er's exhortation,
'Be ye therefore of sound mind.'

The prospect of that end will sweep away many illusions as to the worth
of the enjoyments of sense, and be a bridle on many vagrant desires.
Self-control in all regions of our nature is implied in the word. Our
various faculties are meant to be governed by a sovereign will, which is
itself governed by the Divine will; and, if we see plain before us the
dawning of the day of the Lord, the vision will help to tame the
subordinate parts of ourselves, and to establish the supremacy of the
spirit over the flesh. One special form of that general self-control is
that already enjoined,--the suppression of the animal appetites,
especially the abstinence from intoxicants. That form of self-control is
especially meant by the second of these exhortations, 'Be sober.' How
could a man lift the wine cup to his lips, and drown his higher nature
in a flood of drunken riot, if the end, with its solemnities of
judgment, blazed before his inner eye? But this self-command is
inculcated that we may be fit to pray. These lower appetites will take
all desire for prayer and all earnestness in it out of us, and only
when we keep the wings of appetites close clipped will the pinions grow
by which we can mount up with wings as eagles. A praying drunkard is an
impossible monster.

But exhortations to self-control are not all. We have to think of
others, as well as of our own growth in purity and spirituality.
Therefore Peter casts one swift glance to the wider circle of the
brethren, which encompasses each of us, and gives the all-embracing
direction, which carries in itself everything. 'Fervent love' to our
fellow-Christians is the counterpoise to earnest government of
ourselves. There is a selfishness possible even in cultivating our
religion, as many a monk and recluse has shown. Such love as Peter here
enjoins will save us from the possible evils of self-regard, and it will
'cover the multitude of sins,'--by which is not meant that, having it,
we shall be excused if we in other respects sin, but that, having it, we
shall be more desirous of veiling than of exposing our brother's faults,
and shall be ready to forgive even when our brother offends against us
often. Perhaps Peter was remembering the lesson which he had once had
when he was told that 'seventy times seven' was not too great a
multitude of sins against brotherly love to be forgiven by it in one
day.

THE SLAVE'S GIRDLE