Keep thy heart with all diligence.

“Keep thy heart with all diligence.”
Mat_6:19-24

Our Lord in his Sermon on the Mount further said:—
Mat_6:19-21
Whatever we make to be our treasure will be sure to become the attraction of our heart. If we accumulate earthly riches, our hearts will by degrees be tied up in our money-bags; and, on the other hand, if our chief possessions are in heavenly things, our hearts will rise into the higher and more spiritual region. The position of the heart is sure to be affected by the place where the treasure is laid up. Shall sons of God give their hearts away to passing joys, which decay if they remain ours, and are liable at any moment to be taken from us?
Mat_6:22-23
A heart professedly set upon heaven but held in bondage to earth is like an eye blinded by the intrusion of a foreign substance, involving the unfortunate owner of it in darkness. There is no such thing as seeing spiritual things while the soul’s windows are fastened up with shutters of worldliness.
Mat_6:23
Two leading principles cannot rule in one heart; they cannot both be master. Either sin or grace will engross the whole heart; neither will submit to compromise.
Mat_7:1-12 
Mat_7:3-5
Yet are we all too ready to condemn others and to be lenient to ourselves. It will be wise to act upon the precisely opposite principle, making every excuse for others, and accepting none for ourselves.
Mat_7:6-11
Prayer is thus urgently recommended to us; we are asking of a Father, not of a tyrant, and that Father will employ all his wisdom and judgment not in repelling our pleas, but in doing for us exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or even think.
Mat_7:12
This last verse is the golden rule, and those who follow it will live truly noble lives.

What enchants you, gain or pleasure?
Pluck right eyes, with right hands part;
Ask your conscience, where’s your treasure?
For, be certain, there’s your heart.

God and Mammon? O be wiser.
Serve them both? It cannot be;
Ease in warfare, saint and miser,
These will never well agree.