come into the world with
certain dispositions and bias. But that is not character, it is only the
raw material of character. It is all plastic, like the lava when it
comes out of the volcano. But it hardens, and whatever else my thought
may do, and whatever effects may follow upon any of my actions, the
recoil of them on myself is the most important effect to me. And there
is not a thought that comes into, and is entertained by a man, or rolled
as a sweet morsel under his tongue, but contributes its own little but
appreciable something to the making of the man's character. I wonder if
there is anybody in this chapel now who has been so long accustomed to
entertain these angels of whom my text speaks as that to entertain their
opposites would be an impossibility. I hope there is. I wonder if there
is anybody in this chapel to-night who has been so long accustomed to
live amidst the thoughts that are small and trivial and frivolous, if
not amongst those that are impure and abominable, as that to entertain
their opposites seems almost an impossibility. I am afraid there are
some. I remember hearing about a Maori woman who had come to live in one
of the cities in New Zealand, in a respectable station, and after a year
or two of it she left husband and children, and civilisation, and
hurried back to her tribe, flung off the European garb, and donned the
blanket, and was happy crouching over the embers on the clay hearth.
Some of you have become so accustomed to the low, the wicked, the
lustful, the impure, the frivolous, the contemptible, that you cannot,
or, at any rate, have lost all disposition to rise to the lofty, the
pure, and the true.

Once more; as thought makes deeds, and thought and deeds make character,
so character makes destiny, here and hereafter. If you have these
blessed thoughts in your hearts and minds, as your continual companions
and your habitual guests, then, my friend, you will have a light within
that will burn all independent of externals; and whether the world
smiles or frowns on you, you will have the true wealth in yourselves; 'a
better and enduring substance.' You will have peace, you will be lords
of the world, and having nothing yet may have all. No harm can come to
the man who has laid up in his youth, as the best treasure of old age,
this possession of these thoughts enjoined in my text.

And character makes destiny hereafter. What is a man whose whole life
has been one long thought about