but you don't want to drop off and you comply with the conditions. You
surprise yourself by your self-control. You are in on that game, and
you're in to win. It is the event of the season. It will be the thrill
of a lifetime to win. So you are temperate because you want the glory
of winning--glory for your team; glory for your school.

Fellows, thus your body becomes the temple of a living hope. And it is
all right. Bless your hearts, there are few things finer than that
self-mastery which enables a boy to deny his natural appetite for the
sake of an ideal--even though it be a sporting ideal.

And I think God designed it so. He is continually teaching us the
deeper and richer truths by leading us up to them through our
experiences with things we can touch and taste and see and hear.

To-day He is pointing you and me, not to the temporary honour of an
athletic victory, but to the eternal honour of gaining the mastery
over our appetites for the sake of keeping our bodies, minds, and
hearts for His own indwelling. And He, Himself, is our Coach, doing
something which no other coach can--remaining constantly beside us,
within us, establishing that wonderful endurance--that indescribable
something within us which strives and strives and conquers!

Fellows, talk about thrills! there is nothing like the thrill that
comes of being used--effectively used--by Him. The thrills of our
athletic victories die away with the shouting, but the deep
satisfaction of "keeping fit" for God's service grows finer and finer
as the days go by.

Oh, say, fellows, _this_ is the thrill of Real Life!