energies; and this being so, all Christian life is of the nature of a
warfare; and a warfare which begins afresh with each generation of men;
because selfishness, with all its tribe of attendant appetites and
passions, springs afresh in every single soul, and is nurtured,
strengthened, cultivated, by so many of the conditions of life.

If, then, the Spirit of Christ is really to prevail in our life, it must
be by effecting our emancipation from selfish instincts, and rousing in
us the spirit of devotion to the good of other lives.

In proportion as you diminish selfishness in your own life or in any
other, by fostering generous affections and cultivating the spirit of
social duty and religious aspiration, by walking in the footsteps of
Christ and living in the light of His presence, you are laying the only
possible foundation of any lasting progress, you are following the one
true method by which the mystery of sin is to be overcome.

We may wonder that this should be so difficult; for of selfishness we
should say that we all dislike it. In its grosser forms we repudiate it.
The very word is one which we articulate with a certain accent of
contempt.

But when we come to its refined and subtle workings in our nature, when
we think of its Proteus-like changeableness, its power of assuming the
various guises even of duty or religion; when we reflect how it can
clothe itself in the choicest garb of art, or science, or divine
philosophy, we find very likely that we are always in danger of being
enslaved by it.

And we do well to pray in all sincerity that grace may expel our