13.  Cherishing, amid the toils of gain, an abiding sense of the strength of the selfishness of the human heart, and the consequent dangers of acquisition, I will daily pray and strive for disinterested benevolence as the greatest good; also for direction as to the amount of sacrifices I ought to make; and then agreeably to my prayers, act according to the dictates of conscience uttered in the presence of God.

14.  I will frequently and at stated periods solemnly renew these or similar resolutions.

Now, if you refuse to make these solemn resolutions your own, can you assign any 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.