December 12, 2009

The soul is the theatre where moral actions, both good and bad, are performed. 'As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.' What we will, that we morally do. This doctrine suggests, that the world is really worse than it appears. It appears bad enough; its outward features and procedures are most repulsive to the eye of reflective virtue; but not a tithe of the heart’s dispositions does the body represent. The soul has a word of sentiment that neither tongue nor pen expresses; it is conscious of hosts of volitions that the muscles and limbs never carry into effect. We thank God that the body is too frail, fully to work out the latent wishes of a depraved world. (David Thomas; 1813-1894)