We are concerned, as to our natural life, with two classes of things, good and evil, aids and hindrances. The passions, or the emotions of our endowment, are designed to deal with these. The first division of them embraces the emotions of desire, ardour, hope, striving, love, audacity, enjoyment, which regard such things as are beneficial to our life. These passions are good things in themselves, as conducing to the continuance of divine operation in this world, by aiding us to gain such necessaries as health, food, rest, recreation, posterity, accumulation for future needs, activity, knowledge, etc. These things afford a double exercise for our faculties; first they provide for the satisfaction of our legitimate desires; secondly, they furnish the occasion of establishing the mastery of the spirit over sense-impulses, and opportunities for struggle and reward. Our Lord shows us this double use. At one time He sat down to the banquets of the rich; again he made His repasts examples of frugality, and yet again He practised mortification by refusing food at unfitting times. For the most part, however, He deprived Himself of the delights of sense, and showed that moderation and even privation are better than abundance and indulgence. The activity of His desires was transferred to the spiritual food of doing His Father's will. In like manner transform the natural energies and desires of your character into supernatural qualities, by mortifying them or directing them to spiritual objects. Continue Reading.
