So let your
moderation be known to all men. Be MERRY AND WISE. The fool lets
his mirth master him, and carry him away, till he forgets himself,
and says and does things of which he is ashamed when he gets up next
morning, sick and sad at heart. The wise man remembers that, let the
occasion be as joyful a one as it may, "the Lord is at hand."
Christ's eye is on him, while he is eating, and drinking, and
laughing. He is not afraid of Christ's eye, because, though it is
Divine it is a human, loving, smiling eye; rejoicing in the happiness
of His poor, hard-worked brothers here below. But he remembers that
it is a holy eye, too; an eye which looks with sadness and horror on
anything which is wrong; on all drunkenness, quarrelling, indecency;
and so on in all his merriment, he is still master of himself. He
remembers that his soul is nobler than his body; that his will must
be stronger than his appetite; and so he keeps himself in check; he
keeps his tongue from evil, and his stomach from sottishness, and
though he may be, and ought to be, the merriest of the whole party,
yet he takes care to let his moderation, his sobriety, be known and
plain to everyone, remembering that the Lord is at hand.
And that man--I will stand surety for him--will be the one who will
rise from his bed next morning, best able to carry out the next verse
of the Epistle, and "be careful for nothing.
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