THE IMPORTANCE OF RIGHT THINKING.

BY REV. T. S. McWILLIAMS, D. D.

This second discourse upon " The Springs of Character brings us to consider Character and the Mind, or the importance of right thinking. Looking at the body we were filled with wonder, and I hope were led to worship the God who has so marvellously fashioned these material frames. But far more wonderful than the body is the mind of man. Indeed as Shakespeare says, "Tis the mind that makes the body rich." Think of the faculties of reason, of memory, of imagination.

We wonder at the products of the looms, but what are those yards of silk or satin compared with the songs, the poems, the orations, the conversations the countless fabrics, scme of them immortal, woven by the brain of man.

The Bank of England has a mechanism that tests coins and throws out all light weights; but man's judgment is a mechanism by which things invisible such as arguments, motives and principles may be weighed and tested.

Many and marvellous are the pictures in the world's great galleries, but more numerous and more marvellous are those that hang upon the walls of memory. Think of a faculty by which the scenes, the faces, the thoughts, the feelings, all one's past may be made to march before the mind in solemn procession.

More marvellous still to me is the faculty of imagination, by which things that never existed are called into being and made to pose as models or serve as patterns of things that man's hands may fashion. "Each thing was first a thought. A loom is Arkwright's thought dressed up in iron clothes. Books are the scholar's thoughts caught and fastened upon

the white page." All our commerce, as well as our conversation and books, commenced with ideas. Our houses and ships and cities and institutions are man's inner thoughts taking on outer and material embodiment. When we think of an Agassiz dredging the Atlantic and telling us what forms of life were there a million years ago; when we think of a Tyndall reading off from the rocky page long-buried secrets of the past; of a Herschel stepping from star to star and exploring the heavenly world; we are ready to exclaim with Shakespeare, "What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason! How infinite in faculty! In form and moving how express and admirable! In action how like an angel! In apprehension how like a God! The beauty of a world! The paragon of animals!" Referring to Herschel studying the stars, a philosopher said: "The greatest star is the one at the little end of the telescope. The one looking, not the one looked at or looked for."

If our contemplation of the human body led us with the Psalmist to adore and worship the Creator, much more should our contemplation of the human mind. It was thinking of the human mind, and man's ability to make use. of powers outside himself that led the Psalmist to exclaim "O Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Thy name in all the earth!" Physical man compared with the physical universe, the moon and the stars which God had ordained, seemed utterly insignificant. He marvelled that God should take knowledge of him or visit him. His dominion over the works of God's hands is not due to physical superiority; the deer is more fleet, the lion more powerful. Physical man is one of the weaklings of God's creatures. But possessed of mind and the ability to make use powers not himself," he is lord of creation, but little lower than God.

If the marvels of the body make it impossible for us to be atheists and compel us to praise God because we are so wonderfully and fearfully made, much more should the marvels of the mind. If the fact that the body is a mechanism so complicated and important should make us attentive to its development, and careful against its injury, much more the

mind.

Surely a poet is more than a pugilist; an astronomer than an athlete. Surely the question of what we shall eat or drink or wherewithal we shall be clothed is not so important as the question of food for the mind and enrichment of the inner man.

That mind is one of the "Springs of Character" must be at once evident. The text teaches this. "As He Thinketh in His Heart So Is He." The Spanish proverbs expand the same idea: Thought is the seed from which character grows. Our thoughts determine our acts; our acts groove the brain as some psychologists tell us, and oft repeated become second nature or habits; habits thus formed make character; and character determines destiny. "As he thinketh in his heart so is he." The thoughts that travel through the brain leave their tracks behind. We talk about things passing in at one ear and out at the other, as if we were not affected by them in the least; but we are. If the stream of thought be pure, it will to some extent purify the mind through which it passes; if it be impure, it will leave a deposit behind that will eventually harden into character.

When you think of that do you wonder that we want to dam up the stream of impure literature that, fed by the rills from a thousand presses is flooding this fair land of ours? You cannot read the immoral book or listen to low conversation without injury. The thoughts that travel through the brain leave their tracks behind.

