THINKING RIGHTLY.

Auckland Star, Volume LVIII, Issue 136, 11 June 1927, Page 2 (Supplement)

THINKING RIGHTLY.

The boy who first mounted a bicycle saw something in his path and was very anxious not to run into it. So he looked at it with fixed and glaring eyes, and ran into it. After a bump or two ha learned the rule that if you would •void running into a thing you viust not look at it. Whenever we say, "I must not liit that stone, at all costs. I must not hit it," we are sure to-do the thing we are trying not to do. It is exactly like that with our thoughts. If we say to ourselves, "At all costs I must not think of this bad thing or that bad story," we bring up before ourselves the very thing we want to avoid. There, is no safety in Ao/s. And there is no safety in refusing to think at all. What we have to do is to think about the good, true, lovely things, and to keep our minds occupied; thdn there is no room for the horrid things. This was the advice which Paul long ago passed on to his friends in Philippi when he wrote from prison to thank them for a parcel. Whatsoever things are true, worthy, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, think of these things, was his counsel. Now, all these things are positive; he does not say, "Beware of thinking untrue, unworthy, unjust things"; he'saya, rather, "Keep your minds fixed on the right things, and this will become a habit, and your thoughts will naturally dwell among noble things." There was once a house in which an evil spirit lived, but the spirit was driven out and the house was left beautifully clean and in good repair; only there icos no tenant. It was clean and empty; and what happened? The evil spirit came back with seven others worse than itself, and tliu house becatne worse than ever. It is not enough that the house of our mind should be kept clean and without tenants. What must be done is to keep the house full of th*» right tenants.

It often troubles us that wrong thoughts keep surprising us, and we forget that so long as we do not welcome the thoughts, but turn from them to others, we are not doing wrong. We cannot help them coming, but we can refuse to welcome them. The mischief begins when we take these thoughts into the house as our guests. If a house is fully occupied there is no room for other things. If we love good books and have plenty of them to read we shall not turn to bad books. If we are always looking away from evil things to others we shall not be drawn into them. Whatsoever things are good and true and just and pure!—these are our guests. Let us keep open house for them. —"Children's. Newspaper."

"ISH AND MAZE PUZZLE.—Take *o„ •, ,