hat is it to love the world? What is it to keep the body
in subjection? What are harmful indulgences? To give wrong answers to
these questions is to set up a false ideal; the more strenuously such
false ideal is followed, the more disastrous are the consequences. One's
struggle for moral purity may end in failure, and one's efficiency for
good may be seriously impaired by a perversion of the principle of
self-abnegation. Unnatural severity and excessive abstinence often
produce the opposite effect from that intended. Instead of a peaceful
mind there is delirium, and instead of freedom from temptation there are
a thousand horrible fiends hovering in the air and ready, at any moment,
to pounce upon their prey. "The history of ascetics," says Martensen,
"teaches us that by such overdone fasting the fancy is often excited to
an amazing degree, and in its airy domain affords the very things that
one thought to have buried, by means of mortification, a magical
resurrection." In attempting to subdue the body, many necessary
requirements of the physical organism were totally ignored. The body
rebelled against such unnatural treatment, and the mind, so closely
related to it, in its distraction, gave birth to the wildest fancies.
Men, who would have possessed an ordinarily pure mind in some useful
occupation of life, became the prey of the most lewd and obnoxious
imaginations. Then they fancied themselves vile above their fellows, and
laid on more stripes, put more thorns upon their pillows, and fasted
more hours, only to find that instead of fleeing, the devils became
blacker and more numerous.

Self-forgetfulness is the key to happiness. The monk thought otherwise,
and slew himself in his vain attempt to fight against nature. He never
lifted his eyes from his own soul. He was always feeling his spiritual
pulse, staring at his lean spiritual visage, and tearfully watching his
growth in grace. An interest in others and a strong mind in a strong
body are the best antidotes to religious despair and the temptations of
the soul. Life in the monastery was generally less severe than in the
desert's solitude. There was more and better food, shelter, and comfort,
but there were many unnecessary and unnatural restrictions, even in the
best days of monasticism. There were too many hours of prayer, too many
needless regulations for silence, fasting and penance, to produce a
healthy, vigorous type of religious life.

_The Effects of Sol