I have seen, children, two houses just alike. They were of the same size and shape. They were painted in the same colors, and the lawns in front were precisely similar, and yet these two houses, when one looked at them, seemed to be altogether different. One of them always had the shutters closed, or, if the shutters were not closed, the curtains were drawn. The lawn in front was poorly kept, the paint on the house was faded, cracking, and dirty, the porches were covered with litter.
The other house, on the contrary, almost made one smile to look at it. Everything about it was bright and sunny. The windows glittered, they were so clean. The turf was kept nicely shaven, the porches were as neat as wax, the open windows let in a flood of light, and from them often smiled and nodded happy faces.
Inside the two houses the contrast was just as great, though the rooms were of precisely the same shape and size, and much of the furniture was alike in both. The one house was dark and gloomy, slovenly and ill kept, everywhere dirty and foul smelling. The other house was bright from cellar to garret, cleanly and attractive in every corner.
And the reason, you see, for this great difference could have been nothing whatever except the people that lived in these two houses. The tenants of the first house were slovenly, gloomy, and fretful, and they made their house like themselves. The tenants of the second house were bright, cheery, and painstaking, and their house became an image of their characters. If you could have transferred the inhabitants of the two houses from one to the other, I am perfectly certain that the first house and yard would speedily become neat and cheery, and the second house and yard would degenerate into gloom and filth.
Now I have known two people, both with good features and pretty complexions, with the same color of eyes, and the same kind of hair. The body of each was strong and well formed, and the clothes of each were good. And yet these two people were as different from each other as the two houses of which I have told. The faces, so much alike, in one was the frame for an evil spirit; in the other, the setting from which shone happiness and kindliness. The beautiful mouth of one was turned down harshly at the corners, of the other was curved in cheery smiles. The beautiful eyes of one were unkind and sharp; those of the other sparkled with merriment, and were soft with sympathy. This went so far as even to affect the clothes, though they were the same, for on the first the clothes appeared ugly and misshapen, and on the second they appeared as nice and well fitting as the temper of the wearer.
The difference between these two persons, just as the difference between the two houses of which I have just spoken, depended on the inmates. The body of the one person harbored Satan, the body of the other had received Christ. In one dwelt kindness and energy and brightness and love; in the other dwelt selfishness and sloth and dullness and hate.
You can see then, children, that it is a very important question you have to answer when I ask each one of you, “Who lives in the house of your body?”