SERMON XII.

BY REV. HERSEY B. GOODWIN,

OF CONCORD, MASS.

THE GOVERNMENT O F THE THOUGHTS.

JEREMIAH IV. 14.

HOW LONG SHALL THY VAIN THOUGHTS LODGE WITHIN THEE?

If there is any one point which clearly distinguishes the morality of the Bible from all human systems, it is the stress which it places on the government and right direction of the thoughts. There is nothing more striking in all the teaching of our Saviour than the bold and decided opposition he is constantly making to the mere external religion of the Scribes and Pharisees. With him it was not the murderer only who was in danger of the judgment, but he who was angry without a cause; it was not the openly licentious merely that was criminal, but he who indulged in sensual thoughts and impure desires; and that man was not the most pious whose devotion was the loudest and whose prayers were the longest, but he whose thoughts and feelings were most seriously engaged.

It is this point too, which distinguishes above all others the government of God from a human government, and which may make a man's character in the eyes of man a very different thing from what it is in reality.

The criminal that is brought before an earthly tribunal the law considers innocent till he is proved guilty, and the private opinion which you may have formed of your neighbor, if it is not an unfair prejudice, is made up from evidence; but in the judgment of the Almighty, at the bar of God, these things are not so. We judge by outward appearances, but God looketh on the heart; he judges by the intentions and the motives. And surely he who created the human soul and understands its operatiens must be acquainted with its thoughts and purposes before they appear in words and actions.

Such then being the importance of the subject, let us attend to some of the difficulties which meet us at the outset in managing our thoughts, and to some of the means and motives which we have to engage in the undertaking.

It is a fact, the truth of which will not be denied, that the mind of man is in some degree at his own disposal. I say in some degree, because I am inclined to think the work is not so easy as may be at first imagined. Perhaps there is nothing more difficult than for a man to get the entire mastery over his own thoughts. There are moments when the strongest mind will feel its weakness in this respect and be carried into speculations which are unsatisfactory and unsafe. We talk about freedom of thought, and it is a popular maxim that there is nothing so free; but when we look at it more closely, is it not true, that in many cases, instead of having the mastery of our thoughts, we are mastered by them? Instead of our thoughts being at our disposal, are not we too often at theirs? And to me this is a most melancholy reflection,-that man who

feels himself the lord of this lower creation,-man, to whom nothing seems so degrading as captivity and slavery, should yet suffer himself to be chained and fettered to a single imagination—to be in slavery perhaps to a mere whim, and yet not think of captivity;-and this too the captivity of the mind, the soul, all which the man has to carry with him to eternity.

But in order to get a more precise idea of the power in question, let us look for a moment at the nature of the mind and see what is that course of things of which we do or do not have the direction. In our waking hours, strictly speaking, the mind is never wholly idle. At no given moment can we say we are thinking of nothing. We cannot, if we would, banish all thought; the current of our ideas is constantly flowing on, one coming in to crowd out another in endless succession. Now it is this train of thought which is differently affected in different individuals by objects without and desires and passions within and to have this so far under our control that we can govern it by certain principles and according to certain rules, should be our main object; and this I maintain is perfectly practicable. All the difficulties which lie in the way may be summed up in two

views.

First, the difficulty of confining the mind to a single subject. We must all have felt how nearly impossible this seemed at first, and yet have been surprised at our own powers at last. It is certainly a great art -this of preventing the mind from wandering, and one which we cannot expect to acquire in a moment. The habit of distracted thought is one which grows up with us, and I know no other remedy for it but care and at

tention.

It is a habit from which we can free ourselves if we will take the pains, but it is one which we can remove only by fixing another; there is no middle ground. Let us not be discouraged by the result of a single trial; we may fail repeatedly, but we must try again and again; and I believe at last we can succeed beyond our highest expectations.

The only other difficulty is that of being able at any time we choose to transfer our thoughts from one subject to another. Some favorite desire rises in the mind, and we know the more we indulge it, the more powerful it becomes; we wish perhaps to banish it at once from the mind, but this we are unable to do directly by a single act of the will, for such an attempt we all know would have the effect to continue it. But can we not give the mind a different direction-can we not in effect banish a thought indirectly, by bringing in another to take its place? Our every day's experience will satisfy us of this. It is seen in our daily conversation, in all our attempts at reasoning, and particularly in the performance of regular and stated duties. But let us suppose that some suggestion of passion has taken possession of our thoughts, and we feel that its indulgence is wrong and degrading to our nature; it is no time then to parley with that passion and reason it down; we feel that the hour of temptation is coming and we must fly from its influence. It may do to reason in cooler moments, when reason is on her throne and exerting her power; but in the moment of excitement reason is blindfold. The only remedy at such times lies in principles which we have fixed beforehand, principles which will enable us to leave behind us this tainted atmosphere and

fly to a purer region. These I am aware are to be acquired by the newly reformed man in no other way than by diligent attention,and we can only say, it were better -far better, if they had been the very elements of his education. The remedy lies, if it lies anywhere, in a power which he has within him, and which I believe every man can bring into action-the power of transferring his thoughts; for this power do we all possess in as great a degree as is necessary to our virtue.

I have thus endeavored to illustrate the two forms in which the great difficulty presents itself in the management of our thoughts. It is one which arises from the nature of the mind and the situation in which we are placed, and so far is it from being an evil, it is something essential to our moral natures. The laws of association are going on within us, and the objects of sense without us are constantly influencing our passions and affections. And it should be a great object with the Christian so to have the control of all these, that he may be able on the one hand to draw off his thoughts as the occasion may require, and fix them steadfastly on the one great purpose which it is desirable to keep before the eye of the mind, and on the other to change the current of thought whenever he finds it springing from an impure fountain or running in an impure channel. And that this is in some measure practicable, I think is evident; but though practicable, not at first easy. It requires exertion, as all virtue does; for if there is an influence acting upon us to draw us out of the right course, then there must be some power from within ourselves to resist it and keep us right.