(3) The thinking part of us is closely connected with the will. — The prime minister of individual conduct and character is the
2 COR. X. 5 279
will. We never do anything without first of all willing to do it. But before the will determines upon any action it consults its advisers, the soul's cabinet, which is composed in the main of three ministers — feelings, conscience, thoughts. It is usually upon the advice of these three counsellors that the will acts.^
^ Do no violence to yourself, respect in yourself the oscilla- tions of feeling. They are your life and your nature ; One wiser than you ordained them. Do not abandon yourself altogether either to instinct or to will. Instinct is a siren, will a despot. Be neither the slave of your impulses and sensations of the moment, nor of an abstract and general plan ; be open to what life brings from within and without, and welcome the unforeseen ; but give to your life unity, and bring the unforeseen within the lines of your plan. Let what is natural in you raise itself to the level of the spiritual, and let the spiritual become once more natural. Thus will your development be harmonious, and the peace of heaven will shine upon your brow ; — always on condition that your peace is made, and that you have climbed your Calvary .^
Lulled in the countless chambers of the brain, Our thoughts are linked by many a hidden chain. Awake but one, and lo ! what myriads rise ! Each stamps its image as the other tiies! Each, as the various avenues of sense Delight or sorrow to the soul dispense. Frightens or fades; yet all, with magic art, Control the latent fibres of the heart.^
II.
The Mastery of Thought.
1. Our thoughts need to be mastered and disciplined. " Cast- ing down imaginations," that is, reasonings, " and every high thing," every lofty edifice, " which is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ." St. Paul's stoutest enemy in Corinth was intellectual pride. The pride of reason infected the spirit of the whole Christian society in Corinth. In minor matters of taste it would select its ministers, and divide the Church into followers of
* M. G. Archibald. ^ Amiel's Journal (trans, by Mra. Humphry Ward), 22.
• Samuel Rogers,
28o THE CAPTIVITY OF THOUGHT
favourite preachers ; in the graver matters of faith, it stumbled at a miracle, many of the members denying the resurrection of the dead and, by implication, the rising again of Christ ; in the fellowship meetings and social walks of the congregation, the educated classes ridiculed the sensitive scruples and simplicity of their more ignorant brethren.
The Apostle wished these Corinthians to cast down anything that was fictitious in their Christian faith, anything that was merely the creation of men's ingenious reasonings, and that exalted itself against Divine revelation. They were, on the one hand, to cast aside human imaginations, and, on the other hand, they were to bring all their thoughts to the mastery of Christ's Spirit. If it was necessary for Christian converts so early to put away imaginations, we may be sure that the effort to return to the real Christ will repeatedly be required in Christian history. The generations of believers will need time and time again to cast aside fictions, and to bring their thoughts into captivity to the true Christ. The world will be always prone to lose the real Christ, and He will need to be found again many times in the thought and the life of the world.
(1) If a man does not master his thoughts, some other power will, some power of the world, of the flesh, or of the devil, or all these powers combined. Now, the central character of the power of our thoughts makes it a first necessity that we should lead them if we are to remain in possession of ourselves. Thought awakens feeling, inflames the passions, subdues the will and commands action. Therefore thoughts unled will be to a man what winds and waves are to a ship under canvas but without a rudder, or what steam is to a locomotive without the guiding rail — a driving and destructive power.
^ Thoughts often come into the mind like a shadow, and then everything is dark and sad looking, or they come stealing along like sunbeams over the cornfield, and everything is brighter and better for them. Some thoughts come like a song, but you cannot see the bird that is singing, and some drip, drip, like the plashing of drops in a dark well. Thoughts ? Why, they are the most difficult things in the world to get hold of, and yet we are to bring them into captivity.^
1 J. R. Howatt, The Children's Pulpit, 246,
2 COR. X. 5 281
^ The one moral point you mention I should urge you to take vigorously in hand, with all courage and hope — I mean the per- sisting temptation of evil thoughts. You must not be too much surprised, or disheartened, at this. With some saintly persons it continues, at intervals, for many years. The main thing is to determine with yourself that you will accept no compromise in the matter. It is fatal if you think you must give way. You may be beaten again and again, but always renew the attack with the determination to obtain an absolute victory. It is marvellous what God's grace can do. Guard your sight strictly in what you read, in newspapers and books, pictures, photographs, persons — be very strict with yourself in this — all depends on crushing an evil thought at the beginning and instantly slaying it.^