SELF-DENIAL (1)
SELF-DENIAL (1)
If we want to advance in the knowledge of God’s counsels, we must deny ourselves. The object of Daniel and his fellows in refusing the king’s meat was not directly to attain to God’s counsel, but to keep themselves undefiled; and this in obedience to His law, which ran counter to the gratification of their nature; and the result of this self-denial was that God gave [p. 255] them knowledge, and skill, and wisdom. Moreover, instead of losing by it, they gained, even in the line in which this self-denial was imposed. They were fatter and fairer than all who ate of the king’s meat. This is gaining a hundredfold more in this present time. If I deny the gratification of my nature on account of defilement, I not only have spiritual gain, but the very thing which such gratification would naturally have secured for me, I gain in a better and a higher way. Suppose it be the lust of the mind; naturally speaking this or that study might enrich it; but if such study be defiling, and I relinquish it, my mind will never be barren for the relinquishment, but the reverse; pulse and water will prove a greater gain to me than king’s meat. King’s meat might be any gratification of self; pulse and water, lawful sustainment, just what I need and no more. God does not want to deprive me of what I really need; but as soon as ever it degenerates into self-gratification, it is defiling. Gideon’s three hundred might drink of the water, but they must not go down on their knees to it. Teetotalism goes on a very different principle, and puts a veto on all; it is self-control and not self-denial. Self-control keeps the lust under for a moment, and when set free, returns to it again, perhaps with renewed zest. Self-denial is permanent and moderate, and requires much more moral power; for to deny yourself what you come in contact with, is a greater thing than to avoid all contact. Pulse and water is the type of self-denial.
We need a fine perception to see what would defile us. Anything, even a good act, done for the object of gratifying self is defiling. There is a difference between choosing a path of self-denial, and accepting it cheerfully from God. Both are valuable, but the former especially so.