The Tempters Within

Publishing Committee · Rochester, N. Y. · Aug 1, 1854

The Tempters Within.

THE sinners that entice from within are the man's own thoughts and desires. There is quite an army of these in a young man's breast. Thoughts have wings. They pass and re-pass unobserved. They issue forth from their home in the heart, expatiate over every forbidden field, and return like doves to their windows, through the air, leaving no track of their path. These thoughts become acquainted with sin. They are accustomed to visit the haunts of vice without detection. They revel unchecked in every unclean thing. They open up the way, and prepare a trodden path on which the man may follow. A gossamer thread is attached to an arrow, and shot through the air unseen, over an impassable chasm. Fixed on the other side, it is sufficient to draw over a cord; the cord draws over a rope; the rope draws over a bridge, by which a highway is opened for all comers. Thus is the gulf passed that lies between the goodly character of a youth fresh from his father's family, and the daring heights of iniquity on which the veteran libertines stand. The sober youth stands on the solid platform of religious and moral worth. No one can think it possible that he should go over to the other side. But from the brink on this side he darts over a thought which makes itself fast to something in these forbidden regions. The form no one saw, as it sped through the air, but it has made a lodgment in that kingdom of darkness, and the deeds of wickedness will quickly follow when the way has been prepared. "Out of the heart," said he who knows it, "proceed evil thoughts." Exactly that is what we expected; but what come out next? "Murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." That is a horrible gang. How quickly they come on! How closely they follow their leader! Murders and adulteries march forth unblushing; but they follow in the wake of evil thoughts. Oh, if the fountain were cleansed, the streams of life would be pure. So thought David, when, in agony of grief, despairing of his own efforts, he cried, "Create in me a clean heart, O God!" This is the root of the evil, and no cure will be thorough or lasting that does not reach and remove it.