Temperance hymns, British

Temperance is one of the four cardinal virtues, and it is recorded as one of the fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5: 23). St Paul preached to Felix about temperance (Acts 24: 25) and the Second Epistle General of Peter includes temperance as part of the divine nature to which Christians are to aspire (2 Peter 1: 6). It was assimilated into the Christian order of moral thought from the ‘nothing too much’ of Greek philosophy, and it has remained an important constituent of the Christian life, recommended by Christian leaders throughout the centuries. In the 18th century it acquired a new significance as an antidote to the enthusiasm of the Evangelical Revival, and served as a philosophical...