Editorial August 2, 1924 Issue

An Undivided Heart

Ella W. Hoag

"Thus saith the Lord of hosts, ... ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart." So came the word of God to Jeremiah centuries ago, and it is no less true now than then. No one to-day, any more than in the olden prophet's time, need imagine that anything less than an undivided heart can experience the bliss of acquaintance with God. Jesus emphasized the same truth when in his incomparable Sermon on the Mount he declared, "Ye cannot serve God and mammon."

How this proclamation of our Master has pursued and rebuked every attempt of error to attach itself to good, to hide itself in any way under the guise of righteousness, to deceive any one into believing that there is anything to be desired outside of God! To be sure, mankind has gone right on thinking it can unite good and evil, truth and error, and still succeed in its undertakings; but every effort to do this has finally resulted in failure.

In spite of this, all Christians in their innermost hearts have wanted to live in accordance with Jesus' injunction; but many have wondered why they did not do it more successfully. At times their endeavors have brought some degree of satisfactory accomplishment, only perhaps to be followed by even more pronounced defeat. Many a one after long years of struggle to be true to God and render no allegiance to mammon has wept over his apparent failure to win the victory he so earnestly has sought. He did not know that all the time he had failed to understand how to keep his heart undivided. Paul, however, said, "I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness." He was certain he had been able to serve God alone!

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