strength continually to the moral nature. The ascetic may have a hard
struggle at the outset; but his aim is to extirpate his imagined enemies
in the bodily affections, and when these are completely mortified, or put
to death, there remains no more for him to do, and moral idleness and
lethargy ensue. Simon Stylites, who spent thirty-seven years on pillars of
different heights, had probably stupefied his moral faculties and
sensibilities as effectually as he had crushed to death the appetites and
cravings of the body. It must not be forgotten that the body no less than
the soul is of God's building, and that in his purpose all the powers and
capacities of the body are good in their place and uses, and therefore to
be controlled and governed, not destroyed or suppressed. The mediaeval
saint, feeding on the offal of the streets, was unwittingly committing
sacrilege, by degrading and imbruting an appetite for which God had
provided decent and wholesome nutriment.

Temperance is better than abstinence, also, because *the moderate use of
the objects of desire is a source of refining and elevating influences*.
It is not without meaning that, in common speech, the possession or loss
of the senses is made synonymous with mental sanity or derangement. By the
temperate gratification of the senses the mind is sustained in its
freshness, vigor, and serenity; while when they are perverted by excess,
impaired by age, or deadened by disease, in that same proportion the
mental powers are distracted, enfeebled, or benumbed. Taste, the faculty
through which we become conversant with the whole realm of beauty, and
than which devotion has no more efficient auxiliary, derives its name from
what the ascetic deems the lowest animal enjoyment, which, however, has
its range of the very highest ministries. The table is the altar of
home-love and of hospitality, and there are clustered around it unnumbered
courtesies, kindnesses, and charities that make a large part of the charm
and joy of life. So far is thoughtfulness for its graceful and generous
service from indicating a low type of character, that there is hardly any
surer index of refinement and elegant culture than is furnished by the
family meal. Similar remarks apply to the entire range of pleasurable
objects and experiences. While there are none of them in which excess is
safe, they all, when enjoyed in moderation, stimulate the mental powers,
develop and train the aesthetic faculty, and