Homilist Jeremiah 4:14 O Jerusalem, wash your heart from wickedness, that you may be saved. How long shall your vain thoughts lodge within you? I. IT IS THE GLORY OF MAN THAT HE CAN THINK. 1. Thought brings the outward universe into man's soul, and thus makes it his own. 2. Thought enables us to subordinate the outward world to our service. 3. By the power of thought we construct new universes. 4. Thought determines our condition. (1) Even materially, it influences our health, shapes our countenance, tunes our voice. (2) Spiritually, our condition is almost absolutely governed by thought. By thought we can pierce the heavens, enter into the holy of holies, hold fellowship with the Infinite. By thought we can break forth from our own little earthly sphere — make God our centre, and run a wider and brighter orbit than the stars. II. IT IS THE CURSE OF MAN THAT HE THINKS WRONGLY. 1. Vain thoughts find a lodgment in the minds of some. If the thoughts cherished be vain, the life pursued will be vain. In order in some measure to estimate the amount of vain thought cherished by men, let us do three things. Compare the true theory of happiness with the conduct which men pursue in order to obtain it; the true theory of greatness with the efforts which they put forth in order to realise it; and the true theory of religion with their conduct in relation to it. 2. The expulsion of vain thoughts is a matter of urgent importance. (1) They can be got rid of. By consecration of our energies to true work. By companionship with truthful souls. By realising the constant presence of the heart-inspecting God. By a change in the governing dispositions of the mind. (2) The urgent necessity of this. They waste the mental life; corrupt the heart; imperil the soul. (Homilist.) Parallel Verses KJV: O Jerusalem, wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved. How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee? |
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