But this keeping under does not consist in many prayers, in long vigils,
and fasts, in severe chastenings of the body, in dwelling in a cloister or
being a hermit. Do not make this sad mistake. His yoke is easy and his
burden is light, yet the Christian life is one of self-denial. But his
love in our hearts makes it a delight. We are not to keep our bodies under
by prolonged fasts and beatings, but to keep in control the self-seeking
that is natural to the self-life of man. The pure in heart have organs of
sense, are capable of feeling the impressions made by external objects. It
is natural for the individual life of the sanctified to seek ease and
comfort. This is not the nature of the divine life in the soul, but is the
nature of the self-life of man.
Adam and Eve had this self-life in the purity of their creation; they had
organs of sense. It was to these that Satan made his appeals; to the
feelings in their self-life, not to the feelings in the divine life of
their soul. The will of sense--for such it might be called--overpowered
that higher will of the soul, and they yielded to the will of sense as
aroused by temptation.
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