Morning journal and courier., 1884-03-10
First M. E. Church.

Vain ThOughts-Interesting Discourse by Rev. MT. Buck-The First Sermon of l Series.
 ''Vain Thoughts was the subject of the | sermon preached by Rev. MT. Buck at the | First M. E. church last evening. It was the I first of 8 series of four discourses; the re- maining three to be given on the successive Sunday evenings of March. ''Idle worlds D f ''The great preservative against sin,'' and | ''How to make life successful will be the 1 topics discussed in the discourses which are to follow. The remarks of the speaker last | evening were founded upon the fourteenth verse of the fourth chapter of Jeremiah;
 ''How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee ?" The life of man is dual, two fold; the outer and inner; the material and spiritual The outer life is visible to all who come in contact with us. The inner life is entirely invisible except as it is em- bodied ia the outer. But though hidden and unseen it is by no means unimportant. It is to the outer life what the potter is to the clay, what the general is to the army, what the engineer is to the locomotives it moulds, directs, controls.
 Concerning this inner life our text speaks. It is a rebuke to vain or sinful thoughts. What are sinful thoughts2 Not all evil thoughts are sinful. Many of them are suggested to us by influences which are not only extraneeus to us, but entirely beyond our control. man in our presence gives utter ance to words that enshrine most blasphe- nous and wicked thought. If we hear the words the mind will receive the thought; it cannot help it. To say that such an evil thought is sinful is to hold us responsible for that over which we have no more control thap the height of our stature or the color of our skin. Again God heard the same words; their evil thought came into the divine mind. It was not of course sinful for deity to have such thought; solicitation to evil. But temptation not sin. Satan suggested to the mind of Jesus the most blasphemous thoughts, but he was without sin. Evil thoughts become sinful when they are cherished, when they become pleas urab!e; when, to use the phraseology of the text, we allow them to ''lodge within us." To drive such thoughts from us is no easy task There are those who teach us that man has not the power to control his thoughts. Carl Voet says that man f'is no more re- sponsible for his thoughts than bad bile, the one being secreted by the brain, the other by the liver" Bailey in his Festus says: i've do not make our thoughts; they grow in us like grain in wood; the growth is of the skies" This we can hardly admit. It may be difficult at times to control our thoughts, but not impossible. "A man," says John Huss, ''may not be able to keep evil thoughts from counting him, but he can keep them from marrying hitp" But how shall he prevent sinful tnougnts rom Iooglng within him?
 First, never allow yourself to do anything that will suggest these thoughts, never read 8 book, never engage in 8 conversation, never enter into an association that suggests an unhoIy desire or impure wish.
 Keep your mind filled with good thoughts. The easiest way to banish thought from the mind is to allow the mind to become absorbed in something else. As Newton said, 'sIf the sack is filled at once with wheat there will be no room for chag."
 Ask Gods assistance in this task. This thropp of thoughts which is continually pass ing in and out, how can we dream of judging and controlling except by special and divine help? The reasons why we should not allow vain thoughts to lodge within us are numer- ous ana Waighty. They indicate and engen- der depraVed chsraoteF: men is kn9 WI nv the company he keeps. Our heart,H cave on old ,'--itan divine, lis of that color wbicb onr most constant thoughts dye into it Tell me what are mans thoughts ana i will tell you what he would like to do ana what. if all restraints EeEe removed he will actually do.
 Vain and sinful thoughts destroy our peacs of mind. He who lodges them is one 'griev- orslv yexed with devil" To be such man forever is to suffer the tofments et the lost.
 Sinful thoughts fead to sinful actions. Cancerous and scrofulous humors tnas are Ioro in the system and How round in the blood will sometime manifest themselves. This is the natural and probable result. The public mind is frequently shocked by in, stances of outrageous Wickedness peTpetlNeo bv individuals of high reputation. Funds are enbezzled, virtue assaulted or murder IS Committed by some one not suspected as capable of crime. The real fall of such man is not sudden but gradual, naylng lss growth in sinful thoughts. As the carpuneie Ed cancer merely show diseased condition Of the blood so these melancholy lapses are but exnonents of the real character of the man. tho natural results of secret sinful thoughts l