Today's Puritan AUDIO Devotional:

J.C. Ryle's Devotional Commentary on the Gospel of John, chapter 8
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Here we have an emblem of the human heart!

(C. Scriver, 1671)

"The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?" Jeremiah 17:9

In a vessel filled with muddy water, the mud visibly subsided to the bottom, and left the water purer and purer, until at last it seemed perfectly clear. The slightest motion, however, stirred up the sediment and the water became as murky as before.

Here we have an emblem of the human heart. The heart is full of the mud of sinful lusts and carnal desires, and the consequence is that no pure water--that is, good and holy thoughts--can flow from it. It is, in truth, a miry pit and swamp of sin in which all sorts of ugly reptiles are bred and crawl.

Many however never imagine that his heart is half so wicked as it really is, because sometimes its lusts are at rest, and sink, as it were, to the bottom.

But this lasts only so long as he is not stirred up; I mean, so long as he is without opportunity or incitement to sin. Let that occur, and worldly lusts rise so thick, that his whole thoughts, words, and works, show no trace of anything but slime and impurity.

One is meek as long as he is not thwarted. Cross him, and he is like gun-powder, ignited by the smallest spark, and blazing up with a loud and destructive effect.

Another is temperate so long as he is not with his wicked companions.

Another is chaste while the eyes of men are upon him.

Alas, my God! How often have I imagined that the world and all its lusts were a thousand miles away, and yet afterwards discovered that, like a crafty foe, they had kept quiet only to attack and beguile me unawares.

O my God, purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean. Wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow! Create in me a pure heart, O God!

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We have posted J.C. Ryle's challenging sermon, "Our Profession!"
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You will find it helpful to READ the text--as you listen to the audio!
(N.B. The edited text will not exactly match the unedited audio.)