Chapter 8: The Control Of Our Thoughts
Chapter 8: The Control Of Our Thoughts
"Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ." - 2 Cor. 10:5
UNTIL YOU HAVE learnt to control your thoughts you will never be able to live a godly and righteous life. As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he; and it is because the thoughts that we entertain in the hostelry of the soul are such worthless and vain ones that our words and acts often bring so heavy a disgrace on the Name we love. Well might the wise man say, "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life" (Prov. iv, 23). When the heart is right, the ear (20), and the eye (21), and the mouth (24), and the foot (27) will necessarily obey its promptings; but when the heart is wrong, filled with tides of ink, like the cuttle-fish, it will envelop itself in the impurity to which it gives vent.
There are many who pride themselves on their outward behaviour, on not having invaded the rights of God or man; they even bear a Christian name, and are engaged in Christian work; but their minds are full of lewd and vile thoughts, which desecrate the sacred precincts of the soul that was meant to be alone the temple of God. Thus the beasts driven into the temple courts filled them with their stench, and demanded the interposition of Christ. Does your heart conform to the Master's description of the house in which there is no part dark; or is it like some gloomy cave in which slimy things crawl at their will? If the latter, if you habitually permit evil things to have right of way through you, or lodging within you, remember that in God's sight you are held equally guilty as those who indulge in evil acts, because you are withheld not by your fear of Him, but by your desire to maintain your position amongst men. That you know the better and yet secretly allow the worse, only aggravates your sin in his sight, to which all things are naked and open. Remember also that the secret working of evil thoughts will inevitably show itself sooner or later, just as the insidious work of the white ant in the wood will prepare for the sudden collapse of the house.
Do not say that you cannot control your thoughts. It is perfectly certain that you can. It would be true for you to say that you had not controlled them. Your mind has sadly resembled a public-house, whose swing-doors on the level of the pavement make it so easy of access for every passer-by. You have allowed any thought that chose to enter and tell its tale, like the pilgrims in Chaucer's masterpiece. Now it is perfectly certain that we all have the God-given power of excluding bad and vain thoughts, or of turning towards whatsoever things are true, honourable, just, pure, lovely, gracious. "If there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things."
Suppose there is some one evil thought which is always haunting you, coming back perpetually, spreading itself between you and everything as a blue mist, poisoning the springs of love, life, and simple, natural enjoyment: you should label it, stamp it with the brand of your moral censure and disapprobation. Say, This is an evil, hell-born thought. Place it beneath the ban of your steadfast excommunication. What will be the result? Every time it occurs you will remember what you have thought and said of it. Like Cain, it will bear the mark of the curse wherever it comes. As soon as it shadows your path or puts its head in through the swinging doors, you will accost it as a criminal, and bid it begone. There are men who have done this with their dreams. Before sleeping they have said to themselves, If such or such visions dare to force their way through the curtains of the night, they are burglars come to steal peace, purity, and heaven. Such a thought has aroused them from their slumbers; with a start they have awoke to detect the stealthy tread of the intruder, and to bid him begone in the name of God.
All this gains additional emphasis in the light of Christ. He counts evil thoughts as traitors not only to us, but to Himself. Like the psalmist we may say, "I hate vain thoughts"; not only because of the curse they bring to my heart, but for the grief they give to my King. Their intrusion is forbidden by the double barrier of our own choice, and more than all of the keeping power of Jesus. Let the peace of God keep the door of heart and mind, scrutinizing each intruder, and turning back the unfit. Let the Holy Spirit bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Let the faithful Saviour have the keeping of the soul entrusted to Him, that He may watch every menacing thought which lurks in the shadow or steals up the glen. He is well able to keep what is committed to Him. He will not fail the suppliant whose lips are familiar with one of the greatest of uninspired prayers: "Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by the inspiration of thy Holy Spirit, that we may perfectly love Thee and worthily magnify thy Holy Name." If only you would ask Christ to undertake the straining out of unworthy, vain, proud, jealous, and evil thoughts, you would find that He would be as vigilant as the warder who from his watch-tower detects the spy or traitor.
Then as to the control of good thoughts-each of us has the power of arresting a current of thinking, and of turning the attention to some new subject or topic of interest. It has been recommended that we should carry about a little card with four or five words written clearly upon it, each being associated with some tender or startling memory-such as mother; the name of some pure, sweet child; the place of a great deliverance; the date of some miraculous interposition; so that a new train of thought might be suggested, and the mind be filled with light and love. Some of those who have adopted this plan have spoken warmly of its advantages. They have related how in moments when the rabble rout of evil imaginations was bursting into the soul, deliverance was wrought through the angel form of some holy memory.
Let this be as it may, there is surely a more excellent way. If any name is an amulet against evil, or an incentive to holy thinking, the name of JESUS will best meet the requirements of the soul's urgency. There is no name like his. Blessed Spirit, remind us of it; and when passion begins to rise and howl without like the winter's wind, stand within our heart, and speak the Name which is above every name, till the storm subsides and there is a great calm.
There is something better still. Let us abide in Christ, so that He shall become the very element of our existence, permeating and penetrating our inner nature. Where his life is strong within us, it will be as sensitive of the least approach of evil; as the mirror in the ancient fable detected the slightest taint of imposture and falsehood. When his life is strong within us, it will repel everything that is alien to itself with a repugnance and swiftness that shall admit of no remonstrance. When his life is strong within us, it will control all imaginings and thinkings, subjecting them to his sway, transfiguring them with his light, yoking them to the chariot of his victorious progress.