28.4.16

Self-Discipline

"Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath:" Ephesians 4:26

"He that is slow to anger is better than the mighty; and he that ruleth his spirit than he that taketh a city." He has conquered self,--the strongest foe man has to meet. The highest evidence of nobility in a Christian is self-control. He who can stand unmoved amid a storm of abuse is one of God's heroes.

To rule the spirit is to keep self under discipline; to resist evil; to regulate every word and deed by God's great standard of righteousness. He who has learned to rule his spirit will rise above the slights, the rebuffs, the annoyances, to which we are daily exposed, and these will cease to cast a gloom over his spirit.

It is God's purpose that the kingly power of sanctified reason, controlled by divine grace, shall bear sway in the lives of human beings. He who rules his spirit is in possession of this power.