94 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Jan., 



have the power to control our thoughts, and that is a power 

 that nobody knows about until they have exercised it. Many, 

 if not the majority of people, simply allow their thoughts to 

 run away with them. They think about whatever happens to 

 come into their minds, and they think about hundreds of 

 things sometimes in a hundred minutes, yes, a hundred things 

 in one minute, and the more they think that kind of thinking 

 the weaker they grow, and it goes on, and on, until they be- 

 come almost demented. But we have the power to control 

 our thoughts. God has not only given us the power of think- 

 ing, the power of reasoning, but we can control our thoughts, 

 and that control is just in proportion to the habit of control. 

 It may be difficult at first, but as we continue to do it we can 

 control our thoughts more and more, and when our thinking 

 calls out something that leads to evil we should arrest it, and 

 turn our attention to something which is better; and we can, 

 by this control of our thoughts, shape our destiny, and control 

 our acts, and with the control of our acts control our lives. 

 So we have this power of doing it by this control of our think- 

 ing, and of what we shall think about. So that a man to be- 

 come a good citizen must exercise this power, and must grow 

 from this basis of thought. 



Now a great many persons are governed by a certain type 

 of thought. Dr. Henry Van Dyke said this: " Be governed 

 by your admirations and not by your disgusts." We have all 

 known people who were governed by their disgusts. They 

 had taken a dislike to an individual, and they constantly 

 thought and talked about this one that they disliked, and un- 

 consciously, perhaps, they were all the. time being influenced 

 by this dislike. They were all the time being influenced by 

 the things that they were disgusted with, instead of looking 

 up, and being influenced by the things that they admired. We 

 have all known people of that kind. Such a life as that is 

 always dark and cheerless. Now you take a man who is con- 

 trolled by his admirations, and he is always getting higher, 

 always growing better and higher all the time. And, why? 

 Because he is always looking up at something which is high 

 and good. His standards are high because they are the things 

 that he admires. That is one of the most beautiful things 

 about the Christian religion. It gave us the perfect pattern 

 of a man — Jesus — while here upon the earth, and he who 



