The Idaho world. [volume] (Idaho City, Idaho Territory) 1864-1918, 1874-08-08
THOUGHTS.

It has been said that q mau hurts
others by his actions, himself by his
thoughts. But thoughts are the spring
of actions. If then the thoughts be
selfward the life will be selfish. If
impure, the life will be so too. And so
it always will be, that man hurts
himself in hurting his neighbor.
Thought and action cannot be separa-
ted. The one is the seed, the other the
fruit "a good tree cannot bring forth
evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree
bring forth good frnit." The fruit Of
pure thoughts will be pure actions; the
fruit of evil thoughts evil actions.
And this is why the wise man lays such
stress upon the state Of the thoughts
and says, Keep thy heart with all dill.
igence, for opt Of it are the issues OF
life." It will not do to look only to &C
lions. Outwardly all may seem fair.
Our neighbors may think we'll Of Us.
We may be satisfied with ourselves,
But the Lord searcheth the heart. To
Him all hearts are open and no secrets
are hid. The selishness, the impurity,
the pride, the insincerity that We hide
from men are seen Of Gcd. And il
these evil thoughts are INDUCED. if no
resistance is made to them, they will
soon overflow the bounds we set to
them, and sweep over in our lives
How needful then is the prayer
"Cleanse the thoughts of our hearts by
the inspirations Of the Holy Spirit
We cannot cleanse them ourselves
God himself has said, "the Imagination
of mans heart is evil from his youth
But he has given US Savior who can
cleanse and keep them clean. Yes, lie
can do this. And now we have no ex
cuse for giving way to evil thoughts
Those who have asked in faith to be de-
livered from the power of sin have new.
er been disappointed. The answer
comes, "Sin shall not have dominion
over you" Come, then, all who are
weary and grieved with the evil of sin
and make this prayer your own: "Cre
ate in me . clean heart, o God, and re.
new q right spirit within me-"
When once the heart has been given
over to the care of Christ the thoughts
are inspired and directed. Loving
thoughts take the place of hard ones;
pure thoughts supplant the impure; de-
sires to serve and bless others arise,
and self is forgotten. These good
thoughts must be cherished and encour.
aged. They need light and air. They
must be translated into action. In this
way they will grow stronger. We feel
kindly towards neighbor. The next
thing is to do something kind. The
very act will increase our kindly feel.
ing By turning such thoughts into &C
ton We are turning them into habit
of life and taking the snrest means for
preserving them.
If we would live noble lives we must
think noble thoughts. We cannot let
our thoughts rest on trifling, petty, un-
worthy objects, and hope to do noble
things, We must be noble first. How
I1fe t00n Will take care OF 1tSetf. The
few exert themselves to think of what
il true and good and elevated How
many are content to think only of the
little tri9es Of daily life and to use the
glorious powers Of their minds for un-
worthy uses. They think Of themselves
chiefly. OF what they shall eat and
drink and wear. Of what they shall
do today, or tomorrow, or the next
day. They seldom rise to anything
higher than what they see about them.
And their lives show what their
thoughts are. All unworthy lives, ell
unworthy thoughts for immortal souls.
We live in world Of thought. The
world itself il The thought Of God.
He calls rs to think Of it, to study it,
% yjse into sympathy with its beauties.
Remember how St Paul urges us:
HWhatsoever is lovely and pure and Of
god report, Ajpk on flsse things" Let
y mSks this hs rple Of our inner life,
and tho outward lie WILDE lovely and
pnye aad & good reportS Pmish Ns-
- atf.fl .sssasszus1g dir i9isa hz- sitsiS