2. Selt-possession comes by self-surrender. We never own ourselves till we have given up owning ourselves, and yielded ourselves to that Lord who gives us back saints to ourselves. Self-control is self-possession. We do not own ourselves as long as it is possible for any weakness in flesh, sense, or spirit to gain
* C. S. Home, ITie SouVs Awakening, 257. 2 R. Browning, A Death in the Desert.
• Euskin, Deucalion ( Works, xxvi. 294).
ST. LUKE XXI. 19 423
dominion over us and hinder us from doing what we know to be right. We are not our own masters, then. " While they promise them liberty, they themselves are the bondservants of corrup- tion." It is only when we have the bit well into the jaws of the brutes, and the reins tight in our hands, so that a finger-touch can check or divert the course, that we are truly lords of the chariot in which we ride and of the animals that impel it.
The first thing to do is the thing which those men had already done to whom Jesus gave this promise that they should win their souls. What they had done — the first decisive step which they had taken in the work of finding their lives— was not, indeed, to acquaint themselves with all knowledge, or to peer into all mysteries. They had not even lingered at the doors of the school of the Eabbis. But when One who spake as never man spake, and who looked into men's souls with the light of a Divine Spirit in His eye, came walking upon the beach where they were mend- ing their nets, and bade them leave all and follow Him, they heard the command as coming from the King of Truth, and at once they left all and followed Him. They counted not the cost; they obeyed, when they found themselves commanded by God in Christ.
^ We are ever ready to think it was easy for those who saw Christ to follow Him. Could we read His sympathy and truth- fulness in His face, could we hear His words addressed directly to ourselves, could we ask our own questions and have from Him personal guidance, we fancy faith would be easy. And no doubt there is a greater benediction pronounced on those who " have not seen, and yet have believed." Still the advantage is not wholly theirs who saw the Lord growing up among other boys, learning His trade with ordinary lads, clothed in the dress of a working man. The brothers of Jesus found it hard to believe. Besides, in giving the allegiance of the Spirit, and forming eternal alliance, it is well that the true affinities of our spirit be not disturbed by material and sensible appearances.^
3. When we have mastered our souls, we have won a victory which determines all minor issues. A great battle is raging. There is a fort whicK is the key to the whole position. Which- ever side can win and hold that, is victor. Here, then, the general masses his troops. Other parts of the field are carried by
^ Marcus Dods, The Gospel of St. Jdhn^ 57.
424 THE WINNING OF THE SOUL
the enemy. The outposts are driven in. The batteries are captured. Troops cannot be spared for these. Everything is concentrated upon that fort, and at last it is taken. The dead and dying lie in heaps round it, but the flag waves over. It has been taken at the sacrifice of minor positions, but these are of no account now. The enemy will abandon these of his own accord. He has nothing to gain by holding them any longer. They are commanded by the superior post; and, in the light of the fact that the general holds the point from which he can command the whole field and dictate terms, his former dealing with the inferior positions is explained and justified. He could afford to sacrifice them for the sake of holding the key to the field. The lesser thing was wisely given up for the greater. Well for us if we can carry that principle into our spiritual warfare. Well for us if we shall clearly recognize the soul as the key to the position. Well for us if we can wholly take in the meaning of the words, " What shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? "
^ It happens that I have practically some connexion with schools for different classes of youth ; and I receive many letters from parents respecting the education of their children. In the mass of these letters I am always struck by the precedence which the idea of a " position in life " takes above all other thoughts in the parents' — more especially in the mothers' — minds. "The education befitting such and such a station in life " — this is the phrase, this the object, always. They never seek, as far as I can make out, an education good in itself; even the conception of abstract rightness in training rarely seems reached by the writers. But, an education "which shall keep a good coat on my son's back ; — which shall enable him to ring with confidence the visitors' bell at double-belled doors ; which shall result ultimately in the establishment of a double-belled door to his own house ; — in a word, which shall lead to advancement in life ; — this we pray for on bent knees — and that is all we pray for." It never seems to occur to the parents that there may be an education which, in itself, is advancement in Life: — that any other than that may perhaps be advancement in Death ; and that this essential educa- tion might be more easily got, or given, than they fancy, if they set about it in the right way ; while it is for no price, and by no favour, to be got, if they set about it in the wrong.^