SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 12 August 1922, Page 9

SUNDAY READING

VITAL VIRTUES, NO. 7: SELF-CONTROL. ‘'The fruit of the Spirit is selfcontrol.” —Oal. V.

(By

Rev. A. H. Collins,

New Plymouth.)

This is the seventh of our studies in the vital virtues, and with it I end the series, though I have not exhausted the list. I have said nothing of Honour, that nicte sense of what is right and just and true; nothing of Modesty, the thornspike that guarejs the red rose of a maiden's heart; nothing of Humility, that violet tint of the -soul; nothing of "Purity, that chastity of Galahad the spiritual knight; nothing of Charity, that queen of all the graces. But seven is the sacred number, and I would not tire you by going beyond it. Only let it be understood the omissions do not mean that they are inferiors. I would not speak disrespectfully of F sharp or B flat because Viey are represented in jet rather than in ivory. They are as serviceable to perfect melody as G or A. “But the fruit of the Spirit is selfcontrol.” What is self-control? We are

“fearfully and wonderfully made.” When we think of our complex nature, constant streams of gratitude should flow to Him who fashioned us with such boundless capacity. Are we not related to the rocks ■which guard our coast and receive the loud thunaering of these warm southern seas, for they and we are dust? 'Are we not related to the myriad bright things that flash and glide around us, in earth and sky and sea. for they and we have life? Are we not related to the angel host who, night and day, praise their Maker in heaven’s glory, for they and we are Spirit? Are we not related to God. who is King. Creator, and Life of All. for we are His children, and made “partakers of the Divine Nature”? The dreadful dignity of this last thought is almost blinding to our spirits, yet we cling to it, and rest on His immutable word. So then a fourfold, relationship is ours, material, rational, spiritual and Divine, and our nature is perfected in degree as the lower is ruled by the higher, and the highest holds supremacy. "When this balance is broken, discord reigns, and even when the physical is subdued to the rational there is still discord unless reason is obedient to the law of God.

John Milton expressed this in his con eeption of Satan, one in whom pride of intellect exalted itself against God, even though the intellect of Satan ruled the grosser passions. If, then, it be asked, what is self-control, the answer must be this: self-control means to hold the several parts of our complex being in lea«h to a dominant will, and the will itself to the obedience of Jesus Christ. A PERFECT PATTERN. In this, as in all else, He is our Perfect Pattern. He shared our nature. He was “tempted in ali points like as we are.” But He would not yield to the appeal of appetite and command stones to be made bread. He resisted < the temptation to pride and vain glory and impatience, and would not cast Himself from the turret of the temple, and even in the last d cad hour cried: “Nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.”

Saint Paul, too, tells us how to reach this mastery over self. In his letter to the Galatians his meaning is obscured in the authorised version 'by the word •'temperance.” The same is true in Saint Peter’s Epistle, for in both passages the thought is not simply “temperance” in the modern seise. It is Selfmastery in all things.

» In his First Letter to the Corinthians, Paul uses a striking phrase, taken from the prize ring: “I buffet my body.” Literally, “I beat my body black and blue,” “I subdue and keep it under,” “I compel it to serve reason and conscience.” The Apostle ffid not share the current belief that the body is the seat of sin. The seat of sin is the human will, but the body helps or hinders, and he would have it help. He was no ascetic. He did not expect the soul to ripen in a vacuum, but in a warm and sunny atmosphere. But Saint Paul was in the thick of the conflict. He knew that some of the gravest perils that assail the soul comp through the flesh. Even the frail and battered tabernacle that homed his spirit needed to be kept under, and he would not allow even innocent desires and lawful appetites to get the upper hand. The‘body must be the servant of the spirit and under dominance to the sovereign will, and the will must yield obedience to conscience, and the conscience obey God. “I beat my body black and blue. lest having preached to others, I myself should become a castaway.” SELF-MASTERY. As to the need of self-mastery, cart there be any question? 0 In the long aero Plato depicted the soul under the guise of a hyrra-headed monster, a lion and a man combined in one form. The man represented the higher powers, the rea-

