Heart Plague #3 Vain Thoughts

    Another heart  plague--alas too common (what would he say today???)--is that of vain thoughts.  These defile the soul as with the plague of leprosy.  "Wash thine heart from wickedness....how long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee?" (Jer. 4:14)   The hearts of men are full of thoughts.  Thoughts flow from the heart as sparks from a fiercely blown furnace, as rays from the mid-day sun.  The mind of man is a thinking principle.   The exercise of its faculty of thinking is inseparably bound up with its existence.  A vast proportion of its incessant flow of  thoughts is altogether vain and useless.  Multitudes do not see any sin in this.  They can spend hours in useless empty vain thinking and never take themselves to task as if the had done anything blameworthy.  An immortal being created for glorifying God, endowed with a soul which in its capacities is more precious and wonderful than all the starry heavens and their countless hosts of worlds, can expend itself in revolving the most useless and unprofitable imaginations, such as fancying oneself possessed with wealth and devising how to spend it, or fancying oneself in positions in which one will never be placed, and devising how to act in these situations.  It were in fact a waste of time and an exemplifying of the very evil which is now condemned were we to attempt to set forth the countless imaginations of utter vanity which are allowed to pursue their uncontrolled career through the chambers of the minds of men.  (Think fantasies of lust and power rooted in human discontent!!!)  But I am sure that there is not a single person who, on reflecting on the manner in which when alone he mentally spends his time, is not conscious that a if a spiritual chart of his thoughts were spread out for his fellow men to see,  large portions of it would cover him with ridicule and shame in the eyes of his neighbors.  The multitude, variety, ceaselessness, and power of these vain thoughts are all most distressing to the believer.  The continual invasion that they make on his most sacred hours and duties, the unblushing return and renewed vigor with which they return after a momentary victory.  The lengths to which the trivial mind will go to enslave its willing captive  makes this a hateful plague to any serious Christian.  They are a greater plaque in our pursuit of holiness than some dreaded physical plague.   While some may have greater determination and vigilance in overcoming these hateful birds of prey, even the best are humbled by them perpetually, and frustrated that they do not provide for Christ a better temple that a heart so frequently invaded and defiled with what to an infinitely wise God must be so unspeakably abominable.

NOTE:  This was written over 100 years before invention of the television, the computer, the "smart" phone, and the myraid tools of distraction that the Prince of the power of the air has thrown into the battlefield for the mind!!!