Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1883-12-20
Mlistellaueans &eading.
DISQUIETTNG THOUGHTS.
SF r

y N 1O 41 w
Delivered by Rev. William Johnston.
Of Iowa. before the Synod Of the AssO-
ciate Reformed Church. at Chester. $.
C.. October 2sth, 1853.
In the multitude of my thoughts within me,
thv comforts delight my soul.-Psalm M:lo.
Wherefore do the wicked prosper, and
why are they so often permitted to triumph,
are questions that have often occupied the
thoughts of Gods children. Gods promises
are to the righteous that they shall inherit
the earth, that they shall be quiet from
the fear of evil, and that there is re-
ward for them in the earth and vet it
would sometimes appear as if he had for
gotten to be gracious, and his promises had
| failed forever more. In the Psalms you
often see the evidence of this perpleXity on
the part of the child of God, occasioned by
the seeming inequality of God'sprovidence,
and it's apparent inconsistency with the
promises of his word. At times the heart
is sad; the faith seems well nigh wrecked,
and the wings Of dark despair seem almost
to overshadOw the soul. This psalm was
evidently written when Providence was
dark and lowering. Wicked men were in
power, and that spirit of oppression was
prevalent which Solomon tells us "makes
wise man mad" The soul Of the writer
SeelllS W De Suidl lily uluei 1llS l'oi VI C,io
OppressOr and he appeals to the God of judg-
ment to arise and plead the cause of the poor
and render a just reward to the wicked.
The only solace, indeed, he tindS is in be-
taking himself to that God who will give
his people rest from the days of adversely
until the pit be digged for the workers Of
iniquity. Under the oppression and con-
tradiction of wicked men, he felt that unless
the Lord had been his help he had gone to
the land of silence, and had been sleeping
beneath the bars of the grave, where the
wicked cease from troubling and the weary
are at rest. Often when dangers were i'm
minent, and the foot had slipped, the hand
of mercy was stretched out to hold him up
and rescue him from the impending dan
ger. 1t is an experience, too, that finds a
ready response in many Christian heart.
Have we not sometimes felt the peril i'm
pending? Have we not felt the foot slip
ping from under US, and been ready to cry
that all was lost? But just in the crisis of
the trial, when the hour of extremity came,
the hand of mercy came with it to hold us
up and put joy and gladness into the heart.
| Therefore, may we also unite in the testl-
mony of the psalmist in the language Of the
text: "In the multitude of my thoughts
within me, thy comforts delight my soul"
Let us notice, in the first place, the dis
Ondly, the only solace for them.
First. The multitude of thoughts that dis
quiet the soul. 1t is the glory of man to
think, and by this he is peculiarly distin-
| tinguished from the lower order of sentient
beings. God has endowed man with reason,
and as rational being, he invites him to
come and reason together with him. "A
reasonable being must therefore think and
| truly it is multitude of thoughts that pass
through the mind, even in limited period
of time. "What are you thinking about?"
you are sometimes asked. 'NOthing," you
usually reply; yet your better Judgment
tells you you do not speak the truth. The
mighty Mississippi continually rolls its wa
| ters to the Gulf-sOmetime smooth and gen
tie, sometimes turbid and resistless, in their
onward sweep-apparently laughing at the
punv efforts of man to restrain them. And
so the stream of thought in the immortal
mind rolls ceaSlessly on. If one train OF
thought is arrested it is only to give place
to another. In all our waking hours we
are perpetually thinking. thinking; and
your own consciousness tells you that even
in sleep, the current of human thought is
not wholly arrested. Sometimes it is quiet
and gentle, like the stream that glides
it roars and ruShes like the mountain tor
rent swollen by the storm that breaks upon
the mountain crest. Now, surely, its not a
sin to think. There is nothing wrong in
having a multitude of thoughts. 1t is the
glory of man and the strength of man to
think; but it is the weakness of man and
the reproach Of many times, that he does
not think to the best purpose and to the
best advantage. You remember God COM
plains of Israel. "The OK knOWeth his own
er, and the ass his masters crib; but Israel
doth not know, my people doth not con-
Sider."
IAgainin jeremiah: "Yea the stork in the
heaven knOweth her appointed time, and
the turtle and the crane and the swallow
observe the time of their coming, but my
people know not the Judgment of the Lord" !"
| It is not complaint made of that people
that they did not think, but that they did
not think to a good purpose; for the beasts
of the field and the fowls of heaven made bet
ter use of the instinct with which they were
endowed, than this people did Of their ra-
tional powers. So still we talk about per-
sons being thoughtless; and by this we do
not mean that they do not think, but that
they do not think to good purpose. Some
persons do not attach much Importance to
their thoughts. Yet they contribute large
ly to mould the character and shape the
life. You have seen the little stream leap
ing from the side of the mountain, or wind
ing along between two hills. AS we are
accustomed to say, it was clear as water, ap-
parently as pure and limpid as water could
| be, vet the reddened stones over which 1t
passed told of the oxide of iron, which 1T
held in solution and which left its impress
behind. So many of these thoughts which
NAV seem harmless in their character leave
the stain Of impurity behind them and give
an unfavorable color to the after life.
But we wish to notice more particularly
some classes of disquieting thoughts. There
are many unWritten histories in this house,
not written on paper with pen and ink, but
written by an unseen finger on the heShly
tablets of the heart and read only by him
who knoweth what is in man. There are
many thoughts that have been locked up in
the chambers of the mind, which have made
the soul battlefield where hostile armies
| fiercely cOntended for the mastery.
First sinful thoughts. The heart, de-
ceitful above all things and desperately
wicked The natural heart has a delight
in sin. The lusts of the flesh and the lusts
of the eye have the controlling influence,
and rule with despotic power. In the pur-
suit of the sensual, the soul is ever inquiring,
who will show me any good, and with any
good, itwOuld seemingly be content: | adj
init it may call the evil good, and may find a
kind of qualification even in sinful thoughts !;
but | deny that in them it can find con-
tentment. Sinful thoughts, in their very
nature, must disquietthe soul and keep it in
a state of ferment. TO every man who was
once the slave of sin, but has turned to the
service of God, might propose the inquiry,
"What fruit had We in those things whereof
We are now ashamed:'
But very closely connected with this, re-
mark that guilty thoughts disquiet the soul.