Lesson 12: Self Control
By G.R. Balleine
[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]
LESSON FOR FIRST SUNDAY IN. LENT.
PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. Luke iv. 1-13.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT: “Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things " (1 Cor. ix. 25).
HYMNS : " Forty days and forty nights," and " We are soldiers of Christ." COLLECTS for First Sunday in Lent and St. James.
AIM : To lead to the resolve : " We will master the flesh and its longing restrain ; we will not be the bond slaves of sin."
I. WHAT IS SELF-CONTROL ?
(a) During Lent we are going to talk about Self-control. Let us first ask what it is. We see a bicycle dashing downhill. Its brake has broken. It is out of control. It seems as though the rider must be killed. But here comes another bicycle in pursuit. The second rider overtakes the first : he bends over and grasps him firmly by the waist ; then he gradually puts on his brakes. His own bicycle is under perfect control. Both slow down. A disaster is avoided. Why was one man nearly killed, while the other was perfectly safe himself, and able to save his friend ? Because one had his bicycle under control, the other out of control.
(b) Boys always admire one who has control over men or things—an engine-driver, a sea captain, a lion-tamer, a leader. They think nothing of a general who cannot control his men, an engine-driver who loses control of his engine, a lion-tamer who cannot master his beasts. Yet they forget that one of the most important things to control is Self. Can we say like Henley :
" I am the master of my fate :
I am the captain of my soul."
(a) Another word for this virtue of self-control is Temperance. The Catechism says, " My duty is to keep my body in Temperance." Let all repeat Text. Refer with older children to the history of the word. Think of a sword. When first formed it was soft. If bent, it would not spring back. You could twist it into any shape. Then it was made red-hot and plunged into water. That made it hard, but brittle. It would easily snap. Again it was heated, till it turned white ; again it was thrust into water. Then it became elastic. It could bend without breaking. It would spring back like a thing alive. This process is called tempering. It was now called a well-tempered or finely-tempered blade.
(d) Then by a kind of little parable the word was applied to human beings. We speak of people who have " lost their temper " or are " bad-tempered." We mean that they are like a blade that snaps under a strain. To-day we use bad-tempered of a person who cannot control his anger, and intemperate of a person who cannot control his desire for drink. But Temperance means every kind of self-control, the cultivation of a character like a well-tempered blade, with nothing weak, nothing flabby, nothing brittle about it.
II WHAT HAS TO BE CONTROLLED ?
(a) There is a great deal in our nature that needs to be controlled. On one side of our nature we are part of the animal kingdom. We are related to the tiger and the fox and the pig. The Bible speaks of some who still bear " the mark of the beast " (Rev. xiv. 9). If we let the tiger instincts or the fox instincts or the pig instincts get out of control, we shall soon sink back to the level of animals.
(b) Again, we have all of us descended from savages. We have not got to look very far back in our family history to find an ancestor who wore no clothes, and lived in a cave, and went out hunting with a stone axe. From that wild barbarous old fellow we have inherited instincts, which must be controlled, or they will drag us back to his level.
(c) Self-control is necessary for success in any department of life. Capa was a dark-haired bearded man who lived in Corsica. One day a stranger came to him, saying, " I want to know whether you will take me into partnership with you ? " " Do you drink ? " " Yes. I have my flask with me. Will you taste my wine ? " " Do you smoke ? " " Certainly. Let me offer you a cigar." " Do you like comfort ? " " Of course I do. It is in order to grow rich quickly that I want to be your partner." " That can never be. Those in my trade must be very temperate. They must bear hunger and thirst. They must lie all night on the ground. They must walk many miles without a pause for rest." What do you think was Capa's trade ? He was a brigand. In order that he might be fit and alert for his bad work of robbing and killing, he was strictly temperate. He knew that a slack, pleasure-loving man would be no use as a robber.
(d) St. Paul draws an illustration from the athlete's training. Repeat Text again. The young Greek runner for ten months before the race came off lived on a strict vegetarian diet of figs, porridge, meal-cakes and cheese. He rose early every day to run in soft sand. He spent hours in long, dull, complicated physical exercises. " Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown (a wreath of pine leaves), but we' an incorruptible."
(e) We must control our appetites. We need food and drink, but many people are slaves to them. Jesus began His ministry by a forty days' fast in the Wilderness. Read Passage. He taught His body to do without things before He began His work. The worth of Gideon's soldiers was tested by a simple test of this kind. He was marching to try to drive out the Midianites who had invaded the land. His men were thirsty, and he led them through a brook. Some stooped, as they marched, and gathered water in their hands, and drank. Others broke ranks, and knelt down, and drank their fill. All who broke ranks in the neighbourhood of the enemy in order to quench their thirst were sent home in disgrace. A good soldier must have his appetites under control.
(f) We must control our nerves. The next part of Gideon's story shows that. He had only three hundred men left. With these he surrounded the enemy's camp by night. He gave each a trumpet and a lamp hidden in a pitcher. When he gave the signal, every one blew his trumpet, smashed his pitcher, and flashed his lamp. The unexpected noise and lights so startled the Midianites that they lost their heads, and began to kill one another in the darkness, and before long the whole host was flying in wild panic from three hundred men. If there is a fire in a picture palace, those who rush for the door get trampled to death ; those who keep their heads escape without difficulty.
