own heart. This, indeed, is of the very essence of virtue; and in a high sense there is nothing better in the world than a well-balanced mind,-a truly well-balanced mind,-not under the government of hard and severe intellect alone, but in which understanding is warmed by affection, and intelligence softened by kindliness; nor yet, on the other hand, the subject of mere emotion and impulse, but in which impulse is directed by reason, and emotion guided by thought; the whole together, emotion and reason, intellect and feeling, understanding and desire, the executive faculties, so to speak, and ́the legislative faculties in the kingdom of the soul, being pervaded with the spirit of loyalty to our Divine Sovereign, and striving in harmony to accomplish His will and promote His glory.

In thus saying that the appetites, and affections, and propensities, and passions, which God has put in our hearts, are not in themselves sinful, but only their inordinate and inharmonious exercise,-and that therefore our duty is, not to dehumanise ourselves by killing, or seeking to kill, them out of us altogether, but rather to keep them in proper restraint,—I may have appeared to some, on the first glance, to have been propounding an easy and lax view of Christian obligation, not consistent with what we read in so

many places of the Scripture about the difficulty of the Christian life. But I should imagine it is only on the first glance that any one can entertain such an idea. For in real truth, and as every day's experience shews, there is nothing more hard than to direct and moderate our own inclinations and tendencies. There is nothing to which the Scripture figure of a warfare more accurately applies, than to the continual contest with ourselves which is necessary towards this end. Than the government of our own hearts, there is no dominion which is more the result of conquest.

In many cases it is much easier to abstain from a thing altogether than to use it moderately. For instance, if one has contracted the habit of indulging to excess in strong drink, the easiest thing for him is to abstain altogether. This is the easiest thing for him, and the thing he ought to do. You may say it is higher and nobler to resist a temptation than to flee from it. Very true; but this applies only when temptation meets us in the way of duty. In the case now instanced, no duty calls into temptation's way, and, as flight is easiest, therefore it is best. But one cannot avoid many sorts of temptations as one might avoid this. We cannot abstain, for example, from

working at our work that we and our dependents may be provided for; and yet this working at our work in the world may come to engross us so wholly, that we shall forget another world of far greater importance. We cannot, in this case, have the cure of abstinence; we can only have the cure of self-government. We cannot abstain from mingling in the society of our fellow-creatures; and yet in doing so our temper will be tried, our charity will be tried, our brotherly love will be tried in a thousand ways; we cannot shut ourselves up from seeing things which may rightly excite indignation, but may wrongly give rise to personal ill-will;-in instances like these there is no safeguard possible but the safeguard of self-restraint. knowledge of ourselves is sufficient to shew how extremely difficult this self-restraint is; and on looking into our own hearts, I am sure we shall not at any rate continue to think, that, in assigning to it the great importance I have done in the foregoing observations, I have given too easy a description of human duty.

A very little

I have said little or nothing in the course of these remarks as to what are called (quite properly) the peculiar doctrines of the gospel. Nor shall I enter on that subject now. Only let it be observed

that it is precisely such views as have been stated that give meaning to the gospel, and tend to bring it home as really glad tidings of great joy. Just as we feel how great a thing it is to possess supremacy within our own breasts, and how hard a warfare is required in order to obtain it, do we also come to perceive, with realising vividness, how truly and urgently we stand in need of a Captain of our Salvation to fight for us, and how, in order to be masters of ourselves, we must call in the aid of One above ourselves; so that, therefore, there is a real and unspeakable blessing in the good news of God that we have such a Captain in Christ, and that He will give His Spirit to them that ask Him.

XII.

FIRMNESS.

JOHN xix. 22-"Pilate answered, What I have written, I have written."

WHEN our Lord was crucified there was a superscription put over the cross by order of Pilate,—

"Jesus of Nazareth, the priests did not like this. and applied to Pilate to

King of the Jews." The
They wished it changed,
have it changed. They
He was the King of the

wished it to run, not that
Jews, but that He said He was. A poor case they
must have felt they had had against Him, when they
could not bear Him to be called their King, even
though the cross proclaimed it such terrible irony.
One would think, however, upon the whole, that the
change was hardly worth either their asking or
Pilate's refusing.

But he did refuse. He answered and said, "What I have written, I have written." This was his answer, and, probably enough, he felt a glow of satisfaction when he had given it.

He may very