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Dissipation is the parent of mediocrity. Because there is neither government nor concentration nor dominant idea in men's lives, they never do much, never grow any size. The subject before us is self-government by means of a dominant idea. A dominant idea is an idea which mixes itself with all other ideas, giving them its own colour and character; so that you cannot take out any thought from a mind in which a dominant idea exists and analyse it, but you shall find traces of this one idea. Constantly we meet with men who have one thought by which they explain everything, and they infect us with a dominant feeling that they are very tiresome. Restraining, ruling ideas spring up naturally. The emotions are the first parents of ideas. Primitive man hears a voice rebuking mere animal desire, which says, "Thou shalt not cat of it," and the moment that voice is heard a moral nature has arisen and heaven becomes possible. The great majority of men allow their lives, as they do their beliefs, to go anyhow. They have never formed a distinct opinion as to the shape their life is to take. It is in our power to choose what idea we shall be ruled by, and, having chosen, it is in our power to make the idea a ruling one. We must determine to associate our idea with all our pleasures and labours; to bring it before our mind every day. And what shall be our dominant idea? The idea of God is our birthright. The idea of God stands upon exactly the same ground as all our other intuitions. Clifford says, "Belief in God and in a future life is a source of refined and elevated pleasure to those who can hold it." Here is the idea ready to our hand. The idea is your birthright, but you have to make it dominant.

(W. Page Roberts, M. A.)

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KJV: I have set the LORD always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

WEB: I have set Yahweh always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.