This system of avoidance is of the more importance, because every time your ill-temper acquires the mastery over you, its strength is tenfold increased for the next conflict, at the same time that your hopes of the power of resistance, afforded either by your own will or by the assisting grace of God, are of course weakened.  You find, at each fall before the power of sin, a greater difficulty in exercising faith in either human or divine means of improvement.  You do not, indeed, doubt the power of God, but a disbelief steals over you which has equally fatal tendencies.  You allow yourself to indulge vague doubts of his willingness to help you, or a suspicion insinuates itself that the God whom you so anxiously try to please would not allow you to fall so constantly into error, if this error were of a very heinous nature.  You should be careful to shun any course of conduct possibly suggestive of such dangerous doubts.  You should seek to establish in your mind the habitual conviction that, victory being placed by God within your reach, you must conquer or perish!  None but those who by obedience prove themselves children of God, shall inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world.[32]

I have spoken of the vigilance and self-control required for the avoidance of every discussion on exciting subjects; but this difficulty is small indeed when compared with those unexpected assaults on the temper which we are exposed to at every hour of the day.  It is to meet these with Christian heroism that the constant exertion of all our inherent and imparted powers is perpetually required.  Every device that ingenuity can suggest, every practice that others have by experience found successful, is at least worth the trial.  One plan of resistance suits one turn of mind; an entirely opposite one proves more useful for another.  To you I should more especially recommend the habitual consideration that every trial of temper throughout the day is an opportunity for conflict and for victory.  Think, then, of every such trial as an occasion of triumphing over your animal nature, and of increasing the dominion of your rational will over the opposing temptations of “the world, the flesh, and the devil.”  Consider each vexatious annoyance as coming, through human instruments, from the hand of God himself, and as an opportunity offered by his love and his wisdom for strengthening your character and bringing your will into closer conformity with his.  You should cultivate the general habit of considering every trial in this peculiar point of view; thinking over the subject in your quiet hours especially, that you may thus have your spirit prepared for moments of unexpected excitement.