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Wandering Thoughts

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The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 19, 1865

FromReview and Herald, Vol. 26, No. 16.

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Wandering Thoughts.

By J. Clarke

"BETTER is the sight of the eyes, than the wandering of the desire." Eccl. vi, 9.
The sick man becomes feverish, and his head is disordered, his mind becomes unsettled, and his detached and broken sentences manifest to his attendants that his mind is wandering. To himself he fancies, perhaps, that he never talked more sensibly; and after his recovery, he is surprised to hear from his friends of the strange and fanciful remarks which proceeded from his disordered imagination, during his period of illness.
Man, since the fall, has been morally diseased, as well as physically so; and this disarrangement has not become less, but more and more disastrous and fatal. If the apostle Paul could say, "When I would do good evil is present with me," how much more is this the case with the weak and erring.
How is it that a good and profitable train of thought is so easily displaced, and transient or chaffy thoughts take its place?
How is it that the work of repentance is often only begun, when some other subject comes in to lull the mind to rest?
Why is it that after a plan for good is almost matured in the mind, that some seemingly plausible topic of thought comes in, and the almost matured plan for good is forgotten?
Why is the lamp of experience so often like the path of the ship in the sea, soon lost, and seen no more?
Ah, the force of evil passions, weakening the memory, and all the noblest powers, and tastes, and capacities of the human intellect; evil passions breaking out in various ways for six thousand years, transmitting infirmities from father to son, until now we find very many wholly incapable of holding the mind for any length of time to a well-connected train of thought. Often the mind of the thoughtful is troubled with wandering thoughts. This moment, perhaps it is fixed in contemplation of noble objects, when suddenly the attention is diverted, and only the impression of the better thought is left, as he wakes as from a dream, and find that fancy had led him by a flowery by-path away from the straight and well-beaten, but narrow path, of wisdom. Oh for the happiness and peace of him who keeps his mind from wandering! whose mind is like a well-written book, printed in regular unerring order; or like a household ordered in all things in wisdom and prudence!
Diet will do much, cleanliness will do a great deal, industrious, regular habits will effect much, a happy, well-appointed home will have a good influence, faithful friends will be a great help; but all these do but prepare the way for the most calming, ennobling influence of the grace of God. J. CLARKE.