THE SUPREMACY OF HEART OVER BRAIN.




"Out of the heart are the issues of life."--_Prov. IV. 23_.


"For out of the heart man believeth unto righteousness."--_Paul_.


"Heart is a word that the Bible is full of. Brain, I believe, is not
mentioned in Scripture. Heart, in the sense in which it is currently
understood, suggests the warm center of human life or any other life.
When we say of a man that he 'has a good deal of heart' we mean that he
is 'summery.' When you come near him it is like getting around to the
south side of a house in midwinter and letting the sunshine feel of
you, and watching the snow slide off the twigs and the tear-drops swell
on the points of pendant icicles. Brain counts for a good deal more
to-day than heart does. It will win more applause and earn a larger
salary. Thought is driven with a curb-bit lest it quicken into a pace
and widen out into a swing that transcends the dictates of good form.
Exuberance is in bad odor. Appeals to the heart are not thought to be
quite in good taste. The current demand is for ideas--not taste. I
asked a member of my church the other day whether he thought a certain
friend of his who attends a certain church and is exceptionally brainy
was really entering into sympathy with religious things. 'Oh, no,' he
said, 'he likes to hear preaching because he has an active mind, and
the way that things are spread out in front of him.' In the old days
of the church a sermon used to convert 3,000 men, now that temperature