Editorial January 9, 1909 Issue

HOW TO THINK RIGHTLY

Archibald McLellan

We copy the following item from the Evening Star of Washington, D. C.:—

With the statement that "our thoughts are the rudder of our life," the Rev. John Reed Shannon began a series of New Year sermons to young people at the Metropolitan M. E. Church. He described thoughts as "forces more real than granite mountains. Low, groveling thoughts lay terrible assessments upon the body. Catastrophes in moral life come because evil thoughts have been cherished. The tree falls in the storm, its trunk breaks asunder and reveals the fact that decay has been going on within the tree, weakening it. Men fall because moral decay, in the form of evil thoughts, has been going on in their minds.

"High, wholesome thoughts have for the body preservative and curative energy; they are better for one's physical condition than drugs. All the water on the outside of the ship cannot sink the ship. It is water on the inside of the vessel that imperils it. So the Christian is morally safe so long as he keeps evil thoughts out of his mind. Then he can keep his robes unspotted from the world. If a man's life is like a broken harp, whose strings jangle out of tune, the cause is found in his thoughts. If a man's life is like a harp whose strings give forth the music of happiness and contentment, the cause is found in his thoughts. As a man 'thinketh in his heart, so is he.' "

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