and Samuel, and Job, and JESUS, and his early people, in heaven, unless we follow their meek footsteps upon earth.

We must, above all, humble ourselves before God in prayer, asking for that Spirit to dwell in our hearts, one of whose fruits is meekness. none but he who is humble with God, has learned

For

Therefore it is, that he

to be lowly among men. chastens us to make us meek, if we will not learn to be so without it. Oh! let us anticipate the end of his discipline by lying low at his feet, as it becomes sinners to do, who have nothing to demand, though all to ask. The spirit of Christ is the spirit of meekness, which none but God can give; yet "if any man have not the spirit of Christ, he is none of his."

X.

TEMPERANCE.

To have a just acquaintance with an author's meaning, it is very necessary, especially if he wrote in another age or language, to ascertain the exact sense in which he used his terms. For a word often comes, for various reasons, to differ widely from its original signification, and by attaching our own idea to it, we make the author say something else, or more, or less, than he meant to say. This is particularly true of the word temperance, and it therefore requires a careful definition, that we may know what the apostle intends by the fruit of the Spirit which he calls by

this name.

The Greek term, by its etymology, is self-com

mand, or the governing of one's self. The earlier ethical writers among the Greeks (those of the school of Socrates) first determined its meaning to be, continence, or a proper moderation of our passions and appetites, but especially those for food and drink. Afterwards Aristotle (who exerted a greater influence over the opinions of the world than any other uninspired writer, ancient or modern,) distinguished carefully between continence and temperance, understanding, by continence, merely the denial of indulgence to any irregular desires or inclinations we may feel, and by temperance, the healthful regulation of our desires and appetites themselves, preventing their excess. The one, it is easy to see, may be the result of virtue or not; the other is a virtue itself. A thief, who abstains from intoxication merely that he may more securely commit crime; a prize-fighter, who denies himself indulgences while training for the ring; an invalid, who fears. the inroads of excess on his life; or one who re

frains only from a dread of worldly disgrace, can scarcely be called virtuous, though he may exert some self-command. It is in him one selfish principle overcoming another that is weaker. But the man who learns to control his desires themselves, and keep them within their proper limit, because he considers an undue inclination sinful, is truly virtuous, because sincerely temperate. The one is abstinence from the overt act, the other a purification of the heart. The one may tolerate an intemperate soul in a temperate body, the other rules the soul itself. The one might yield to temptation if it could be done with safety, the other maintains an unshaken firmness.

Socrates was accustomed to say that a man of true science would not be intemperate; and if he meant by true science, true virtue, which is not only the knowledge of what is right, but a hearty love for it, he spoke truth; but if he meant only knowledge, he erred, as daily experience and observation prove to us, for men are continually

doing what they know to be wrong, and often what they know to be hurtful. Medical men, of great skill in their profession, have become glut tons and drunkards; nay, have written learnedly upon gout, and surfeits, and delirium tremens, while qualifying themselves for those very disThe temperate man would not exceed, because he hates not merely the consequences, but the vice itself.

eases.

There are those again, who, by their constitution of body, seem to have no tendencies to criminal indulgence of this character, and, therefore, are not subject to temptations; yet, though this may in some respects be a happy nature, it can not be called virtue, for it belongs to the body, and not to the soul. Temperance is the restraining of propensities which, if unchecked, would become excessive. For every appetite, the excessive indulgence of which is criminal, was implanted by God in our natures, and the rule of it committed to the soul. Adam in his innocence had all the