Take Care of your Thoughts.
SIN begins in the heart. If you keep your thoughts pure, your life will be blameless. The indulgence of sinful thought and desires produces sinful actions. When lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin. The pleasurable contemplation of a sinful deed is usually followed by its commission. Never allow yourself to pause and consider the pleasures or profits you might derive from this sin. Close your mind against the suggestion at once, as you would lock and bolt your doors against a robber. If Eve had not stood parleying with the devil, and admiring the beautiful fruit, the earth might have yet been a Paradise. No one becomes a thief, a fornicator, or a murderer at once. The mind must be corrupted. The wicked suggestion must be indulged and revolved in the thoughts, until it loses its hideous deformity, and the anticipated gain or pleasure comes to outweigh the evils of the transgression. Your imagination is apt to paint forbidden pleasure in gay and dazzling colors. It is the serpent's charm. Gaze not upon the picture. Suffer not the intruder to get a lodgment. Meet the enemy at the threshold, and drive it from your heart. As a rule, the more familiar you become with sin, the less hateful it appears; so that the more completely you preserve your mind from unholy and wicked thoughts, the better. Avoid the society where obscenity or blasphemy is heard. Cultivate the society of the virtuous. Read nothing which is unchaste or immoral. Make a covenant with your eyes. Familiarize not your mind with the loathsome details of crime. Never harbor malicious or envious thoughts. Direct your thoughts towards pure and holy subjects. Contemplate the character of the spotless and perfect Son of God. Keep your spirit untainted, your thoughts uncontaminated, so shall your life be virtuous. As a man thinketh, so is he. Take care of the thoughts—the actions will take care of themselves.