Quicksilver Hearts

Quicksilver is another name for mercury, the fast-flowing element which has the quality of seeming alive, moving this way or that at the slightest instigation. So it is with our inconstant hearts, we waver in our affections this way and that, often for trifles. What is the way then, O Christian, to channel our affections, by God's grace, in the right manner and to fix steadily upon the most worthy object? In the movie Chariots of Fire, Eric Liddell says, "If you commit yourself to the love of Christ, then that is how you run a straight race." Hear what Thomas Watson has to say about the fanning the flames of love for God in a Christian's heart.

Thomas Watson, Religion Our True Interest (1682), reprinted as The Great Gain of Godliness (2006), p. 92:

Get a love for God and his ways. One cannot but think of that which he loves: 'Can a maid forget her ornament?' (Jer. 2:32). When she has not her jewel on her ear, she will have it her thoughts. A person deeply in love cannot keep his thoughts off from the object he loves. The reason we think on God no more, is because we love him no more. Let there be but one spark of love to God and it will fly upward in heavenly thoughts and prayers. By nature we have quicksilver hearts which cannot be made to fix on God, but by love.