"A new heart also shall I give you."

"And they said among themselves, Who shall roll us away the stone from the door of the sepulchre? And when they looked, they saw that the stone was rolled away: for it was very great." -Mark 16:3, 4 [KJV]

 My soul, how very often, like these poor women at the door of our Lord's sepulchre, hast thou been at a loss to think whence help should arise to succour thee in the needed moment? And how often, like them, hast thou found, when looking again, all the difficulties which thou hadst figured to thyself removed! And with thee the mercy hath been, if possible, yet more striking. For thou not only needest the stone to be rolled away from the door of the sepulchre, that thou mightest see Jesus, but to have the stone taken away out of thine heart, that thou mightest love and believe in Jesus to the salvation of thy soul.  

Is it so then, that whilst, at any time, thou art putting forth the question and inquiry, full of doubt, and fear, and misgiving, who shall help in this or that difficulty; and when thou lookest again, behold the Lord hath been better to thee than all thy fears, and "every mountain before thy great Zerubbabel is become a plain?" Wilt thou not learn hence, that thy Lord Jesus, with all His benefits, is not only set before thee, and revealed to thee, but made over to thee, to be received, and to be enjoyed, and to be made use of, by thee, for all and every purpose in which His glory and thy salvation are concerned?  

The stone is indeed very great in every heart by nature, and unmoveable by natural strength. But look again. He that arose from the dead, and broke open the sepulchre, can and will take it away, according to that sweet promise, Ezekiel 36:26. And if the stone be removed, and the fountain of life broken up, in the person, and glory, and triumphs of Jesus, come then, my soul, "and draw water out of those wells of salvation." Oh! how truly blessed is it to see Jesus in all; and to enjoy Jesus in all; for then, whatever great obstructions seem to lie in the way, the Lord Himself doth and will remove them. "He brings the blind by a way they knew not. He causeth them to walk in places that they have not known. Crooked things are made straight, and rough places plain: and all His redeemed then see the salvation of our God!" 

-Robert Hawker (1753-1827 A.D.)   

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