s soul, and
weaned it from the babe's nourishment which this world supplies.

I hope I have made it clear, by these instances, what is meant by
Christian self-denial. If we have good health, and are in easy
circumstances, let us beware of high-mindedness, self-sufficiency,
self-conceit, arrogance; of delicacy of living, indulgences, luxuries,
comforts. Nothing is so likely to corrupt our hearts, and to seduce us
from God, as to surround ourselves with comforts,--to have things our
own way,--to be the centre of a sort of world, whether of things
animate or inanimate, which minister to us. For then, in turn, we
shall depend on them; they will become necessary to us; their very
service and adulation will lead us to trust ourselves to them, and to
idolize them. What examples are there in Scripture of soft luxurious
men! Was it Abraham before the Law, who wandered through his days,
without a home? or Moses, who gave the Law, and died in the wilderness?
or David under the Law, who "had no proud looks," and was "as a weaned
child?" or the Prophets, in the latter days of the Law, who wandered in
sheep-skins and goat-skins? or the Baptist, when the Gospel was
superseding it, who was clad in raiment of camel's hair, and ate the
food of the wilderness? or the Apostles, who were "the offscouring of
all things"? or our blessed Saviour, who "had not a place to lay His
head"? Who are the soft luxurious men in Scripture? There was the
rich man, who "fared sumptuously every day," and then "lifted up his
eyes in hell, being in torments." There was that other, whose "ground
brought forth plentifully," and who said, "Soul, thou hast much goods
laid up for many years;" and his soul was required of him that night.
There was Demas, who forsook St. Paul, "having loved this present
world." And, alas! there was that highly-favoured, that
divinely-inspired king, rich and wise Solomon, whom it availed nothing
to have measured the earth, and numbered its inhabitants, when in his
old age he "loved many strange women," and worshipped their gods.

Far be it from us, soldiers of Christ, thus to perplex ourselves with
this world, who are making our way towards the world to come. "No man
that warreth, entangleth himself with the affairs of this life, that he
may please Him who hath chosen him to be a soldier. If a man also
strive for masteries, yet is he not crowned, except he strive
lawfully." This is St. Paul's rule, as has already been re