Page:The Story of Joseph and His Brethren.djvu/114

Rh But, besides this, spiritual thoughts love the natural thoughts, as the Christian loves his enemies, and desires nothing more than to do them good and be reconciled to them, or rather to reconcile them to itself. For the natural thoughts only require to put away their enmity to the spiritual, and submit themselves to their authority, to become good and useful, and make their possessor happy. Now, how is the reconciliation of these and their union with the spiritual to be effected? They have in the first place to be starved into submission. This is meant by the famine. But you may ask what is meant by the natural thoughts being starved into submission? By this I mean you must deprive your natural desires of their selfish indulgences, and this is expressed by the word Self-denial. When they prompt you to do anything, or when they crave anything, that your better thoughts tell you it is not right to do or good to grant, you must withhold from them what you know is sure to be hurtful to them. This famine will cause them to come and submit themselves to your spiritual thoughts, and their