and the temptations of this world--to choose between what is right
and what is pleasant--to choose whether he will obey the desires of
the spirit, or obey the desires of the flesh. He must choose. If
he lets his flesh conquer his spirit, he falls; if he lets his
spirit conquer his flesh, he rises; if he lets his flesh conquer his
spirit, he becomes what he was not meant to be--a slave to fleshly
lust; and THEN he will find his flesh set up for itself, and work
for itself. And where man's flesh gets the upper hand, and takes
possession of him, it can do nothing but evil--not that it is evil
in itself, but that it has no rule, no law to go by; it does not
know right from wrong; and therefore it does simply what it likes,
as a dumb beast or an idiot might; and therefore the works of the
flesh are--adulteries, drunkenness, murders, fornications, envyings,
backbitings, strife. When a man's body, which God intended to be
the servant of his spirit, has become the tyrant of his spirit, it
is like an idiot on a king's throne, doing all manner of harm and
folly without knowing that it IS harm and folly. That is not ITS
fault. Whose fault is it, then? OUR fault--the fault of our wills
and our souls. Our souls were intended to be the masters of our
flesh, to conquer all the weaknesses, defilements of our
constitution--our tempers, our cowardice, our laziness, our
hastiness, our nervousness, our vanity, our love of pleasure--to
listen to our spirits, because our spirits learn from God's Spirit
what is right and noble. But if we let our flesh master us, and
obey its own blind lusts, we sin against God; and we sin against God
doubly; for we not only sin against God's commandments, but we sin
against ourselves, who are the image and glory of God.

Believe this, my friends; believe that, because you are all fallen
human creatures, there must go on in you this sore life-long battle