whose minds are nurtured by the words of the Lord, everything is judged
by the standard of eternal truth. Whatever is learned is digested by the
thoughts, and so the powers of the mind are strengthened and enlarged.
Thus the mind becomes constantly more and more wise. The merely
intellectual man has the desire to become wise, but his eye is not
single, and therefore his mind is obscured by many clouds,--the dark
exhalations of worldliness. When a man fixes his eye upon the Lord he is
filled with light, and sees with a clearness of vision such as can be
gained from no other source.

The cultivation of Thought lies at the root of all intellectuality,
while it elevates and enlarges the sphere of the Affections. Affection
is above Thought, but it is sustained and invigorated by its influence.
Thought being the foundation upon which Affection is built, the
strength, permanence and reliability of Affection must depend on the
solidity and justice of the underlying Thought.

The mind may be stored with the most varied and extensive knowledge, and
yet be neither improved nor adorned thereby. Robert Hall once remarked
of an acquaintance, that he had piled such an amount of learning upon
his brain, it could not move under the weight. It is little matter
whether the amount of learning be large or small; the brain is only
encumbered by it, unless it has taken it into its own texture, and made
it by Thought a part of itself. Some persons love facts as a miser loves
gold, merely because they are possessions; but without any desire to
make use of them. A fact or thought is just as valuable in itself as
a piece of money. Gold and silver are neither food, nor raiment, nor
shelter; but we value them because through their means we can obtain all
these. So facts and thoughts are neither rationality, nor wisdom, nor
virtue, and their value lies in their being mediums whereby we may