreal.

Then Christian Scientists should not repine at the demand which Truth makes that every mortal feeling, every motive, every affection, joy, and sorrow, must be subjected to God’s searching, that our hearts may be fully purified. Then no time will be left to look on the “outward appearance,” —mortal opinions; but God’s requirement will have been met, for we shall have rejoicingly given Him our whole heart!