Self-Control and Fidelity
We have no right to overtax either the mental or the physical powers
so that we are easily excited and led to speak words which dishonor
God. The Lord desires us to be always calm and forbearing. Whatever
others may do, we are to represent Christ, doing as He would do under
similar circumstances.
Every day one in a position of trust has decisions to make on which
depend results of great importance. He has often to think rapidly,
and this can be done successfully only by those who practice strict
temperance. The mind strengthens under the correct treatment of the
physical and the mental powers. If the strain is not too great, it acquires
new vigor with every taxation.
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None but a wholehearted Christian can be a true gentleman.
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A neglect to conform in every particular to God’s requirements
means certain failure and loss to the wrongdoer. Failing to keep the
way of the Lord, he robs his Maker of the service that is His due.
This reacts upon himself; he fails of gaining that grace, that power,
that force of character, which it is the privilege of each to receive
who surrenders all to God. Living apart from Christ, he is exposed to
temptation. He makes mistakes in his work for the Master. Untrue to
principle in little things, he fails of doing God’s will in things greater.
He acts on the principles to which he has accustomed himself.
God cannot connect with those who live to please themselves, to
make themselves first. Those who do this will in the end be last of
all. The sin that is most nearly hopeless and incurable is pride of
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opinion, self-conceit. This stands in the way of all growth. When a
man has defects of character, yet fails of realizing this; when he is so
imbued with self-sufficiency that he cannot see his fault, how can he
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