{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_33194/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_33194","id":"gutenberg_33194","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/33194","summary":null,"tags":["Category: Religion/Spirituality","Temptation"],"text":"Produced by Al Haines\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nTHE WARFARE OF THE SOUL\n\n\n_PRACTICAL STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF TEMPTATION_\n\n\n\nBY\n\nSHIRLEY C. HUGHSON\n\n\nPRIEST OF THE ORDER OF THE HOLY CROSS\n\n\n\n\nWITH A PREFACE BY\n\nTHE REV. ALFRED G. MORTIMER, D.D.\n\n_Rector of St. Mark's, Philadelphia_\n\n\n\n\nLONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.\n\nFOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK\n\nLONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA\n\n1910\n\n\n\n\n_Copyright_, 1910, _by_\n\nLONGMANS, GREEN, AND Co.\n\n\n_The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass.  U.S.A._\n\n\n\n\n{v}\n\nPREFACE\n\nIf we desired to describe our life here in one word, that word might be\n_Temptation_.  From one point of view the purpose for which we are put\ninto this world is to be tempted, that is, to be tried or tested, in\norder that the wheat among us may be separated from the chaff, and that\nthe children of light may be manifested and divided from the children\nof darkness.\n\nThis _testing_, however, is not only that the good may be separated\nfrom the bad, it is the means by which the good becomes good; for by it\nlatent virtues are developed and a character fitted for heaven is\nformed.\n\nLet us regard a little child just baptized--it is an innocent child of\nGod, but what is innocence?  In many respects a beautiful attribute,\nbut a purely negative one; for it is the attribute of an _untried_\nsoul.  That child must pass through the wilderness of temptation, and\nwith the result either that the innocence will be transformed into\n_sanctity_ or will be lost and give place to sin.\n\nWhen our Lord was baptized, as He came up {vi} out of the water, the\nVoice from heaven proclaimed, \"This is my Beloved Son in Whom I am well\npleased,\" and we read \"_Then_ was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the\nwilderness to be tempted of the devil,\" and the temptation was a\ntesting on the part of the Evil One, whether He were indeed the Son of\nGod.  So each child in baptism is made by the operation of the Holy\nGhost the child of God, and _then_ his whole life is a being led by one\nof two spirits--the Spirit of God, leading him through temptation to\nsanctity, or the spirit of evil leading him by temptation into sin.\nFor St. Paul tells us, doubtless referring to this, that, \"As many as\nare led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God.\"  This however\nmust be proved by temptation.\n\nSanctity is the positive virtue of the soul which has been tempted and\nhas stood the test, has vanquished the tempter and won the victory and\nthe reward--the Crown of Life.  Happy is that soul, for St. James says,\n\"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he\nshall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them\nthat love Him.\"  We must therefore strive to grasp the fact that\ntemptation is not an evil, on the contrary it is the only way in which\nthe soul can be developed.  Instead therefore of meeting it with fear\nand trembling {vii} and great reluctance, St. James says, \"Count it all\njoy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying\nof your faith worketh patience.  But let patience have her perfect\nwork, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.\"  A\nwell-known spiritual guide says, \"But how are we to overcome\ntemptations?  Cheerfulness is the first thing, cheerfulness the second,\nand cheerfulness the third.\"  This is but a homely way of putting St.\nJames' injunction, \"Count it all joy when ye fall into divers\ntemptations.\"\n\nIn the book of Ecclesiasticus we read, \"My son, if thou come to serve\nthe Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation.\"  We must not suppose from\nthis that only those who serve the Lord are tempted, though they are\ndoubtless attacked by Satan in special ways.  All men, however, whether\nthey serve the Lord or not, have to endure temptation, but those who\ndesire to serve Him will prepare their soul for temptation by studying\nits laws, learning how best to meet its assaults, and fortifying\nthemselves with divine grace for the struggle.\n\nThis little book will be found most useful to such; for it will help\nthem, not only to prepare for temptation, but will teach them the true\npurpose of the life of temptation, and the best methods {viii} of\nutilizing the attacks of the foe; so that they may leave no stain of\nsin, but rather may develop in the soul those Christian virtues which\nbelong to sanctity.