Certain temptations assail us as powerfully through the imagination as if they assumed the most distinctly palpable and tangible form. Eve was assailed through her imagination when the devil said to her, "Ye shall be as gods;" and Jesus Christ was assailed through His imagination when the "kingdoms of the world and the glory of them" were offered to Him.
I. If temptation were to come to us in all its grossness, and force upon the calm, steady eyes of our reason its vilest aspect and purpose, it would have small chance with us. But it comes through an imagination which throws its hideousness into perspective and creates a halo around its immediate advantages. So we dupe our own hearts, and light our way with the lamp of fancy into the darkness where no lamp can burn.
II. It is imagination, too, that supplies a ready answer to the reproaches of conscience. Good is to come out of the evil. Imagination pleads that its purpose has in some way miscarried, or the evil would certainly have been less.
III. The sinful exercise of the imagination is not the less, but probably the more, aggravated because of its supposed secrecy.
The subject thus opened reminds us: (1) of the intense and awful spirituality of God and His judgment; (2) of the wonderful provision He has made for the cleansing and inspiration of our innermost thoughts.
Parker, The Ark of God,p. 296.