^ There are times when we have by effort to control ourselves ; " Watch and pray," says Christ, " that ye enter not into tempta- tion : the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." It is dangerous for even the saintliest man to relax his guard over himself ; as the example of David warns us. There is sometimes a rapid and terrible reaction from spiritual excitement to sensual excess. Hours of temptation await the hero ; in weariness and unguardedness the princely Elijah was fretful and ungenerous. There is another temptation, too, of which St. Paul tells us something ; the temptation to abandon the toilsome endeavour of the Christian calling, allured to voluptuous ease. Only the habit of plying himself with lofty motive secured even St. Paul against this danger. " If after the manner of men I have fought with beasts at Ephesus, what advantageth it me, if the dead rise not ? let us eat and drink ; for to-morrow we die." ^
2. It must be said that nothing could have been further from St. Peter's mind than the idea of self-control in a merely bodily sense. To give it this interpretation would be to give too narrow and impoverished a range to the Apostle's thoughts. He has long ago in his thinking left this stage behind. We must look for a
^ J. Mcllveen, Christ and the Christian Life, 93.
* A. Mackennal, The Life of Christian Consecra'.ion, 58.
174 THE UNFOLDING OF CHARACTER
larger and deeper meaning in his words. Otherwise we must believe the train of his reasoning to have suddenly reversed its gear and run back to its starting-point, an assumption which is hardly to be entertained. If we look back for a moment at the sweep of his thought, we shall see that those to whom he wrote this Epistle had evolved past the stage of ordinary self-control. The fact is, that the whole passage is related to service, and keyed to the note of diligence. It is not a question of controllinri; the forces of the old life, but those of a new.
^ When Franklin discovered electricity, he introduced a new force into human history. But this new force, with all its tremendous possibilities, required to be understood before it could be safely handled. The laws of its conduction, induction, and insulation had to be ascertained, if it were to be successfully yoked to the service of man, and applied to the work of the world. So with spiritual power. Faith becomes the conductor, through which a new force passes into our lives. We have to study its laws and the conditions of its working, because we are responsible for its legitimate use. It becomes a stewardship for which we are made personally accountable. St. Peter saw the temptations to which its trustees would be exposed when faced by the awful problems of evil, and the wrongs that oppress mankind. The temptation is often strong to the social reformer to let himself go, to fling himself against the moral abuses of his time, and by unwise word and deed retard instead of hastening the Kingdom of God. Instances of misdirected zeal on the part of those whose purity of intention cannot be questioned might unfortunately be multiplied from the annals of the Christian Church. Numerous examples could be quoted to prove that even moral power, unless controlled, may work immoral ends. Elijah, John the Baptist, the Apostles James and John, and even Christ Himself, had to face this peril. The first-named had let himself go at Carmel in the slaughter of the priests of Baal ; and the lesson of Horeb was intended to show, that not by the forces of wind and earthquake and fire, but by the still small voice of love, were men to be won back to loyalty. The human heart is to be subdued into allegiance, not by storm of passion and invective, but by a tenderness that never grows peevish, by a self-governing devotion that will suffer and even die that it may save.^
^ When some one speaks a hard word to you, or writes some abominable thing about you in a newspaper, what do you do ?
* H. Howard, 2'he Svmmlfs of the Soul, 27. f
i PETER I. 5-7 175
Let me tell you one thing. When I was a young man at the University I learned boxing from a very skilled prize-fighter. Of course, at first he could do what he liked with me with his fists, and I remember when I got a very hard blow just in the middle of my face I hit out savagely. He put down his hands, took me aside, and taught me what I have never forgotten. He said, " Mr. Wilberforce, whenever you get a blow, don't hit out wildly, but take a step back, and just keep your hands up, and ask yourself 'What was I doing wrong, and why did I get that blow ? ' " Will you apply that lesson to life ? I have taught it over and over again to young men, and more than one has learned to thank me for it.^
If Christ came questioning the soul of me, (If Christ came questioning,) I could but answer, " Lord, my little part Has been to beat the metal of my heart. Into the shape I thought most fit for Thee; And at Thy feet, to cast the offering; Shouldst Thou come questioning.