oughts are heard in heaven," says a distinguished
poet. Never was there a more scriptural sentiment.

But perhaps there may be those to whom this may look like a harsh
procedure. If it were true, as some suppose, that we could not control
our thoughts--that they rushed uninvited upon our attention, that
they detained that attention for a time, longer or shorter, just as
they pleased, and that they departed as unceremoniously as they
entered our mind--then I grant that it would be hard to make us
responsible for such visitors. If we had no power over our own mental
operations, it would seem as unjust to punish us for our delinquencies
in these particulars as to censure us for the depravity of a resident
of Asia or Africa. But can you defend such a position as this? Have
you no power to determine what themes _shall_ and what shall _not_
employ your meditations? Are you the mere slave for your thoughts,
compelled to follow as they, by some caprice, may direct? No
intelligent mind in which the will is ruler is prepared to admit that
it has been subjected to such vassalage.

The truth is, and I appeal to your own consciences in support of the
declaration, that you are endowed with the power of thinking upon just
such subjects as you may prefer. You can, at pleasure, direct your
attention to any topic, agreeable or disagreeable, lawful or unlawful,
connected with the past, present, or future; you can revolve it in
your mind for a longer or shorter period, and then you can dismiss it
entirely from your consideration. If this were not true; if your
thoughts were not under the control of the will, you would be
incompetent to manage your business; you would be disqualified for
every pursuit of life involving the exercise of reason. You would in
truth be insane.

Now it is because God has given us the power over our own thinking
that it assumes a moral complexion in his sight. The man who resigns
himself to unholy reveries, or who entertains in his own heart
purposes which, if acted out, would render him liable to the censure
of his fellow men, and to condemnation from God, is as certainly
guilty, though it may not be to the same extent, as though he had been
openly corrupt and abandoned. "Out of the heart," says the Saviour,
"proceed evil thoughts." Here observe that our Lord plainly teaches
that our thoughts may be evil or sinful, and therefore may expose him
who harbors them to punishment. And lest any one should be disposed