V "EVIL THOUGHTS" Preached in St. Mary's Church, Brooklyn. "Finally brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honorable, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue and if there be any praise, think on these things." (Philippians 4:8.) The Epistle for the Twelfth Sunday after Trinity opens up the necessity of directing the outward life by an inward energy. What the Christian thinks or accounts must be in harmony with the Spirit of God. Religion is not simply an external affair of the letter but an essential matter of spirit. Into this potential realm of the invisible let us enter this morning. Abroad the world is full of turmoil and terror; let us look within for the word of peace and faith. If we look carefully into St. Paul's words we shall discover a psychological principle, a logical relation, and a spiritual law. There is first recognition of the fact that we must think. You cannot live alone on the material side. We have minds and nothing can prevent their ceaseless action, even during sleep. The thought world in the humblest soul is a wider realm than our Republic between Maine and Oregon. The thoughts that wander through Eternity know no confines, no pause, no suspension. Our thought life is our real life. At first blush, we might say, the only realities are the things we can see and touch-this solid earth, yonder hills, our house, books, shop. It is a careless opinion. The external world is to each of us what the mind announces. Two persons stand in the same window and look on the same sunshine, but one sees only health, gladness, prosperity; the other sees only weariness, discouragement. The universe affects each according to his inward temper. The real world is not the one of sky and sea and paved streets or green hedges or snow-covered fields, but the interior world of impression. The subject is presumed to be metaphysical, and therefore to most persons uninteresting. Revise your estimates. Intellectual processes really concern all persons whether they be what we would call intellectual or not. The least |