y reason for such refusal, which you will be willing to utter
in self-justification when facing your Final Judge?

Whatever theories we may adopt concerning volition, or the governing
determinations of the mind, all will agree in the fact, that the
energies of the human soul, when aroused, may be strung like fibres of
steel, giving and adamantine firmness and indomitable force to the will.
We have seen this exemplified in the fortitude with which one sometimes
endures surgical operation; in the heated courage of the soldier,
rushing with the loud huzza into the very face of the engulphing
battery; in the cool, calculating resolution which carries the
unflinching column with steady tread into the very centre of bristling
squares. All this is but the strength of will when the energies of the
soul are stirred. Now one's resolution may and should become thus
iron-like in the war with his own covetousness. He should determine in
the strength of grace to break it down, however much it may cost. God
has given us this power of will, and to him we are responsible for its
proper exercise; ever remembering that it is strengthened by cultivation
of reiterated effort. The raw recruit cannot be trusted at the post of
danger like the veteran, who has repeatedly nerved up his spirit,
till by habit it has become as unyielding as a rock. The latter has
learnt to be brave. So we should learn to be soldiers in the war
with selfishness, by perseveringly girding our minds to the deadly
conflict.--Has depraved man such energy of will in spreading devastation
and death; and shall not Christians exhibit as great force of resolution
in diffusing the blessings of salvation? Who dare say, I cannot, or will
not, exercise it? Let us be mindful of our obligations. If our minds
may be wrought up to such invincible firmness and energy of resolution
to do evil; surely, God assisting, they may not only be inspired with a
lofty enthusiasm to resist the solicitations of selfishness, but also
roused to a sublimity of generous emotions, to engage, like a Mills or a
Howard, in disinterested and self-denying efforts for the good of
others.

III. We are now ready to take the last step in erecting a general
system of beneficence, viz.: the carrying into effect right principles
and well-directed resolutions. While, on the one hand, the intellectual
and emotional qualities of the mind give character and vitality to
action; on the other hand our conduc