in the virtue of self-control
Secondly, the rigid exclusion of personal indulgence trains the inmates
in the virtue of self-control. And may it not be forgotten that all
apparent reformation must be hedged by this cardinal virtue of practical
life! Otherwise the best-formed expectations will fail; the highest
hopes will be disappointed; and the life of these teachers, and the
promise of the youth who may be gathered here, will be like the sun and
the winds upon the desert, which bring neither refreshing showers nor
fruitful harvests. Every form of labor requires faith. This labor
requires faith in yourselves, and faith in others;--faith in yourselves,
as teachers here, based upon your own knowledge of what you are and are
to do; and faith in others upon the divine declaration that God breathed
into man the breath of life, and he became a living soul,--not merely as
the previous creations, possessed of animal life; but as a sentient,
intellectual, and moral being, capable of a progressive, immortal
existence.
