---

I. THE SUGGESTIVE SAYING, "Out of (the heart) are the issues of life."

1. All our words and actions originate there. "All these evil things come from within, and they defile the man."

2. The moral quality of every word and action depends on its inner motive.

3. Thoughts and feelings themselves, apart from actions, are all either good or evil. "The thought of foolishness is sin."

4. Within the heart is formed that "character" which determines most of the actions of the man. We give the name "character" to that complex collection of tendencies and habits which grows up within us all as the sum and result of individual acts continually repeated. The germs of the ultimate character can often be detected in the child.

5. The "issues of life," in outward condition, depend most of all on the heart within us.

6. The everlasting "issues of life" come "out of the heart."

II. TAKE UP THE ADMONITION, "Keep thy heart with all diligence." The margin reads, "Keep thy heart above all keeping." The common estimate of the relative value of the outside and the inside is terribly astray. It creeps into our very religion.

1. We can avoid the evil.

2. We can fill up the heart with good.

(F. H. Marling.)

---

---

KJV: Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life.

WEB: Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life.