“For out of the heart…” – Sunday, August 13, 1950
Whether enforced or not, there are on the statute books penalties prescribed for almost every outward act of evil. There are punishments provided for duplicity and dishonorable dealings of almost every description. But we are constantly faced with the fact that no present means of physical enforcement can prevent evil itself, so long as the offenses are first committed within the minds and hearts of men. There is no human agency that has yet devised an effective means of legislating against, or punishing, an act that does not take physical form. We may deter a man from evilspeaking, but we can’t stop him from evilthinking. We may prevent him from stealing, but we can’t keep him from coveting. We may keep him from committing violence, but we can’t keep him from wishing he could—at least not by any legal barrier or physical force. And while we need protection from outward acts, yet beyond this, and basic to it, we need protection from wrong thinking, from false motives, from evil intent, from false philosophies; we need protection from what happens in the hearts and minds of men. “For out of the heart,” said the Savior, “proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies: These are the things which defile a man…”1 And the real safety of civilization, the real measure of goodness is not whether or not we can enforce the laws against outward acts but whether or not men are fit company in their own solitude. Strength and peace and abiding happiness have their source inside where thoughts are born and where deeds take shape.. And what this world needs is for truth to touch the minds and hearts of men—the truth that shall make men free—free from false thinking, free from false philosophies. 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”2 —and so is the world he lives in.
1Matthew 15:19,20
2Proverbs 23:7
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August 13, 1950
Broadcast Number 1,095