Chapter 45—Importance of Self-Control
Sister H,
I know but little of your life before you professed Christ; but since
that time you have not been a truly converted woman; you have not
rightly represented Christ, your Master. You accepted the theory of
the truth, but have failed to become sanctified through it. You have not
practiced self-control, but have gratified your desires and wishes at the
expense of health and religion. You are easily irritated, and, instead
of putting a strict guard upon your words and actions, you have given
loose rein to your passions. The mind is controlled either by Satan
or by Jesus; and when you practice no self-control, Satan rules and
leads you to do and say things that are wholly satanic. This has been
repeated so often that it has become habitual.
Since you have been living with your present husband you have
allowed yourself to become exasperated at very trivial matters; and at
such times you seem to have a frenzied passion, while Satan stands
by and laughs at the misery you are bringing upon yourself and those
whom it is your duty to make happy. Your children have had transmit-
ted to them your traits of character, and, besides this, they are daily
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copying your example of blind, unreasonable passion, impatience, and
fretfulness.
In the human heart there is natural selfishness and corruption,
which can only be overcome by most thorough discipline and severe
restraint; and even then it will require years of patient effort and earnest
resistance. God permits us to experience the ills of poverty, and places
us in difficult positions, that the defects in our characters may be
revealed and their asperities be smoothed away. But after privileges
and opportunities have been given of God, after light and truth have
been brought home to the understanding, if persons still make excuses
for their deformity of character, and continue in their selfishness and
jealousy, their hearts become as granite, making it impossible for them
to be reformed, except by the chisel, the hammer, and the polishing of
the Spirit of God.
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