Look to your Thoughts by W. T. Brantley

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · May 5, 1874

Look to your Thoughts.

By W. T. Brantley

MEN generally suppose that if they can guard against improper words and wicked deeds, they cannot be very guilty for trains of thought which they may revolve in their minds, however corrupt they may be. They look upon their thoughts as things which spring up in the heart by some laws of association which they cannot understand, or which, if understood, they cannot control. As they have not summoned, so neither (in their view) can they dismiss them; but must surrender themselves to their influence for a period, longer or shorter, until some circumstance occurs which gives a new direction to the current of thinking. When they confess their sins, there are oftentimes words and deeds which they admit to be grievously in conflict with the demands of the divine word. But it rarely happens that any unhallowed imaginations in which they have indulged awaken emotions of genuine sorrow. Now the thoughts are the guests we entertain—the company we receive into the innermost privacy of our bosoms. And just as a man is censurable who voluntarily and habitually consorts with corrupting company, so is he to be condemned who deliberately entertains depraved thoughts.

Let every man, and especially every young man, remember that God holds us responsible for our thoughts. Man can only take cognizance of the outward appearance. His observation must be limited to those words and actions which can be perceived by the senses. But the scrutiny of Omniscience extends further, penetrating the evil which hides our inner selves from the view of others; it explores the most private recesses of the spirit, and perfectly understands that portion of our character which others cannot scan. Man can only call us good or evil, as our words and actions authorize. But He whose glance enters the heart and surveys the emotions which are there cherished condemns, as wicked, every unhallowed thought; and will as surely take these into the account in determining our final retribution as he will consider in that reckoning our outward acts. “Guard well your thoughts.” “Your thoughts are heard in Heaven,” says a distinguished poet. Never was there a more scriptural sentiment. They are known to the Searcher of hearts, and are, at every thought, securing his approbation, or exciting his displeasure.

But perhaps there may be those to whom this may look like a harsh procedure. If it were true, as some suppose, that we could not control our thoughts—that they rushed uninvited upon our attention—that they detained that attention for a time, longer or shorter, just as they pleased, and that they departed as unceremoniously as they entered our mind; then I grant that it would be hard to make us responsible for such visitors. If we had no power over our own mental operations, it would seem as unjust to punish us for delinquencies in these particulars as to censure us for the depravity of a resident of Asia or of Africa. But can you defend such a position as this? Have you no power to determine what themes shall and what shall not employ your meditations? Are you the mere slave of your thoughts, compelled to follow as they, by some caprice, may direct? No intelligent mind in which the will is ruler is prepared to admit that it has been subjected to such vassalage.

The truth is, and I appeal to your own consciousness in support of the declaration, that you are endowed with the power of thinking upon just such subjects as you may prefer. You can, at pleasure, direct your attention to any topic, agreeable or disagreeable; lawful or unlawful, connected with the past, present or future; you can resolve it in your mind for a longer or shorter period, and then you can dismiss it entirely from your consideration. If this were not true; if your thoughts were not under the control of the will, you would be incompetent to the management of your business; you would be disqualified for every pursuit of life involving the exercise of reason. You would in truth be insane.

Now it is because God has given us the power over our own thinking that it assumes a moral complexion in his sight. The man who resigns himself to unholy reveries, or who entertains in his own heart purposes which, if acted out, would render him obnoxious to the censure of his fellow-men, and to condemnation from God, is as certainly guilty, though it may not be to the same extent, as though he had been openly corrupt and abandoned. “Out of the heart,” says the Saviour, “proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false-witness, blasphemies.”

One of the most important counsels in the entire volume of Revelation, is the direction of the wise man: “Keep thy heart with all diligence.” This is the fountain whence issue the streams which are to fertilize and gladden, or to pollute and destroy. No man was ever wicked in speech or action who was not first wicked in heart. The deeds of atrocity which shock us in execution were first performed in heart—in thought. Had this been “kept,” had the early idea been restrained, the result so fearful in development might have been averted. Young men, look to the springs of action; as you would avoid acts which involve you in ruin and disgrace. Keep the heart as you would secure a conduit, which, with God’s blessing, will make you honorable, lawful and happy now, and all that you desire hereafter. Look to your thoughts.—W. T. Brantley, D. D., in “Good News.”