He Thought of His Mother

In his book Anecdotes and Illustrations R. A Torrey relates the following incident:

During our Dublin campaign, a young man came to me in great distress. He had been paying attention to a young lady, who was very worldly. He had been brought up under Christian influences, his mother being an earnest Christian woman. He told me that the preceding Sunday evening he had called upon the young lady in whom he was interested. Though it was Sunday evening, the girl’s mother proposed that they play cards. The young lady’s mother urged him to join in the game, but he refused. He said to me, “When I was invited to play cards on a Sunday evening, the thought came to me, ‘What if I should and my mother should hear of it. It would break her heart.’”

How many a man is kept back from doing things he would otherwise do by the thought of how it would grieve his mother if she should hear of it. But there is One who is more keenly sensitive than the purest mother, who is grieved at the slightest departure from the path of right as no mother even is grieved, that One is the Holy Spirit. He goes with us wherever we go. He sees all that we do. He hears all that we say. Yes, He sees the most secret fancy of the heart, and if there is an act or word or thought that has a taint of impurity or selfishness or sin, He is deeply grieved. To me this is one of the mightiest incentives to a careful walk.

Oftentimes when some evil thought is suggested to me by the enemy, the thought comes, “I cannot entertain that thought for a moment. If I do, the Holy Spirit, who sees it, will be deeply grieved, and I cannot bear to grieve this ever-present, faithful Friend.”