SELF-DISCIPLINE. I. THE GOVERNMENT OF THE DESIRES. Delight thyself in the Lord, and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Ps. 37. 4. THE desires of the heart comprise all those varieties of emotion which connect the thoughts of the mind with the actions of the life. They are susceptible of numberless gradations of strength, from the incipient tendency, of which the mind is scarcely conscious, to the resistless impetuosity of passion. B Our passions themselves, even when excited to the utmost intensity, are only the desires of the heart, under another name; for "desires rise into passions whenever they are vivid, whenever they are permanent." It is, then, to a subject, by no means wanting in importance or interest, that I would now direct your attention: it is to that Government of the Desires which is essential to personal sanctity. Let me endeavour to place before you, both the Inducements by which we should be urged to the attempt, and the Principles by which that attempt should be regulated. Let our attention be given, FIRST, To the Inducements by which we should be effectually urged to aim at the due Government of our Desires. First, Consider how much of our mental existence is spent in giving exercise and indulgence to the desires of the heart. Consider how many of the thoughts and feelings of every day move on in the channel of wishes and hopes and expectations. And what are all these movements of the mind but certain modifications of desire? What is a I wish but a feeble and idle desirean indolent aspiration after something which we deem desirable, but which we have no reason to regard as actually attainable? And what is hope that balm of life-that medicine of the soul-but the encourage |