\n\nALFRED G. MORTIMER.\n\nST. MARK'S, PHILADELPHIA,\n  Epiphany, 1910.\n\n\n\n\n{ix}\n\nTO THE READER\n\nYou do not need to be told that the writer offers you here nothing of\nhis own.  He has sat at the feet of certain masters whom through the\nages the Holy Ghost has employed to speak to the souls of men.  He\nseeks only to bear you a message from them.  May the same Blessed\nSpirit use these pages to enlighten the souls He loves.  If the message\nmakes you long to know God better, to love Him more truly, to serve Him\nmore faithfully, it will not have been borne in vain, and he who brings\nit craves as his hire a spiritual alms,--a prayer that he, along with\nyou and all God's people, may be found faithful at the end.\n\nS. C. H.\n\nST. MICHAEL'S MONASTERY, SEWANEE.\n  Christmas, 1909.\n\n\n\n\n{xi}\n\nCONTENTS\n\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE WARFARE OF THE SOUL\n\n  1.  A Personal Issue\n  2.  Not Peace, but a Sword\n  3.  The Terms of the Warfare\n  4.  The Nature of Temptation\n  5.  Precept and Counsel\n\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE TEMPTER: HIS HISTORY AND NATURE\n\n  1.  Satan's Fall and its Effects\n  2.  The Hopelessness of his Warfare\n  3.  The Limitations of the Tempter\n  4.  The Restraint of the Divine Decrees\n\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE TEMPTER: HIS CHARACTERISTICS AND METHODS\n\n  1.  Satan, The Deceiver\n  2.  The Fact of his Personality\n  3.  His Experience and Wisdom\n  4.  The Methods of his Might\n  5.  The Soul's Safety\n\n\n{xii}\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE UNIVERSALITY OF TEMPTATION\n\n  1.  The Common Lot\n  2.  Enduring Hardship\n  3.  The Sufferings of the Saints\n  4.  Satan in the Sanctuary\n  5.  The Sacrament of Temptation\n\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE SPIRIT OF SOLICITUDE\n\n  1.  True and False Anxiety\n  2.  Worry Versus Faith\n  3.  The Cure of a Doubting Spirit\n  4.  God's Sympathy\n\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nOUR PREPARATION FOR TEMPTATION\n\n  1.  A Double Weapon\n  2.  The Spirit of Vigilance\n  3.  Prayer and Temptation\n\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nTRAINING THE INNER LIFE\n\n  1.  Environment and Character\n  2.  Educating the Memory\n  3.  Guiding the Imagination\n  4.  The Practice of Constancy\n  5.  The Practice of Calmness\n  6.  The Practice of Patience\n  7.  The Practice of Diligence\n\n\n{xiii}\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nTHE STAGES OF THE BATTLE\n\n  1.  The Satanic Suggestion\n  2.  The Response of the Natural Heart\n  3.  The \"Inferior\" and \"Superior\" Wills\n  4.  The Fatal Consent\n\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nIN THE HOUR OF BATTLE\n\n  1.  Realizing God's Friendship\n  2.  The Divine Example of Humility\n  3.  Instant in Prayer\n  4.  A Holy Perversity\n  5.  Scorning the Tempter\n  6.  Staying not the Hand\n  7.  The Final Phase of Victory\n\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE TESTS OF VICTORY AND DEFEAT\n\n  1.  The Test of Common Sense\n  2.  The Test of Doubt\n  3.  Signs of the Soul's Victory\n  4.  Spiritual Safety, Spiritual Victory\n  5.  The Truest Test\n\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nTHE SCHOOL OF THE HOLY GHOST\n\n  1.  The Teaching of Temptation\n  2.  The Bulwark of Love\n  3.  The Lesson of Humility\n  4.  The Lessons of Consolation\n  5.  How to Learn our Lessons\n\n\n{xiv}\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTHE RETURN FROM CAPTIVITY\n\n  1.  Hastening to Repent\n  2.  A Tranquil Sorrow\n  3.  A Spirit of Reparation\n  4.  The Work of Amendment\n  5.  The Gainsaying of Satan\n\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nTHE GROUND FOR CHRISTIAN COURAGE\n\n  1.  Members One of Another\n  2.  The Church's Treasury of Grace\n  3.  God's Interest in our Victory\n\n\n\n\n{1}\n\nCHAPTER I\n\nTHE WARFARE OF THE SOUL\n\n\nI.  _A Personal Issue_\n\nThe spiritual warfare is intensely personal.  Any consideration of it\nis a consideration of definite personalities, divine, angelic, human,\nSatanic,--God, the Angels, the Soul, and Satan.  We speak commonly of\ngreat principles being at stake in this warfare, often forgetting that\nit is not possible for a moral or spiritual principle to exist apart\nfrom a person.\n\nAs we shall try to learn in the following pages, God--the three Persons\nof the Ever-Blessed Trinity--is always to be the first thought of the\nChristian warrior,--God, His Presence, His power, and His loving\ninterest in our victory.  