But, alas! the poor human heart is not up to this lovely mark. It is not fully prepared to tread this heavenly road. It is sadly cramped and hindered, by a low and miserable selfishness, in grasping and carrying out the divine principle of grace. It is not quite at home in this heavenly atmosphere; it is but ill-prepared for being the vessel and channel of that royal grace which shines so brightly in all the ways of God. This will only too fully account for the cautionary clauses of the following passage. "If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren within any of thy gates, in thy land, which the Lord thy God giveth thee, _thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand_ from thy poor brother; but thou shalt _open thine hand wide_ unto him, and surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he wanteth. Beware that there be not a thought _in thy wicked heart_, saying, The seventh year, the year of release, is at hand; and _thine eye be evil_ against thy poor brother, and thou _givest_ him naught; and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto thee. _Thou shalt surely give him_, and thine heart shall not be grieved when thou givest unto him; because that for this thing the Lord thy God shall bless thee in all thy works, and in all that thou puttest thine hand unto. For the poor shall never cease out of thy land; therefore I command thee, saying, _Thou shalt open thine hand wide_ unto thy brother, to thy poor, and to thy needy, in thy land." (Ver. 7-11.) Here the deep springs of the poor selfish heart are discovered and judged. There is nothing like grace for making manifest the hidden roots of evil in human nature. Man must be renewed in the very deepest springs of his moral being ere he can be the vehicle of divine love; and even those who are thus through grace renewed, have to watch continually against the hideous forms of selfishness in which our fallen nature clothes itself. Nothing but grace can keep the heart open wide to every form of human need. We must abide hard by the fountain of heavenly love if we would be channels of blessing in the midst of a scene of misery and desolation like that in which our lot is cast.