RELIGIOUS MEDITATION

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Dec 29, 1859

RELIGIOUS MEDITATION.

It is a law of the human mind, that it naturally assimilates itself to those objects which most constantly and seriously occupy our thoughts. A man cannot employ his mind with low and debasing thoughts without becoming debased in his desires and pursuits. We so naturally become like those objects we think most of, that intimate friends whose habits of thinking, and whose sentiments are most congenial, come to resemble each other in the very expression of their countenances. The human mind cannot familiarize itself habitually with vice and immorality, without serious personal damage.—Hence the public exposure of gross crime and immorality has reasonably been considered a most doubtful expedient for correcting them. For however deformed and loathsome they may appear, the mind soon, by its familiarity, loses its disgust and abhorrence, and then it has lost its chief safeguard to purity and steadfastness. The best antidote against immorality is to keep the mind occupied with the most perfect models of righteousness and purity. "For as a man thinketh in his heart so is he." The surest if not the only safeguard, is to pre-occupy the thoughts with subjects that are elevating, purifying, and ennobling. The distinguishing characteristics of those for whom the book of remembrance is written are that "they feared the Lord and thought upon his name." There can be no theme of such practical utility and purifying influence on the mind itself, for the channel of its accustomed meditations, as the thoughts of God. What can tend more directly to assimilate us to purity and to heaven, than habitually to think on his name? This is the only way that we can come into intimate communion and fellowship with God. It is the only means of practically assimilating our souls to heavenly things.

It is also the most successful means of making us acquainted with ourselves, and testing our hopes by the true standard which God has given. As meditation brings before us the great objects of religion, the very act itself will try the temper of our minds. We shall be able to determine to what extent religious objects engage our hearts, and how far our aversion to them proves the carnality of our minds, by the enmity or indifference that we feel to them; whether the relish of our souls be formed to things divine and heavenly, or our affections be carried away to those of the world. In a word, as it is by the rules of God's word alone that we can truly estimate our character, so to prove ourselves by it will be one principal part of our duty in retirement. By this we shall not only discover our natural deformity and weakness, but be able to determine the degree of our Christian attainments, to prevent self-deception, to gather suitable matter for our prayers, to encourage what is good, and to amend what is evil.

The hallowed and chastening influence of the closet will most appropriately fit us for the personal cares and duties of every-day life. As Moses first retired to the cleft of the rock to commune with God, and was thus prepared to meet the people with the visible evidence of God's presence upon his countenance, so we shall be best fitted to meet our daily avocations and responsibilities, when our cheerful and serene countenances wear the visible imprints of the Spirit's presence derived from personal communion with God.

It is true in morals and religion, as well as in nature that there must be some process of recuperation, or the productive energies of the soul will waste and become barren. We must daily draw our sustenance from the invigorating source of benevolence and goodness in order to practice those virtues to any good account, for the being good is really essential to the doing good habitually and successfully. Our zeal and activities will degenerate into mere bustling unless they have their source and spring in a personal conformity of our own spirit to the vital spirit of Christianity.—Sel.