an s EMPTY HEART1 Hiiiiii«i!itiiiitimii)iiniii!iyiiniiiiii]NJiiiiyun!iim»inii!tnffl by Vance Havner
T h e G o s p e l s o f M a t t h e w a n d L u k e both record the little parable o f our Lord about the peril of an empty heart. Matthew puts it this way: “When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and find- eth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept and garnished. Then goeth he, and taketh with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state o f that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation” (Matt. 12:43-45). Our Lord declares plainly that the application is to His own generation. Both He and John the Baptist before Him had carried on a cleansing and purifying ministry. Demons had been cast out and there had been a temporary and superficial accept ance of their message. But the Jewish nation turned its back on the Messiah and the last state of that generation was worse than the first. They had plenty of religion. The Pharisees were cer tainly “ swept and garnished,” so meticulous in their observances that they would not eat an egg that had been laid on the Sabbath. But they were also “ empty” for their hearts were closed to the Saviour. But there is a wider application of this parable. Nations as well as individuals have had temporary reforms, have cleaned and garnished their house, only to leave an empty void and a vacant soul. In the early 1900’s everything seemed in such good shape that Dr. Newell Dwight Hillis said: “Laws are becoming more just, rulers more humane; mu
sic is sweeter and books wiser; homes are happier and the individual heart more just and gentle.” He must have been red in the face a few years later when the earth was soaked in the blood of the First World War! We thought we had driven out the Evil Spirit but he returned with seven more demons. As the war went on, we cleaned house again “making the world safe for democracy.” But Dr. Spencer Leeson said: “While the War lasted, we had our purpose and our absorbing task; but what will happen afterward when that deadly lassitude and exhaustion set in (as it did in 1919) ? When the wicked spirit found the soul empty, he saw his chance.” President Woodrow Wilson also had our Lord’s parable in mind when he said to Congress in 1919: “ Again and again the demon o f war has been cast out o f the house of the peoples and the house swept clean by a treaty o f peace, only to prepare a time when he would enter in again with spirits worse than himself. The house must now be given a ten ant who will hold it against all such.” We swept the house again, garnished it and called it the League o f Nations but the devil returned in a demoniac called Hitler and the last state was worse than the first. Once again, we swept the house and put in the United Nations. We had New Deals and Fair Deals and Square Deals and Raw Deals and now we have the Great Society, but the soul o f America is empty. We have turned the clean-up and garnish ing job over to Science. Back in 1949, at Massachu setts Institute o f Technology, Dr. Burchard, Dean of the Humanities, looking ahead, predicted: “ The
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THE KING'S BUSINESS
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