But the well-trained soldier has an eye not\nto his own resources only; he seeks to learn something also concerning\nthe Enemy he is to face.  Next to the Presence of God, nothing is so\nnecessary to the Christian soldier as to remember the presence of the\nTempter; either in his own person or in that of one of his evil angels.\nAlthough God {2} has revealed nothing directly to us on the subject,\nyet His revelation concerning Satan's work is such that we can hardly\nescape from the conclusion that, as each soul has a guardian angel, so\neach soul has assigned to him by Satan an attendant evil spirit, whose\nwhole business is to seek to lead the soul into sin.\n\nWe see how in the conflict we have tremendous personalities to deal\nwith, the Personality of the triune God,--Father, Son, and Holy\nGhost,--and the Personality of Satan and his innumerable fallen angels,\nwho, though finite and created, possess a scope and power which are,\nperhaps, so great that our human thought cannot compass them.  But\nimmeasurably below any of these as it is, our own personality must not\nbe forgotten, for let it ever be kept in mind that _the issue of our\nindividual battle depends on ourselves_.  The laws of this war are such\nthat on the one hand the powerful personal will even of the arch-fiend\nhimself has no power to control us, except in so far as our personal\nwill, acting with complete freedom, permits it; and on the other hand,\nthe infinite personal will of God never operates so as to compel us,\nunless again our will yield freely to His call.  Satan cannot control\nor influence us against our wills, and God, reverencing His image in\nman, refrains His power {3} and never forces man's love or service.\nThe will of man is free, and this makes him the central factor in the\nspiritual warfare.\n\n\nII.  _Not Peace, but a Sword_\n\nIn sending them forth on their first mission, the Prince of Peace\ndeclared to His awe-struck disciples, \"I came not to send peace but a\nsword.\"[1]  The world being what it was, the Kingdom of Peace was to be\nfounded only by conflict.  Those whom He sent forth to found His Church\nunderstood this principle, and everywhere in the accounts of their\njourneys and labours, as well as in the words of counsel they give\ntheir converts, there is the sound of warfare, \"the voice of them that\nshout for mastery.\"[2]\n\nEverything indicates that the battle is fierce and desperate.  Our Lord\nsends His message to the Seven Churches, and to each the reward is only\n\"to him that overcometh.\"[3]  We are warned of foes without and of\ntraitors in the inmost citadel of our souls; of the \"lusts which war\nagainst the soul\";[4] \"the law in our members warring against the law\nof our mind.\"[5]\n\n{4}\n\nSt. Paul exhorts us repeatedly to \"put on the whole armour of God.\"[6]\nHe sends his counsel to his son in the faith in order that he \"war a\ngood warfare\";[7] he pleads with him \"to fight the good fight of\nfaith,\"[8] and to \"endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus\nChrist\";[9] and in his last days he bases his own hope of the crown of\nlife upon the assurance of his conscience that he himself had \"fought a\ngood fight.\"[10]\n\nSo everywhere the New Testament rings with the sound of warfare, the\nshock and onset of battle.  Everywhere we hear of foes and fighting,\narmour and rewards, life and death.  We are told of the subtilty and\nferocity of the Adversary, of the ranks and power of his evil\nangels.[11]\n\nWe are sent into the world just that we might spend our life in a state\nof warfare, and in so far as this condition is absent from any life,\njust so far is that life a failure.  To have a knowledge of the force\nand resources of the enemy is as necessary to the waging of a\nsuccessful war as it is to have one's own training and equipment\ncomplete; and he who enters upon the struggle is well armed beforehand\nif he has realized the {5} seriousness of the conflict in which he is\nabout to engage.\n\nEvery baptized soul is a member of the army of the living God.  Have we\ngrasped the truth that this is no light undertaking; that in this\nwarfare there are no quiet winter quarters into which we may retire, no\nlight summer campaigns to be gaily prosecuted against a foe who flees\nat our first approach; but that the struggle is inevitable, that it is\nreal, that our enemy is powerful, sleepless, and relentless; and above\nall, that we are in the thick of the conflict as long as life endures?\n\nEven the tenderest consolations that God gives His children concerning\nthe warfare never lose sight of the inevitableness of it.  