Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1910-05-13
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By Rev. Frank oliver Hall, D. D.
Think on these things.-Philippian
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What things? Things that are true,
honest, just, pure. lovely, attractive,
virtuous. honorable. Upon these
things, says Paul, '1et your thoughts
dwell"
Thoughts are things as much as
brick walls and paved streets. There
Is such thing as unsanitary thinking
as surely as there is such a thing
as unsan1tary plumbing There is men
tai atmosphere conducive to health as
much as sunshine and fresh air, and
there is a miasma of the soul which is
as deadly as the malaria of the Dismal
Swamp To select spiritual dwelling
place where the atmosphere is heavy
with hate and poisonous with passion;
to pull up the shutters of despair and
exclude the sunshine of hope; to close
the windows of the heart and exclude
the light of faith and the warmth of
love is as deadly as it would be to
build ones house in q stagnant marsh
or to live in dark, unventilated Gel
lar.
Notice that Paul writes as If men
had the power to select their own in
tellectual dwelling places. So they
have Physically most men must
dwell where circumstance ordains.
But the poorest man may have a
dwelling place for his mind more de-
sirable than the region in which many
millionaire is content to reside, In
an atmosphere Of the soul filled with
unclean odors. Every man has with
in himself the power to change his
mental dwelling place. The normal
man has power to direct his thoughts
as he has power to direct his hand.
BY the exercise of such power he may
win success, character, righteousness.
The mind is master of the body.
Experiment demonstrates that thought
pumps the blood into the head or
hands or feet, according as one directs
his mind, and that emotions, controll-
able by the will, may refresh or pol
son the physical system as they are
good or bad.
Paul has given us not only the Sc
cret Of health, but the secret of happi-
ness. Not the dwelling place of the
body, but the dwelling place of the
thoughts determines whether ones
life shall be filled with joy or with
misery Some of the most miserable
people live in mansions, dine stump
tuously, dress luxuriously. Some OF
the happiest people live In very hum
BILE circumstances. The difference Is
entirely mental. One man Is misera-
BILE in spite of his fine physical circum-
stances, another is happy in poverty
because of his mental dwelling place.
Moreover, Paul indicates here the
road to success. More people fail to
achieve their worthy ambitions be-
cause they cultivate whong mental
habits than for any other cause what
ever. Life is full of splendid oppOr-
tunities for the man who will seize
them, and all the forces of the uni
verse help on the man whose mind
dwells in faith and courage and con-
f1dence and indomitable hope; and all
the forces of the universe set against
the man who dwells in a mental at
mosphere of doubt and dependency,
suspicion Of himself and his fellow
men.
Finally, thought means conduct.
What you do depends upon what you
think Conduct is first in the mind,
afterward in the body. Beware of
wrong thinking. Beware Of holding
evil pictures before the imagination.
Do not play with evil even in your
thoughts, for what you think will
register itself ultimately and inevita-
bly, in what you do. On the other
hand, one can overcome all the evils
with which his inner self is beset by
exercising the will in the direction of
right. thinking. If you would do the
things you ought, to do and leave un-
done the things you ought not to do
then look to your thoughts, and in
Whatsoever things are true, honest,
just, pure, lovely, attractive, virtuous,
honorable. there let your thoughts
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