598
SELF-CONTROL
SELF-DENIAL
that were discordant and unseemly, with a traitor lurking in the midst ; yet Christ never allowed the strain of His work, or tlie uncongeniality or impotence of the men who were nearest to Him, to divert His sympathy or to ruffle the settled quiet of His demeanour. Death itself, rendered inconceivably horrible by the concentration upon Him of every man's sin (He 2^), was anticipated without alarm, and undergone in all its shame witliout loss of personal dignity or any weakening of His loving resolution to save. He set His face steadfastly (Lk 9'^) in no sudden bracing of His will in the presence of an unexpected peril ; but the perfect self-control, which made it possible for llim to become incarnate, was maintained througli oil the incidents of the historical manifestation, and even on the cross itself. In the freedom of His contact with nature and man. His heart never more than momentarily failed, and His self-control in times of confusion and danger helped to make Him the most consunmiate Leader of sinful men, serene and strong, and always confident in God and in the issue.
(4) Beyond the action of Christ's own will, two further causes of His self-control may be dis- tinguished. The one was His personal trust in God the Father, and the other the influence of the Holy Spirit in response, (a) At the beginning of His career the part played both in His practice and in His inner life and thought by the recogni- tion of His father's claims upon Him, against the attractions that appeal to youth, and the depend- ence and clinging that earthly parents naturally desire, was indicated in His reply in the Temple (Lk 2*), and on later occasions (Jn A^ S^ob 6=» 14^^. A sense of security in the remembrance of the Fatlier's power and purpose is part of the secret of Christ's complete self-possession in the final crisis (Mt 26'''^). He entered upon His Agony with bitter forebodings, which, in solitude became almost unendurable (Lk 22**) ; absolute acceptance of the Father's will (Mk 14^®) enabled Him to press down any reluctance to die (He S'^-) — 'made perfect' Himself thereby, and fitted to be ' the author of eternal salvation.' So important was His con- sciousness of this relationsliip with the Father, that in it lay for Him the kernel and germ of all truth, and in its revelation to man the sum of all duty and pleasure, (h) The action of the Holy Spirit in sustaining the self-control of Jesus against appetites and evil appeals is conspicuous in the records of the Temptation (Mt 4^, Mk P-, Lk 4i), and referred to by each of the Synoptists (see Temptation). But it also appears elsewhere. From His childhood ' the grace of God was upon him ' (Lk 2*") ; and that communicated grace of tlie Spirit wrought in Him (Lk 2=2^ RVm) all that He as a man accomplished or became. The unction or illapse at His baptism was not temporary, but the Spirit permanently abode with Him (Jn P^') ; and if Ac 10^* refers primarily to invigoration for service, St. Luke elsewhere represents Jesus as 'full of the Holy Ghost' (4\ cf. Jn S^*), and as thereby prepared for personal testing and discipline as well as for His mission of mercy and redemiDtion. For Him, as for His disciples, the soul's thirst for unity and self-mastery is assuaged, and all needed resources are obtained, in the same way and from the same fountain (Jn 7^"^^).
2. Self-control on the part of man. — For man self-control assumes a double aspect, according as it is a rule of restraint or of activity. On the one hand, it keeps the indulgence of the natural appetites and impulses within the bounds of reason, grading and co-ordinating them all as elements of a coherent rational life. On the other, it con- centrates the energies, reversing any original tendency to diffusion, and integrating moral life
under the steady pressure of a master conviction and a master purpose. In other words, since Christianity is not an ideal or a theoretical ethic, but a practicable way of living, and since eacli man's difficulty does not arise from the impulses generallj^, but from the predominance of some single gi'oup of impulses, self-control as exhibited and required by Christ comes to mean the control of individual temjierament, the avoidance of the various evil excesses to which each man is prone, and possibly even the substitution of some form of good for some form of evil as an instinctive beset- ment. Symmetrical development of e<ach man's spirit may be said to be the object of the Gospels, which are far from silent either as to the method by wliich it is to be efiected, or as to tlie pains and satisfactions of the process.
Control of the senses and apiietites is to be carried, if necessarj% to the point of mutilation, for excess must be ])revented, whatever the pain or cost (Mt 5-9'- 18«f-, Mk Q*^-'^^) ; and not even relationsliips that are legitimate and pure must be allowed to interfere with the interests of the Kingdom of heaven (Mt 19'-, cf. 1 Co 7^-). Inclina- tions and impulses are to be distrusted, and the Christian should be their master and not their slave (Mt o^^s--", Lk G^sf-; cf. Ro 12"*). The need of integrating the life by giving supreme sway to some right and rightly conceived purpose at its centre is shown in the conversation with the young ruler (Mt 19-\ Mk 10-', Lk 18"), where the re- nunciation of wealth is a necessary preparation for all-absorbing devotion to Christ, the great test of disciplesliip (as in Jn 10"'' 12-"), as well as the secret of perfection. The same is the bearing of the sayings as to the ' single ' eye (Mt 6", Lk iP-"), the impossibility of serving God and mammon (Mt 6-'*, Lk 16'^)," the necessity of becoming 'as a little child' (Mk 10''), as well as the great law of Mt 6^^, the observance of which not only safeguards the spirit from the distressing influence of suspicion and fear, but especially keeps it a well-ordered unity, with quiet strength and readiness to act as its prominent qualities. If the control be threatened from without, it is recovered or retained by recog- nizing God's superior claims, and counting nothing so important in experience as His good pleasure (Mt 10-", Lk 12"-)- Against opposition and diffi- culty of every kind the rule is steadiness (Mt lO"'"^*- ^*"^"), neither purpose nor self-control being shaken, because of the unrivalled constraint of the love of Christ (-Alt 249, jn 1518-21 iqi. 20-22) c p^j. ,^^y ^^-^^ >