LECTURE VII.

CHARACTERISTICS OF VAIN THOUGHTS.

JEREMIAH iv. 14.

"How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?"

THERE are some of our duties which are occasional and temporary; there is, in a strict sense, a "time for them," a time marked out from other time. But there are some which are habitual and continual; so that when they are thought of, it is always, "now is the time."

Now it is not implied that any duty is unimportant, any precept insignificant, when we say that there is a peculiarly great importance in those duties which are habitual and continual. Yet it would appear that actually less importance is attached, in general apprehension, to the continual than to what may be called the temporary duties.

In a case of this latter class (the temporary duties) a great deal of importance may seem to be collected into one particular time, and one particular portion of conduct. This particular matter of duty may be such, that there is an extremely obvious good or evil involved in performing or neglecting it; in doing it well or ill; in doing it or the reverse. There is the immediate threatening of bad consequences;—the divine displeasure and a weight of guilt;— perhaps disgrace in society

Whereas, in a matter of the other class (the continual duties), the duty seems (so to speak) to be thinly diffused over a very wide space, and to be of great and special importance nowhere. The obligation is not peculiarly strong here, nor there, this hour or the next. The guilt of

neglecting it at any one time is but as a particle. Therefore the accumulation of guilt is insensible and unalarming; each little portion passes and vanishes away, and is too slight to leave a legible trace on the conscience; so that the innumerable small portions are never felt as collected into the great sum.

The kind of evil reproached in our text comes too much under this latter description. The habit of vanity in the thoughts may prevail in many persons who would be appalled at the aspect of one great substantial sin, and are not found neglecting the chief obvious, practical duties of external life. They may little suspect how much duty they are neglecting, or how much guilt they are contracting. They go quietly to repose each night, and hardly recollect to ask for its pardon. Yet a month, a year, or many years, of vain thoughts! in a being preparing for an eternity of seriousness and thought!—it is truly an awful account! Yet with many this stands for little in comparison with some one or two very wrong external actions. It were, it is true, too vague and fanciful a kind of calculation to pretend to assign the proportion between any given measure of sin in external action, and a long succession of vain thoughts; but it is quite certain that we are all liable to underrate the guilt of the latter. It may therefore be useful to give a little serious consideration to this subject.

But we may first observe, what a mighty amount of thinking there is in human spirits that does not come under the censure of the text. And do we say this in congratulation of our race? No! It is little cause for satisfaction that a criminal stands unaccused of one degree of guilt because it is a deeper guilt that is imputed. The epithet "vain," in its strict acceptation, implies something trifling -light-insignificant-empty. It is therefore not the proper description of wicked thoughts. For example,

impious thoughts respecting the divine Being;-thoughts formed in the spirit of disapproval, aversion and rebellion; -thoughts of malignity;-thinking, in order to indulge malevolent dispositions, rancour, revenge;-thinking how to give effect to these dispositions, purposes, devices, schemes, expedients;-thoughts intent on wickedness of any kind; dwelling on it with complacency and preference; pursuing it in desire, intention, and project. Such thoughts are of too aggravated evil to be called "vain" thoughts. They are not trivial, idle actions of the mind, but often strong and grave ones; tending powerfully to an effect.

And but consider, how much of this order of thinking there is in human minds! So that it looks like a quite minor vision of evils when we turn to the view of the mere vanities of the mind. But how striking the reflection, that it looks so only by comparison with something so much worse that there is in human spirits!

Thus, if a good man had been compelled to sojourn awhile among the most atrocious of mankind, cruel savages rioting in blood and the infliction of tortures (as in Dahomey, Mexico, Ashantee); or pirates, desperadoes, and murderers, and at last escaped into the society of frivolous, vain triflers; by force of comparison this might seem almost like innocence and goodness; till he recollected his rules of judgment and said, "But this, too, is bad."

So we see how the case is with the moral state of man! You may fix upon an evil, and by the application of rules. rational and divine, see that it is absolutely a great one. But going deeper, you may reduce it to seem as if it were but a slight one, by comparison with something else which you find in man. Thus vain thoughts, compared with vicious polluted thoughts, malignant thoughts, and blasphemous thoughts. Oh, the depth to which the investigation and the censure may descend!

We can easily picture to our minds some large neglected mansion in a foreign wilderness; the upper apartments in possession of swarms of disgusting insects;-the lower ones the haunt of savage beasts;-but the lowest, the subterraneous ones, the retreat of serpents, and every loathsome living form of the most deadly venom.

With respect to the jurisdiction of the thoughts, it is an unfavourable circumstance that the man is committed wholly to himself, without external restraint or interference. (Putting out of view the divine inspection.) His thoughts are his own; they are within a protecting cover; for them he is not exposed to be censured and made ashamed by the inspectors of his outward conduct; often he would be so ashamed, if such a thing could happen as a sudden mental transparency. Under this protection and exemption, it is quite certain that if he shall not exercise a careful government over his thoughts in the fear of God, they will run to vanity, at the least. It is their easiest operation; it is their mere animal play: they hate to carry a weight, except when the passions lay it on. A man may too well verify this by a very little reflective attention.

Observe next, that if the thoughts are left unrestrained to commit folly, they will commit an immensity of it. In this kind of activity, the thinking power is never tired nor exhausted. Think of the rapidity of the train! how sure it is that another, and still another, will instantly come! Think of the endless evolutions, the never-ceasing sport, the confused multiplicity! Never stagnant pool was more prolific of flies, nor the swarm about it more wild and worthless! But what a wretched running to waste of the thinking principle! "How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?"

We may describe them a little more particularly, and m detail.

1. Those thoughts are "vain" from which we do not, and cannot, reap any good; supposing them not of the directly noxious kind. If there be any kind of action by which we should get some good, it is that of our thinking spirit. Well; let a man take a survey over the course of his thoughts for a certain time past; we will say, his thoughts in those parts of his time in which his thinking has not been intently and necessarily employed on his indispensable worldly affairs. Let him by a strong act of mind collect the long-departed train into one view, not by detail and enumeration-no indeed! but by a comprehensive estimate; and then say "What good ?" "Have they given and left me anything worth having? what? Have they made me any wiser ? wherein? What portion of previous ignorance have they cleared away? In what point is my judgment rectified? What good purpose have they fixed or forwarded?-What one thing that was wrong has been corrected? or even more clearly seen how to be corrected? Is it, can it be, the fact, that all that succession passed me but as the lights and shadows of an April day? or as the insects that have flown past me in the air? While ten thousand or a hundred thousand ideas have passed my mind, might I really as well have had none ?" To use an humble phrase, what has he got to show for it all? He has kept his mind open to entertain all these passing visitants; they have occupied his faculties, and consumed his time. What! have they all gone away and paid him nothing? Let him see how many, or whether any, of that vast number are now retained by him, as valuable additions to the mental store. Whether there be any grains of gold-dust deposited by the stream that has carried down so many millions of particles of mud ? Does he even think there were many of the train that he could wish could be brought back and permanently retained? But what should he think of his thoughts, and of