Disciplined Hearts and Minds – Sunday, January 30, 1944
The conduct of men is modified by laws which provide penalties for almost every outward act of evil that could be named or devised. Whether enforced or not, there are on the statute books prohibitions and punishments for immorality, theft, drunkenness, bearing false witness, violence, duplicity, and dishonorable dealings of every kind and description, notwithstanding which the multiplicity of violations is appalling. And these outward evidences of an inward condition bring us face to face with the truth that no present means of physical enforcement can prevent evil, so long as the greater offenses are committed within the minds of men and in the secret places of their hearts.
There is no human agency that has yet devised a means of legislating against, or punishing, an act that does not take physical form. You may deter a man from evil speaking, but you can’t stop him from evil thinking. You may prevent him from stealing, but you can’t keep him from coveting. You may restrain him from committing violence, but you can’t stop him from wishing he could—at least not by any legal barrier, or police surveillance, or physical device. And while we need protection from outward violations, yet more than this, and basic to it, we need protection from wrong thinking; we need protection against false motives, against evil intent; we need disciplined hearts. “For,” it is written, “out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man. . . . (Matthew 15:19,20.)
Circumspect conduct on conspicuous occasions is not necessarily an indication of circumspect thought, or of goodness. It may be merely deference to conventions or appearances. And, the real test of civilization, the real measure of goodness its not whether or not we can enforce the laws on the statute books, but whether or not we are fit company in our own solitude. Outward immoral acts are an aggravated problem in any society, but only when, as a people, we can come to place emphasis on thoughts and motives and spiritual and inward purity, shall we approach a realization of the standards set by Him who said: “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.” Strength and safety, peace and abiding happiness, lie in purity at the source, where thoughts are born and ‘where deeds take shape—and not merely in concealing the outward evidence of an act that has already taken form within. In short, if a man can’t think straight, there can be no assurance that he can live straight, “For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Proverbs 23:7.)
By Richard L. Evans, spoken from the Tabernacle, Temple Square, Salt Lake City, Sunday, Jan. 30, 1944, over Radio Station KSL and the nationwide Columbia Broadcasting System. Copyright – 1944.
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January 30, 1944
Broadcast Number 0,754