I have been speaking to some extent about that, and saying that there
must be real, honest, continuous effort to keep out the opposite, as
well as to bring in the 'things that are lovely and of good report.' But
there is one more word that I must say in answer to the question how
this precept can be observed, and it is just this. All these things,
true, venerable, just, pure, lovely, and of good report, are not things
only; they are embodied in a Person. For whatever things are fair meet
in Jesus Christ, and He, in His living self, is the sum of all virtue
and of all praise. So that if we link ourselves to Him by faith and
love, and take Him into our hearts and minds, and abide in Him, we have
them all gathered together into that One. Thinking on these things is
not merely a meditating upon abstractions, but it is clutching and
living in and with and by the living, loving Lord and Saviour of us all.
If Christ is in my thoughts, all good things are there.
If you trust Him, and make him your Companion, He will help you, He will
give you His own life, and in it will give you tastes and desires which
will make all these fair thoughts congenial to you, and will deliver you
from the else hopeless bondage of subjection to their very opposites.
Brethren, our souls cleave to the dust, and all our efforts will be
foiled, partially or entirely, to obey this precept, unless we remember
that it was spoken to people who had previously obeyed a previous
commandment, and had taken Christ for their Saviour. We gravitate
earthwards, alas! after all our efforts, but if we will put ourselves in
His hands, then He will be as a Magnet drawing us upwards, or rather He
will give us wings of love and contemplation by which we can soar above
that dim spot that men call Earth, and walk in the heavenly places. The
way by which this commandment can be obeyed is by obeying the other
precept of the same Apostle, 'Set your minds on things which are above,
where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.'
I beseech you, take Christ and enthrone Him in the very sanctuary of
your minds. Then you will have all these venerable, pure, blessed
thoughts as the very atmosphere in which you move. 'Think on these
things . . . these things do! . . . and the God of Peace shall be with
you.'