(g) We must control our thoughts. Hence the importance of the tenth commandment. All actions begin as thoughts. Remember the motto of the Knights of the Garter : " Honi soit qui mal y pense "—" Cursed is he who evil thinks." To think bad thoughts brings a curse on our whole life. Refer again to our Lord's temptation. He " was in all points tempted like as we are " (Heb. iv. 15) ; therefore there was no visible Devil. He only knew that Satan was near, because He found bad thoughts stealing into His brain ; but in every case He drove them out by thinking hard of some beautiful thought out of the Old Testament. He remained master of His own mind. He would not let any thoughts linger there, except those that He wished to think.
III. WHO IS TO BE CONTROLLER ?
(a) But who is to keep all these unruly impulses in order ? This is the work of our Will. You know that you have within you something which is able to say firmly, " I will do this." Where there's a will, there's a way. The will must hold the reins firmly.
(b) Self-control can be developed in exactly the same manner as we tone up a weak muscle—by little exercises every day. Lot the will force the rest of the body to do regularly some little thing that it is not anxious to do : for example, to jump out of bed at the moment of waking ; to refuse the second slice of cake ; to do without sugar in tea ; and it will steadily strengthen its control, and win the mastery. This is one reason why the Church encourages acts of Lenten self-denial. We have all heard of the Scout's rule to do one good turn every day, Charles Kingsley's rule was even better : " Force yourself to do every day something that you find really difficult."
(c) But, if we close our lesson at this point, we shall be heretics, like the Pelagians who are denounced in the Thirty-Nine Articles. Pelagius was a pious British monk, who visited Rome, and was shocked at the careless lives of the Italian Christians and their easy excuse that fallen nature could not do any better. He told them that they could do a great deal better ; that any man could be good, if he would only make up his mind to try ; that it was simply a matter of using our will-power. But when the great teacher Augustine heard this, he was sincerely shocked. He knew that it was not true. He himself had tried hard to be good, and failed again and again. Only when God's grace had been given had he succeeded. And the Church decided that he was right and Pelagius was wrong. Our wills are too weak to control our impulses without help from above. But God is always eager to help those who ask Him ; and with His help we can become " more than conquerors."
By G.R. Balleine
[Warning: Balleine was writing in the 1920s and 1930s, and his views and language reflect many at that time. However, as a time capsule of the prevailing beliefs, this can be very useful for the historians of that period.]
LESSON FOR FIRST SUNDAY IN. LENT.
PASSAGE TO BE READ : St. Luke iv. 1-13.
TEXT TO BE LEARNT: “Every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things " (1 Cor. ix. 25).
HYMNS : " Forty days and forty nights," and " We are soldiers of Christ." COLLECTS for First Sunday in Lent and St. James.
AIM : To lead to the resolve : " We will master the flesh and its longing restrain ; we will not be the bond slaves of sin."
I. WHAT IS SELF-CONTROL ?
(a) During Lent we are going to talk about Self-control. Let us first ask what it is. We see a bicycle dashing downhill. Its brake has broken. It is out of control. It seems as though the rider must be killed. But here comes another bicycle in pursuit. The second rider overtakes the first : he bends over and grasps him firmly by the waist ; then he gradually puts on his brakes. His own bicycle is under perfect control. Both slow down. A disaster is avoided. Why was one man nearly killed, while the other was perfectly safe himself, and able to save his friend ? Because one had his bicycle under control, the other out of control.
(b) Boys always admire one who has control over men or things—an engine-driver, a sea captain, a lion-tamer, a leader. They think nothing of a general who cannot control his men, an engine-driver who loses control of his engine, a lion-tamer who cannot master his beasts. Yet they forget that one of the most important things to control is Self. Can we say like Henley :
" I am the master of my fate :
I am the captain of my soul."
(a) Another word for this virtue of self-control is Temperance. The Catechism says, " My duty is to keep my body in Temperance." Let all repeat Text. Refer with older children to the history of the word. Think of a sword. When first formed it was soft. If bent, it would not spring back. You could twist it into any shape. Then it was made red-hot and plunged into water. That made it hard, but brittle. It would easily snap. Again it was heated, till it turned white ; again it was thrust into water. Then it became elastic. It could bend without breaking. It would spring back like a thing alive. This process is called tempering. It was now called a well-tempered or finely-tempered blade.
(d) Then by a kind of little parable the word was applied to human beings. We speak of people who have " lost their temper " or are " bad-tempered." We mean that they are like a blade that snaps under a strain. To-day we use bad-tempered of a person who cannot control his anger, and intemperate of a person who cannot control his desire for drink. But Temperance means every kind of self-control, the cultivation of a character like a well-tempered blade, with nothing weak, nothing flabby, nothing brittle about it.
II WHAT HAS TO BE CONTROLLED ?
