The Center of Your Thoughts
Puritan: Henry Scougal
Source: The Life of God in the Soul of Man
Originally Delivered: 1677, Scotland
The Lord’s Day: July 5, 2026
“Amidst all our pursuits and designs, let us stop and ask ourselves: To what end is all this? What am I aiming for? Can the flagrant and garnish pleasures of sense, or the esteem and affection of silly creatures like myself, satisfy an immortal soul? Have I not tried these things already? Will they taste better and yield me more contentment tomorrow than they did yesterday? …
Oh, what a poor thing the life of man would be if he were not capable of higher enjoyments than those afforded by this world! …
Men are unwilling to quarrel with the religion of their country, and since all their neighbors are ‘Christians’, they are content to be so too. However, seldom are they at pains to consider the evidence for Christian truths or to ponder the importance or consequences of them. Thus, it is that their affections and practice are so little influenced by them. Their spiritless and paralytic thoughts are unable to influence their wills or direct their actions.
We must therefore endeavor to stir our minds toward serious belief and firm persuasion of divine truths and a deeper sense and awareness of spiritual things. Our thoughts must dwell on divine truths till we are both convinced of them and deeply affected by them. Let us urge ourselves forward to approach the invisible world and fix our minds on immaterial things till we clearly understand that they are not dreams. No, indeed; it is everything else that is a dream or a shadow.
When we look round about us and behold the beauty of the world, the order and harmony of the whole creation, let our thoughts soar toward the omnipotent wisdom and goodness that first created and now sustains it. When we reflect upon our own nature, let us remember that we are not merely a piece of well-organized matter, a curious and well-contrived machine.
No. Let us remember that there is more to us than flesh and blood and bones. There is the divine spark capable of knowing, loving, and enjoying our Maker. And even though for the moment it is encumbered with the frustrating companionship of our human flesh, before long we shall be delivered from this state, to exist without this body in the same way as we can throw off clothes at our leisure.
Let us often center our thoughts away from this world, this scene of misery, folly, and sin. Let us raise them toward that vast and glorious world whose innocent and blessed inhabitants find eternal solace in the divine presence and who know no other passion than unmixed joy and unbounded love.
And then let us consider how the blessed Son of God came down to this lower world to live among us and to die for us that He might bring us a portion of that same happiness. Think how He overcame the power of death and opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. Now that He is seated at the right hand of the majesty on high, He is no less mindful of us, but receives our prayers and presents them to His Father. Daily He is visiting His church by the influence of His Spirit as the sun reaches us with its beams. …
Finally, O God, grant that contemplation of what You are, and of what we ourselves are, may both humble and lay us low before You as well as stir up in us the strongest desires to know You. We long to give ourselves up to the moving of Your Holy Spirit. Lead us in Your truth, for You are the God of salvation. Guide us with your counsel, and afterward receive us into Your glory, through the merits and intercession of Your blessed Son our Savior. Amen.”