As water reflects the face, so the heart reflects the true man.Like water reflects a face, so a man’s heart reflects the man.As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.As in water face answereth to face, So the heart of man to man.
3 sermons cite this verse
"Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together and burned them before all men and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed." Acts 19:19,20. IT should be very encouraging to us to hear of the triumphs of the Gospel in the olden times. It is not only a matter of interest as to history, but it is a matter of practical consolation for the present day, for the Gospel is just the same today as it was 1,800 years ago! If we preach the Gospel at all, it is the very same Gospel which Paul delivered. We may not have all of Paul's gifts, or all of Apollo's eloquence, but for all practical matters, the same preaching is with us that was with Paul—and we may, therefore, expect to see the same results! It may be imagined, however, that perhaps the population may have changed in character, but, believe me, it is not so. The Gospel of Jesus Christ was not intended for one century or two, but for all time. After all, men's hearts have not altered. The population of London is not at all unlike that of Ephesus. They may dress very differently and their language is not the same, and their customs may outwardly differ, but as in water, face answers to face, so the heart of man to man! One man's heart is like another man's, and the sinners of 1,800 years ago are very much like the sinners of today. If a man should come into London with the same Gospel with which Paul went into Ephesus, he has a Gospel adapted to London as assuredly as the Gospel was adapted to Ephesus. More than that, we have the same spirit resting upon the Gospel, now, as then! The power which rendered the Gospel saving in the olden times was not Paul's logic, or Apollo's eloquence—the saving power lay in the Holy Spirit accompanying the Divine Truth. Now the Spirit of God is not straitened. He is Divine. His arm is not shortened that He cannot save. He is just as able to make the Word of God the power of God unto salvation, today, as He was then! Yes, and I bless His name, He is doing it! He has been doing it lately in Madagascar, as an instance in far-off lands, and we have seen Him do it in our very midst. We have known and conversed with multitudes who have been turned from darkness to light, from the slavery of Satan into the liberty of Christ by the power of the Gospel which Paul preached, which we, also, preach! When Paul and his two or three companions came into Ephesus, they were not one whit different from two or three Christians going into any city in the world with the view of evangelizing it! Of course, they had the gift of miracles, but we have other appliances which they had not. We have books which we can scatter far and wide—and we have an amount of religious liberty in almost every place which they did not possess. I do not think they stood on any vantage ground beyond ourselves, or, if they did, we can reach that same vantage ground—and we may expect that the God of Paul will work in London and elsewhere as he worked at Ephesus—if we know how to be as obedient to His Divine will and as earnest in our service to Him, as was that mighty Apostle of the Gentiles! …
Therefore, when you see others’ faults; when you take notice, how such an one acts amiss, what an ill spirit he shows, and how unsuitable his behaviour is; when you hear others speak of it, and when you yourselves find fault with others in their dealings with you, or in things wherein you are any way concerned with them; then reflect, and consider, whether there be nothing of the same nature in yourselves. Consider that these things are just as deformed and hateful in you as they are in others. Pride, a haughty spirit and carriage, are as odious in you as they are in your neighbour. Your malicious and revengeful spirit towards your neighbour, is just as hateful as a malicious and revengeful spirit in him towards you. It is as unreasonable for you to wrong, and to be dishonest with your neighbour, as it is for him to wrong, and be dishonest with you. It is as injurious and unChristian for you to talk against others behind their backs, as it is for others to do the same with respect to you. 6. Consider the ways in which others are blinded as to sins in which they live, and strictly inquire whether you be not blinded in the same ways. You are sensible that others are blinded by their lusts; consider whether the prevalence of some carnal appetite or lust of the mind have not blinded you. You see how others are blinded by their temporal interest; inquire whether your temporal interests do not blind you also in some things, so as to make you allow yourselves in things which are not right. You are as liable to be blinded through inclination and interest, and have the same deceitful and wicked hearts as other men, Prov. xxvii. 12. “As in water face answereth to face, so the heart of man to man.” …
2. Because in these sufferings he felt the fruits of that wickedness. It was then directly levelled against himself, and exerted itself against him to work his reproach and torment, which tended to impress a stronger sense of its hatefulness on the human nature of Christ. But yet at the same time, so wonderful was the love of Christ to those who exhibited this hateful corruption, that he endured those very sufferings to deliver them from the punishment of that very corruption. The wonderfulness of Christ’s dying love appears partly in that he died for those that were so unworthy in themselves, as all mankind have the same kind of corruptions in their hearts, and partly in that he died for those who were not only so wicked, but whose wickedness consists in being enemies to him; so that he did not only die for the wicked, but for his own enemies; and partly in that he was willing to die for his enemies at the same time that he was feeling the fruits of their enmity, while he felt the utmost effects and exertions of their spite against him in the greatest possible contempt and cruelty towards him in his own greatest ignominy, torments, and death; and partly in that he was willing to atone for their being his enemies in these very sufferings, and by that very ignominy, torment, and death that was the fruit of it. The sin and wickedness of men, for which Christ suffered to make atonement, was, as it were, set before Christ in his view. …