Notice the expression, "In his heart." The Bible way of speaking of the heart may not be scientific, but it is very suggestive. The heart, by the Ancients, was regarded as the seat of the affections; while the head was the seat of the intellect. The "thoughts of the heart" therefore, meant the thoughts that are loved or cherished; the things that one wanted to think. This fact throws light upon an expression like that in Psalm 14: 1, "The fool hath said in his heart, No God." That does not mean that all atheists are fools. It means that the one who wishes there were no God; is unwilling to believe in God if he could, who says in his heart"No God," is a fool. As well might the flower wish

that there was no sun in the heavens.

The man who is like

the flower whose sunshine is cut off; the man whose view of God is obscured by enveloping mists or intervening clouds is to be pitied more than blamed. But the Psalmist says the man who wishes God could be forever hidden from his view, is a fool. But the text goes beyond the teaching that the passing current of thought permanently affects the character. It does more than assert that the thoughts that travel through the brain leave their tracks behind. It teaches that the thoughts we welcome and cherish will shape our character. Men say it matters little what creed one subscribes to if one's life is all right. A creed merely subscribed to with the hand does make little difference; but the creed cherished in the heart will express itself in the life, for "As he thinketh in his heart so is he." Men become like the God in whom they believe. "They that worship them are like unto them." That is why the Bible lays such emphasis on faith. — Not that God cares so much what we think of Him, but what we think of Him will determine our attitude and conduct toward Him. It matters little what creeds hang like weavers' patterns upon the wall. But it matters immensely what creeds we put into the actual loom of life, for these determine the very warp and woof of character.

BEST THOUGHTS ON CHARACTER AND REPUTATION.

A man is what he is, not what men say he is. His character is what he is before God. That no man can touch; only he himself can damage it. His reputation is what men say he is. That may be damaged. Reputation is for time; character is for eternity.-John B. Goff.

Reputation is what men and women think of us; character is what God and angels know of us.-Paine.

See that your character is right, and in the long run your reputation will be right.-Anon.

One may be better than his reputation, but never better than his principles.-Latena.

The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear.—Socrates.

A proper self-regard becomes improper as soon as we begin to value reputation more than real character.-Morning Star.

The noblest contribution which any man can make for the benefit of posterity, is that of a good character. The richest bequest which any man can leave to the youth of his native land, is that of a shining, spotless example.-R. C. Winthrop.

Only what we have wrought into our character during life can we take away with us.-Humboldt.

Talents are best nurtured in solitude; character is best formed in the176 stormy billows of the world.—Goethe.

Men best show their characters in trifles, when they are not on their guard.-Schopenhauer.

Character and personal force are the only investments that are worth anything. Whitman.

A man's character is the reality of himself. His reputation is the opinion others have formed of him.47 Character is in him;-reputation is from other people-that is the substance, this is the shadow.-Beecher. Whatever ignominy or disgrace we have incurred, it is almost always in our power to re-establish our reputation.-Rochefoucauld.

The two most precious things on this side the grave are our reputation and our life. But it is to be lamented that the most contemptible whisper may deprive us of the one, and the weakest weapon of the other. A wise man, therefore, will be more anxious to deserve a fair name than to possess it, and this will teach him so to live, as not to be afraid to die. -Colton.

The purest treasure mortal times afford

Is spotless reputation; that away,

161 Men are but gilded loam or painted clay.-Shakespeare.

153 As the sun is best seen at his rising and setting,164 so men's native dispositions are clearest seen when they are children, and when they are dying.—Boyle.

153 As there is much beast and some devil in man, so is there some angel and some God in him. The beast and the devil may be conquered, but in this life never destroyed.-Coleridge.

Every man, as to character, is the creature of the age in which he lives. Very few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of their times.-Voltaire.

161A fair reputation is a plant delicate in its nature, and by no means rapid in its growth. It will not shoot up in a night, 153 like the gourd of the prophet, but162 like that gourd, it may perish in a night.-Jeremy Taylor.

153 Good will, like 155 a good name, is got by many actions, and lost by one.-H. W. Beecher.

196 Reputation, reputation, reputation! Oh, I have lost my reputation! I have lost the immortal part of myself; and what remains is bestial. -Shakespeare.