The Life Struggle

The world knows no victory to be compared with victory over our own passions. The struggle of life is between the flesh and spirit, and one or the other finally gains the ascendency. Every day and every hour of the Christian's life is this contest going on; and sad it is to think how often it is that victory is declared in favor of the earth, with its sinful passions. The Apostle Paul, after having labored long and earnestly in his Lord's service—after having done more for the spread of the truth than all the other apostles—still felt that he was a human being, and liable at any time, through the weakness of the flesh, to lose all. "I keep under my body," said he, "and bring it into subjection, lest, after I have preached the gospel unto others, I myself should be a castaway." If this watchfulness was needed on the part of this aged and long-tried servant of God, what care and diligence ought we to exercise, lest we should lose all in an unguarded hour! Our pathway through life is thickly set with snares for our feet. The seductions of passion, the allurements of vice—things to arouse our anger and stir up our heart's feelings—await us at every turn of life's devious ways, and blessed indeed is that man or that woman that meets them all without harm.