But in order to speak to the heart, we must have a heart ourselves, and make use of it too. Now, it is questionable in these days whether many preachers have a heart. No one can perceive it in them; so great is the care which they take not to expose even a corner of it, lest by so doing they might derange the massive chain of their arguments. And, besides, who knows but that it might subject them to the charge of being deficient in dignity? In fact, the heart appears to have come down from the pulpit, and fears to occupy it again ... it is no longer allowed to play a part there, lest it might prove disconcerting. It is now regarded with suspicion, and God must have been mistaken when he said:--"My son, give me thine heart." The general notion seems to be, that nothing more is required in order to do men good than clearly or obscurely to demonstrate the truth to them. But knowing and doing are as widely apart as heaven and earth, and the distance between the two can only be surmounted by the heart. ... Nothing, indeed, profits an audience so much; nothing is so successful as the windings, the boundings of the heart, even when introduced in the middle of an argument. {238} All those who heard the discourse of Père Ventura on the _Philosophical Reason of Modern Times_, will recall to mind the profound and sympathetic impression which he produced when, after having spoken of a well-known philosopher, he added:--"But, after all, he was endowed with a rare intellect, a genial heart, and a noble disposition. Deceived and led astray as he had been by the false doctrines of the day, he nevertheless eventually recognized and avowed that he had made a sad bargain when he exchanged the tenets of the faith for the vain conceptions of science. Some moments before death, he shed tears over his beloved daughter, who had just partaken of the holy communion for the first time. Let me believe that his avowal and tears were acts of faith, of repentance, and of love, which availed toward his salvation at the hands of a merciful God. Let me, I say, believe this; for it is a consolation to me to believe that my brethren have found again, even in death, that grace which I hope to find myself with a benevolent God." Yes, if we appealed to the heart we should frequently discover how good, true, and sincere it is, and how little is required to change it:--often nothing more than a word, a reminiscence, a tear, a look, a sigh. And yet how sadly has this easy and effectual means been neglected! ... Every body does not understand a fine dissertation, but every body does understand a good sentiment. {239}