A Divided Heart

Spurgeon takes the divided heart as a spiritual disease of the most dangerous kind — dangerous because it strikes a vital organ, because its victim is unconscious of how loathsome it is, because it is chronic and deep-seated, and above all because the heart flatters its owner into thinking everything is fine — and he identifies its four main symptoms: formality in religion (defending the shell because there is no kernel), inconsistency of life (one kind of person on Sunday and another on Saturday), variableness of purpose (spasmodic religious enthusiasm that comes and goes with the latest cause), and frivolity toward sacred things. He then traces the sad effects of this condition in three directions: the divided-heart person is personally miserable because the soul cannot rest in two places at once, he is useless and even dangerous to the church since hypocrisy spreads like contagion among healthy people, and he is utterly reprobate in God's sight — for God hates sin anywhere but most of all when it lays its hand on his altar wearing a disguise. He closes with two contrasting words: a solemn warning to the brazen-faced professor that at judgment he will be snatched from among the saints with greater horror than a common sinner receives; and a tender invitation to the broken-hearted penitent who, unlike the divided heart, has had all self-confidence shattered and now desires only to be truly God's — such a person is bidden to trust Christ immediately, since he is willing, able, and waiting to be gracious.Sermon delivered by Charles Spurgeon on September 25th, 1859.