Actions, Words, Desires by Archibald
Brown from The Heart's Cry After God, 1879 My heart and my flesh cry out
for the living God. Psalm 84 verse 2 The desires of the heart are
the best proofs of salvation. And if a man wishes to know whether
he is really saved or not, he can very soon find out by putting
his finger upon the pulse of his desires. For those are things
that can never be counterfeit. You may counterfeit words, you
may counterfeit actions, but you cannot counterfeit desires.
You cannot always tell a Christian by his actions, for sometimes
true Christians act in a very ugly style, and sometimes those
who are not Christians act in a very beautiful way. And hypocrites
often act the best. The whole of a hypocrite's life
may be a simple counterfeit. Nor are our words always a true
test. Often the most beautiful experience,
as far as language goes, is the experience that falls from the
lips of a man whose heart knows nothing about the grace of God.
It is possible to mix with God's children until you pick up a
sort of Christian dialect and talk of others' experiences as
though they were your own. Just as a man sojourning in a
foreign country will learn a good deal of the language of its inhabitants
by simply hearing it spoken, so it is possible to dwell among
Christians until their language is in great measure acquired.
But talking a language does not constitute a nationality. But there is one thing which
cannot be picked up or counterfeited, and that is a desire. Let me
know my desire, then do I know myself. For I can no more counterfeit
a desire than I can counterfeit fire. One says, do you want to
know what you are? Go ask your desires and they
will tell you. Do you wish to know where you
are going? See where your desires tend. A good action may be done without
any love to that action. On the other hand, an evil action
may be avoided, not from any hatred to that evil. The good
action may be done from an impure motive. The evil action may be
avoided simply from a selfish motive. But the desire of the
soul, that is the immediate issue of the heart. A caged bird cannot
fly. Does it therefore cease to be
a bird? No, that it does not fly is because it is in a cage. Open the door, see how quickly
it darts through the opening and flies, skimming through the
air heavenward. It has the bird's nature. It
had the desire for flight, even when the cruel wires kept it
in. And so it is with the child of
God. Often does he get caged. And if you were to judge simply
by appearances, you would say, surely he has not the nature
of the Christian within. Only open the door, only give
him a chance of flight. and you will see then that after
all the desire of his soul has been towards God for in the language
of my text he says my heart and my flesh cry out for the living
God the desire of the true Christian is after God himself my heart
and my flesh cry out for God. This desire swallows up all others. Longing after God is more infallible
proof you are gods than your most zealous services or the
very best of your actions. These might be counterfeit but
this longing after God cannot be. Oh, what must heaven be? If all the desires of a saint
are concentrated in God, then what must the satisfaction of
heaven be when it is all God? God on the throne, God before
me, God leading me, God delighting my eyes, God in my songs, the
world, its cares, its sorrows, its worries, all gone. a heavenly atmosphere of God
all around. How unutterably deep the satisfaction! My heart and my flesh will no
longer cry out for God, but will eternally rejoice in Him. Do not I love Thee, O my Lord?
Behold my heart and see, And chase each idol far away That
dares to rival Thee. Thou knowest I love Thee, dearest
Lord, But, O, I long to soar Above the sphere of mortal joys,
And learn to love Thee more. Philip Doddridge you