A Man Without Defense
He that hath no rule over his own spirit is like a city that is broken down, and without walls Who is the man that yields to the temptation to steal? He is the man who has not subdued the spirit of covetousness. Being under the sway and power of the covetous spirit, he is without defense when the temptation to steal attacks him. Our jails are filled with men who are there because they let the passion for pelf run away with them. Failing to conquer this passion, temptation conquered them. Having no rule over their inordinate desire to have and possess, when they were faced with the temptation to defaud or steal, they were "like a city that is broken down and without walls." The same thing applies with regard to all other temptations and evil passions that attack men. Men are overcome by them because they have not overcome themselves. It is because they lack the power of self-control, that men are weak and defenseless in the presence of the powers of darkness and evil. If you want to know why we have so many embezzlements and forgeries, so much thievery and swindling, so much drinking and debauchery, so many scandals of domestic duplicity and infidelity, and so many other outrageous and nasty things, here is the secret of it all--the failure of men to fortify themselves with a strong defense of self-control and mastery over their passions and desires. "From within, from the heart of man, the designs of evil come: sexual vice, stealing, murder, adultery, lust, malice, deceit, sensuality, envying, slander, arrogance, recklessness, all these evils issue from within, and they defile a man" (Mark 7:21-23). "Most powerful is he who has himself in his power," wrote Seneca. Shakespeare said: "Better conquest never cans't thou make than arm thy constant and thy nobler parts against giddy, loose suggestions." The man who fails in this, is a man without defense.