eon, conscience, will; the lion represented the passionate elements, the lusU and appetites of the flesh, and the man was only safe when the higher faculties ruled. The Bible is full of the same idea, expressed in example and precept. Joseph flees from the royal temptress. Samson surrendered to a woman’s languid sigh Daniel refused the king's meat. “Better is he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city.” If a man does not practise self-con-trol, he is lost beyond recovery. The cravings of the lower self must be kept in check, the aspirings of the better self must be cultivated. Habits of evil must be mastered, habits of gcv>d must be formed and strengthened, or it is farewell to nobility. Longfellow wisely says:— “The low desire, the base design, That makes another’s virtues less, The revel of the treacherous wine, And all occasions of excess. The longing for ignoble things, The strife of triumph, more than truth, The hardening of the heart which brings Irreverence for the dreams of youth, All thoughts of ill, all evil things That have their root in thoughts of ill, Whatever hinders or impedes The action of the noble will. All these must first be trampled down Beneath our feet, if we would gain In the bright fields of fair, renown The right of eminent domain.” A CONDITION OF TRUE NOBILITY. I say self-control is the condition of troe nobility, and in general terms we all admit it is so. No one respects the man who has lost grip of himself and lies at the mercy of every passing whim. The drunken sot, the glutton, the libertins, no one respects. But the contest is not confined to these gi <sser forms. There are far more subtie forms, and their victims are more numerous. To see grown men and women -who are fickle as a shadow and carried hither and thither by every wind of doctrine; to see grown men and women caught by the latest faddist and hurried into wild outbursts of credulity and fanaticsim, is not an edifying spectacle! Yet there is such a thing as “mot psychology,” and its readi'est dupes are the people who lack selfcontrol, self-discipline, self-sovereignty.” Of the many forms of self-mastery I mention two. Silvester Horne said the two directions in which men need to cultivate this virtue are to keep a firm grip on the temper, and an equally firm grip on the tongue. I think he was right. More Christian lives are marred and spoiled by temper than by any other failing. It is a significant fact that the Apostle needed to warn the Church against envy, malice, hatred and uncharitableness. Christian men and women were guilty of spite and anger and petty jealousy! Christian men and women ruined their influence for good because' they did not know how to keep their temper! Such trifles upset their balance. Some trifling inconvenience, some unguarded word, some fancied slight, and away they go and rave and stamp, or sulk’like spoilt children. Browning satirised the failing in “The Ring and the Book,” where he speaks of “all hell let loose on a butterfly!” Yet anyone who knows the history of church Councils, anyone who follows religious controversy, knows how painfully true Browning’s words are. I doubt if more churches have been wrecked by any other single cause than bad temper, and I question whether any single sin has damaged more character than the sin of ill-temper. CONTINENCE IN LANGUAGE. And we need to cultivate this grace of continence in language. Speech is man's distinguishing mark. Do you note that the gift of Pentecost was the gift of tongues. But the line between a virtue and a vice may be a hair line. Someone has pointed out that when Christ gave the dumb man speech He sighed deeply, as if our Lord knew that, unless controlled, the man might do infinite harm with his newly-acquired power. There are no graver chapters in the New Testament than those in which Saint Tames speaks of the sins of the tongue. Read Trench on words if you would know the power of words for good or ill. Htnce, as John Henry Newman says:

“Prune thou thy words, thy thoughts control That o’er thee swell and throng, They will condense within thy soul And change to purpose strong. But he who lets his feelings run In soft luxurious flow, Shrinks when hard service must be clone And faints at every woe.”

I am not thinking of coarse and vulgar slang or shameful swear words, or of spiteful speech. I am thinking of idle and empty words which aim at nothing and hit it. St. James speaks sternly when he says: “If any man seemeth to be religious and bridleth not his tongue, that man’s religion is vain.” But if that rule were applied impartially, what gaps there would 'be in our church registers! Aa Will Carlton says:

“Boys flying kites haul in their whitewinged birds; You can’t do that way when you’re flying words, Careful with fire is good advice, I know, ' « Careful with words is doubly so. Thoughts unexpressed may sometimes ■fall back dead, But God Himself can’t kill them when they're said.” A MISNOMER. Now I have been speaking of self-con-trol. but in reality self-control is a misnomer. It is useless to preach self-con-trol to men who are the victims of riotous passions. They need a power outside themselves. “The fruit of the spirit is self-rontrol.” Henry Drummond was once asked to speak to a coachman whose besetting sin was drink, and this is how he did it: “Suppose your horses ran away, and you lost control of them, and they turned down a steep hill, what should you do?” The man confessed his inability to do anything. “But,” said Drummound, “suppose someone sat beside you who was stronger than you are, what should you do?” “I should give him the reins.” was the reply. Then Drummond turned to the man and pointed out how*his life had run away with him. and he had lost control of hts passions and appetites. But he told him that Christ was neaf, and besought him to give Christ the reins. Beside that story I put another. Dr. Kelman was once on a Mississippi steamer, and fell into conversation with a typical American. He was talking to him of the corruption in the municipal life of the States, and asked the American what was the remedy. To his surprise the American said: “The only solution is an Emperor.” “An Emperor!” said Dr. Kelman, “why. I thought you in America had done with all that kind of thing for ever!” And the reply was this: “No. we know the One we want, and are waiting for Him. His Name is Jesus.”