I hate vain thoughts: but Thy law do I love.
The hated and the loved
I. The hated. “I hate vain thoughts.” The number of these is legion, the variety all but endless. Vain thoughts may include worthless thoughts on true subjects as well as on false. Vain thoughts are--
1. Always worthless. They are empty, vapid, unsatisfactory, and unenduring.
2. Always criminal. Man is endowed with the thinking faculty in order to think accurately, righteously, and devoutly.
3. Always pernicious. Vain thoughts are the weeds, the fungi, the parasites, the mildew of the soul.
II. The loved. “Thy law do I love.” Why should the Divine law be loved?
1. It is a revelation of the morally beautiful. It is the transcript of the mind, that which is the “beauty of holiness.”
2. It is a guide to the truly happy. It is a map to guide to the heavenly inheritance, a compass directing to the celestial shore. (Homilist.)
A lust hate and a just love
I. A just hate. “Vain thoughts” are of two classes.
1. Thoughts on vain subjects.
2. Vain thoughts on true subjects. All such thoughts are evil in themselves and powerful for evil. Thought is the mightiest power in the world. Bad thoughts should be hated as devils; good ones cherished as angels.
II. A just love. The law should be loved--
1. Because it is the expression of the highest moral beauty. It is the transcript of the Divine heart.
2. Because it is a means to the participation in the highest moral beauty. By obedience to the Divine law men come to share in the beauty of God, the beauty of holiness. Love and hate are really one in principle. We must always hate the opposite of what we love. (Homilist.)
On wandering thoughts in religious duties
I. Their nature. Wandering thoughts are the disorderly motions of the soul in the time of God’s worship, by which the mind is diverted or disturbed in the performance of the duty.
1. The time: when engaged in the duties of religion.
2. What draws our thoughts aside.
(1) Sometimes things in themselves evil and sinful.
(2) Sometimes things good in themselves, but evil because they are unseasonable.
II. Their causes or occasions.
1. The depravity of our nature.
2. Allowance of sin.
3. Being over-careful and troubled about many things.
4. Slight thoughts of God and His service.
III. Their bad effects.
1. They render our duties vain and burdensome.
2. They hinder communion with God.
3. They induce us to think hardly of ourselves.
4. They bring guilt upon the soul, and lead to a curse instead of a blessing.
IV. Directions for their prevention or cure.
1. Wash your hearts from wickedness.
2. Endeavour to maintain an habitual spirituality of mind.
3. Attend to religious duties with earnest desires of the presence of God.
4. Depend not upon your own strength.
5. Use means to bring your heart into a suitable temper.
6. Set the Lord always before you. (S. Lavington.)
The government o/ the thoughts
I. What are vain thoughts? Not only all such as are in themselves useless and frivolous, but all such as, though not without their importance at their proper times, are allowed to encroach upon the time and attention due to others of equal or greater importance--all such as, by their connection with improper and hurtful inclinations, tend, when encouraged, to fix and strengthen them--all such as indicate the existence of unkind and unchristian feelings--all such as indispose us to the labours and duties of our stations--and lastly, all such as tend to make us undervalue the principles of a pure morality, or distrust the foundation of religious faith and obedience.
II. How may they be avoided or controlled?
1. The mind must have its attention directed, and its interest awakened to instructive and important subjects,
2. We must acquire a habit of confining our attention to the subjects and employments which we think deserving of our choice.
3. We should make a diligent use of all our opportunities for storing our minds with sound and practical knowledge.
4. We must avoid the sources of all impure or immoral fancies, whether we have reason to apprehend their existence in our usual books or our usual companions.
5. We should acquaint ourselves with the writings, and seek the society of those whom we may consider either as masters, or, at least, as anxious and successful learners, of the same art.
6. “The words of the pure,” and “the lips of knowledge,” if it be that knowledge which “maketh wise unto salvation,” will second with powerful persuasion another direction that may be given for guarding against the influence of “vain thoughts.” It is this--to rest on firm and deep foundations, and to build up for ourselves, with good and durable materials, a real conviction of religious truths.
7. A well-grounded and hearty belief in Christian truths, beside the awful consideration which it opposes to the encouragement of “vain thoughts,” disposes the mind to an employment, the recommendation of which is another direction of the right government of the thoughts. That employment is, frequent meditation on the duties and interests which owe a principal part of their sanctions and importance to the doctrines and principles of religion.
8. Frequent, humble, and earnest prayer for deliverance from the evils which we wish to avoid, and assistance to persevere in the pursuit of those things which are “pure, lovely, and of good report”--prayer for that spirit of wisdom and godly fear, which will keep both our hate and our love directed to their proper objects. (A. R. Beard.)
On vain thoughts
I. The peculiar kind of thoughts alluded to in the text.
1. All thoughts, the indulgence of which is positively sinful.
(1) Some have reference to God. Fretful, discontented, and distrustful thoughts.
(2) Others refer to our fellow-creatures. Suspicious, slanderous, and calumnious thoughts.
(3) Others have reference to ourselves. Proud, ambitious, impure and lascivious thoughts.
2. All thoughts, the cultivation of which is likely to lead to no practical benefit.
3. All thoughts inappropriate to the seasons on which they are cherished.
II. The effort which should be made for suppressing vain thoughts.
1. Such thoughts are the natural and spontaneous choice of the human mind.
2. The powerful influence of the thoughts in regulating the dispositions and conduct.
3. Our responsibility to God for the right exercise of thought.
III. Some means which may tend to counteract vain thoughts.
1. Seek the attainment of a renewed and sanctified heart.
2. Cultivate an habitual remembrance of the divine inspection of the thoughts.
3. Let the mind be occupied as fully as possible with thoughts of an appropriate and useful character.
4. Earnestly implore the assistance of the Holy Spirit to guide and control the thoughts. (Essex Remembrancer.)