(a) There is a great deal in our nature that needs to be controlled. On one side of our nature we are part of the animal kingdom. We are related to the tiger and the fox and the pig. The Bible speaks of some who still bear " the mark of the beast " (Rev. xiv. 9). If we let the tiger instincts or the fox instincts or the pig instincts get out of control, we shall soon sink back to the level of animals.
(b) Again, we have all of us descended from savages. We have not got to look very far back in our family history to find an ancestor who wore no clothes, and lived in a cave, and went out hunting with a stone axe. From that wild barbarous old fellow we have inherited instincts, which must be controlled, or they will drag us back to his level.
(c) Self-control is necessary for success in any department of life. Capa was a dark-haired bearded man who lived in Corsica. One day a stranger came to him, saying, " I want to know whether you will take me into partnership with you ? " " Do you drink ? " " Yes. I have my flask with me. Will you taste my wine ? " " Do you smoke ? " " Certainly. Let me offer you a cigar." " Do you like comfort ? " " Of course I do. It is in order to grow rich quickly that I want to be your partner." " That can never be. Those in my trade must be very temperate. They must bear hunger and thirst. They must lie all night on the ground. They must walk many miles without a pause for rest." What do you think was Capa's trade ? He was a brigand. In order that he might be fit and alert for his bad work of robbing and killing, he was strictly temperate. He knew that a slack, pleasure-loving man would be no use as a robber.
(d) St. Paul draws an illustration from the athlete's training. Repeat Text again. The young Greek runner for ten months before the race came off lived on a strict vegetarian diet of figs, porridge, meal-cakes and cheese. He rose early every day to run in soft sand. He spent hours in long, dull, complicated physical exercises. " Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown (a wreath of pine leaves), but we' an incorruptible."
(e) We must control our appetites. We need food and drink, but many people are slaves to them. Jesus began His ministry by a forty days' fast in the Wilderness. Read Passage. He taught His body to do without things before He began His work. The worth of Gideon's soldiers was tested by a simple test of this kind. He was marching to try to drive out the Midianites who had invaded the land. His men were thirsty, and he led them through a brook. Some stooped, as they marched, and gathered water in their hands, and drank. Others broke ranks, and knelt down, and drank their fill. All who broke ranks in the neighbourhood of the enemy in order to quench their thirst were sent home in disgrace. A good soldier must have his appetites under control.
(f) We must control our nerves. The next part of Gideon's story shows that. He had only three hundred men left. With these he surrounded the enemy's camp by night. He gave each a trumpet and a lamp hidden in a pitcher. When he gave the signal, every one blew his trumpet, smashed his pitcher, and flashed his lamp. The unexpected noise and lights so startled the Midianites that they lost their heads, and began to kill one another in the darkness, and before long the whole host was flying in wild panic from three hundred men. If there is a fire in a picture palace, those who rush for the door get trampled to death ; those who keep their heads escape without difficulty.
(g) We must control our thoughts. Hence the importance of the tenth commandment. All actions begin as thoughts. Remember the motto of the Knights of the Garter : " Honi soit qui mal y pense "—" Cursed is he who evil thinks." To think bad thoughts brings a curse on our whole life. Refer again to our Lord's temptation. He " was in all points tempted like as we are " (Heb. iv. 15) ; therefore there was no visible Devil. He only knew that Satan was near, because He found bad thoughts stealing into His brain ; but in every case He drove them out by thinking hard of some beautiful thought out of the Old Testament. He remained master of His own mind. He would not let any thoughts linger there, except those that He wished to think.
III. WHO IS TO BE CONTROLLER ?
(a) But who is to keep all these unruly impulses in order ? This is the work of our Will. You know that you have within you something which is able to say firmly, " I will do this." Where there's a will, there's a way. The will must hold the reins firmly.
(b) Self-control can be developed in exactly the same manner as we tone up a weak muscle—by little exercises every day. Lot the will force the rest of the body to do regularly some little thing that it is not anxious to do : for example, to jump out of bed at the moment of waking ; to refuse the second slice of cake ; to do without sugar in tea ; and it will steadily strengthen its control, and win the mastery. This is one reason why the Church encourages acts of Lenten self-denial. We have all heard of the Scout's rule to do one good turn every day, Charles Kingsley's rule was even better : " Force yourself to do every day something that you find really difficult."
(c) But, if we close our lesson at this point, we shall be heretics, like the Pelagians who are denounced in the Thirty-Nine Articles. Pelagius was a pious British monk, who visited Rome, and was shocked at the careless lives of the Italian Christians and their easy excuse that fallen nature could not do any better. He told them that they could do a great deal better ; that any man could be good, if he would only make up his mind to try ; that it was simply a matter of using our will-power. But when the great teacher Augustine heard this, he was sincerely shocked. He knew that it was not true. He himself had tried hard to be good, and failed again and again. Only when God's grace had been given had he succeeded. And the Church decided that he was right and Pelagius was wrong. Our wills are too weak to control our impulses without help from above. But God is always eager to help those who ask Him ; and with His help we can become " more than conquerors."
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment