Proverbs 16:32 - Homiletics

Self-control

The world has always made too much of military glory. From the days of the Pharaohs, when brutal monarchs boasted of the number of cities they had sacked, to our own time, when successful generals receive thanks in Parliament, and grants of money far beyond the highest honours and emoluments ever bestowed upon the greatest and most useful civilians, it has been the habit of men to flatter and pamper soldiers out of all proportion to their deserts. But we are here reminded of a simple and private victory which is really greater than one of those great military exploits that send a shock of amazement round the world. It is a more noble feat to be able to rule one's own spirit than to capture a city. Consider some of the ways in which this supreme excellence of self-control is apparent.

I. IT IS GREATER IN EFFORT . In ancient days, before the invention of heavy ordnance, a siege taxed all the energies of the most skillful and powerful general. This provincial city of Jerusalem was long able to hold out against the legions of florae. But self-control is even more difficult.

1 . The enemy is within. The war of the soul is a civil war. We may be successful in external life, and yet unable to cope with the inner foes of our own hearts.

2 . The enemy is turbulent. Some races are harder to rule than others; but no half-savage, wholly fanatical dervishes, could be more fierce than the wild passions that rage within a man's own breast.

3 . The enemy has acquired great power. The uprising of passion is not a veiled sedition; it is out-and-out rebellion. Long habit has given it a sort of vested interest in the privileges of its lawlessness.

4 . The enemy is subtle. "The heart is deceitful above all things." It is plotting treason when all looks safe. The careless soul slumbers over a mine of dynamite in the region of its own passions. It needs a supreme effort to quell and curb and rule such a foe.

II. IT IS GREATER IN RESULTS . At first sight this preposition must appear absurd. The man who curbs his own spirit does something inward, private, secret. The man who takes a city makes his mark on history. How can the self-control be the more fruitful thing?

1 . It means more to the individual man. The successful, general has won a name of glory. Yet at its best it is but superficial and empty. He may be despising himself while the world is shouting his praises. But the strong soul that has learnt to control itself has the inward satisfaction of its self-mastery.

2 . It means more to the world. Weak men may win a temporary success, but in the long run their inner feebleness is certain to expose itself. Such men may take a city, but they cannot rule it. They may do startling things, but not really great things, and the mischief of their follies will be more disastrous than the gain of their successes.

III. IT IS GREATER IN CHARACTER . True greatness is not to be measured by achievements, which depend largely upon external circumstances. One man has an opportunity of doing something striking, and another is denied every chance. Yet the obscure person may be really far greater than the fortunate instrument of victory. True greatness is in the soul. He is great who lives a great soul life, while a Napoleon may be mean in spite of his brilliant powers and achievements. In the sight of Heaven he stands highest who best fights the enemies in his own breast, because he exercises the highest soul powers. It is the province of Christian grace to substitute the glory of self victory for the vulgar glare of military success.