* J. G. Lockhart, Life of Sir Walter Scott, ch. xliv.
Gal. v. 22, 23 405
live with him who know how good he is." The daughterly tribute was the simple truth. It has happened before now that a man has been, in the strong line of the poet,
A household devil and a causeway saint.
Never was there any such contradiction between what my father seemed to the world and what he was in reality at home. There were no skeletons in his cupboards, no hidden chambers in his life into which he would have been afraid for any one to enter. To the very core of him, he was a good man, courteous, sympathetic, consider- ate, one of " God's gentlemen," known as such by all his friends ; and not even his enemies — and inevitably he made some enemies for righteousness' sake — ever brought his goodness into doubt.^
6, The third triad — "faithfulness, meekness, temperance" — appears to point to the world in which the Christian life is to be lived as a scene of difficulties and oppositions. The rendering of the Eevised Version is to be preferred to that of the Authorized in the first of the three, for it is not faith in its theological sense to which the Apostle is here referring. St. Paul's thought is that the Christian life is to manifest itself in the faithful discharge of all duties and the honest handling of all things committed to it. Meekness even more distinctly contemplates a condition of things which is contrary to the Christian life, and points to a submissive- ness of spirit which does not lift itself up against opposition, but bends like a reed before the storm. St. Paul preached meekness and practised it ; but he could flash into strong opposition and with a resonant ring in his voice could say, " To whom we gave place by subjection. No ! not for an hour." The last member of the triad — temperance — points to the difficulties which the spiritual life is apt to meet with in the natural passions and desires, and insists upon the fact that conflict and rigid and habitual self- control are sure to be marks of that life.
^ The power of self-control is one of the great qualities that differentiate man from the lower animals. He is the only animal capable of a moral struggle or a moral conquest. Every step in the progress of the world has been a new " control " ; it has been escaping from the tyranny of a fact to the understanding and mastery of that fact. For ages man looked in terror at the lightning-flash ; to-day he has begun to understand it as electricity, a force he has mastered and made his slave. The million phases
* H. Varley, Henry Varley'e Life-Story, 288.
4o6 THE FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT
of electrical invention are but manifestations of our control over a great force. But the greatest of all "control" is self-control. Self-denial and self-control are the necessary postulates of all moral excellence. A man who will take the world easily will never take it grandly. To lie in the lap of luxury may be the highest enjoyment of which a feeble character is capable, but a strong man must have something difficult to do. Moreover, the happiness of the human race does not consist in our being devoid of passions, but in our learning to control them. It has been well said that in any discussion or disagreement with another, if you are in the wrong, you cannot afford to lose your temper ; and if you are in the right there is no occasion to. Or, as a lawyer has wittily put it, " Possession is nine parts of the law, self-possession is ten."^
^ Spenser sings the prowess of Sir Guion, and Holbein draws a picture of the Faithful Knight, who in every line of his figure, every muscle of his body, every detail of his mien and armour, bespeaks the man that is fit to rule others because he can rule himself. Self-control comes last in St. Paul's list, not because it is least, or lowest, but because it is the bond of all the rest. Many men attain a good measure of self-control by effort, and none can gain the grace without effort, strenuous and constant. But he who would master himself completely and maintain his control to the end finds that this " temperance " is a gift of the Spirit. "Thee o'er thyself I crown and mitre," said Virgil to Dante, but only when he had triumphantly passed the seven terraces of Purgatory. Man need not wait till then for such high coronation, but the only man who can conquer himself is he in whom the Divine Spirit exercises complete control and sway.'
These thoughts were mine — to dwell alone, My spirit on its lordly throne. Hating the vain stir, fierce and loud, The din of the tumultuous crowd; And how I thought to arm my soul. And stablish it in self-control; And said I would obey the right, And would be strong in wisdom's might. And bow unto my own heart's law. And keep my heart from speck or flaw, That in its mirror I might find A reflex of the Eternal mind.'
» John Stuart Blackie. ' W. T. Daviaon, TTie Indwelling Spirit, 116.