Heart, Greed of the
Illustration★★★★‘The heart of a man is a short word, a small substance, scarce enough to give a kite a meal; yet great in capacity, yea, so indefinite in desire that the round globe of the world cannot fill the three corners of it, when it desires more, and cries “Give, give!” I will set it over to the Infinite Good, where the more it hath it may desire more, and see more to be desired. Bishop Hall, 9395. HEART a Hive.
Take your place beside a hive of bees in a summer day at noon, and watch the busy traffickers. The outwardbound brush quickly past the heavy-laden incomers in the narrow passage. They flow like two opposite streams of water in the same channel, without impeding each other’s motions. Every one is in haste: none tarries for a neighbor.
Such a hive is a human heart, and the swarm of winged thoughts which harbor there maintain an intercourse with all the world in constant circulation, while the man sits among the worshipers still, and upright and steady as a bee-hive upon its pedestal The thoughta that issue from their home in that human heart, bold like robbers in the dark, overleap the fences of holiness, suck at will every flower that they reckon sweet, and return to deposit their gatherings in the owner’s cup.
The eyes of the Lord are there, beholding the evil.
— Arnot
Also attributed to: Bishop Hall
The point
Bishop Hall compares the human heart to a small vessel with limitless craving, and to a beehive whose ceaseless traffic of thoughts, if unwatched, plunders and hoards whatever it desires, all under God's watching eyes.