We are given\nno false encouragement that would arouse a hope of escape.  The very\nname by which the Body of Christ on earth is called,--the Church\nMilitant,--is a standing witness of what the life of her members must\nbe.\n\nWhen St. Paul comforts the Corinthians with the assurance that the\nstruggle they are enduring is common to man, that God has not given\nthem more to endure than that which is coming upon all their brethren,\nthe Holy Ghost inspires him to guard this point carefully.[12]  He\nassures them {6} that God Who is faithful to His word, \"not slack\nconcerning His promise,\"[13] \"will not suffer you to be tempted above\nthat ye are able.\"  The very fact of the approach of a trial or\ntemptation is in itself the irrefutable proof that we are strong enough\nto conquer it, if only we use faithfully what we have, and what will be\ngiven.  He then goes on to say that God \"will, with the temptation also\nmake a way to escape\"; but the escape is not to be from temptation.  He\npromises indeed to \"make a way to escape,\" but only in order \"_that ye\nmay be able to bear it_,\"--the escape is to be from the failure, from\nsin, never from the conflict so long as life endures.  \"There is no\ndischarge in that war.\"[14]\n\nThis is the condition under which life in this world exists; the only\nescape from it lies in base surrender to the enemy of God and man.  If\nwe face this condition, and accept it without flinching, we are then in\nthe position of a soldier who, having weighed well the purpose and\nsignificance of his enlistment, is ready with generous spirit to submit\nto all that it involves.  No surprises or disheartening revelations of\nthe nature of the struggle will meet us, because we shall have\nunderstood well in the beginning what we are undertaking and what we\nmust expect.\n\n\n{7}\n\nIII.  _The Terms of the Warfare_\n\nLet us in the beginning set clearly before ourselves a few simple\nfacts, facts with which we have been conversant all our lives, but\nwhich our lifelong course shows us to have taken too little into\naccount.  These we must regard in a very personal way, for our study\nwill be worse than futile if it be not intensely personal.\n\nLet each one of us, therefore, set clearly before himself these\nfundamental propositions:\n\n(1) Our Leader is our Lord Jesus Christ, fighting now, as He fought\nwhen He was on earth, in the perfect powers of His Sacred Humanity.  We\nmust for our own encouragement remember that though He is perfect God\nas well as perfect Man, yet it was not by means of His divine power\nalone that He fought His own battle against temptation and conquered.\nHe won the victory by the use of His human will, fortified by His\ndivinity.  It was as Man, not as God, that He fought and conquered.\nHad he contended against Satan in His God-nature only, there would have\nbeen no real struggle, for even the slightest exercise of His divine\npower must have crushed the enemy in a single moment of time.  It was\njust because He did fight as Man, {8} in the power of His finite and\ncreated nature, that there could be a real conflict.\n\n(2) As baptized Christians we are His soldiers, fighting with the\npowers and faculties of His perfect Humanity, which were given us when\nwe were baptized.  If we are indeed, as the Apostle declares, \"members\nof His Body, of His flesh, and of His bones,\"[15] then we fight with\nHis human powers.  No longer have we to use our own, but His perfect\nhuman faculties.  No longer have we to plan with our weak minds; we\nhave at our command the perfect intelligence of the Man Jesus, for \"we\nhave the mind of Christ.\"[16]  No longer does the battle depend on our\nvacillating wills, for His perfect human will is so bound up with ours\nthat it is not possible for us to be overcome except in so far as we\nfall away from this union with Him.  And His love is our love, going\nout to God and to our fellow-man.\n\n(3) The enemy is Satan, the prince of this world and of the hosts of\nhell; whose purpose in the warfare is the dishonour of God, and who\nfights against us just because we are the children of God.\n\n(4) His chief mode of attack is what is commonly called Temptation, the\nalluring of the soul to some thought, word, or deed that is contrary to\nthe will of God.\n\n{9}\n\n(5) The successful resistance of temptation is a victory for our souls\nto the honour of our King.  The battle is His; and the victory is won\nwhen we so yield ourselves to Him that He can employ us as instruments\nof His warfare.\n\n(6) The entrance of any sin is defeat for our souls to our King's\ndishonour, and no sin can enter save in so far as we become partakers\nof the Satanic purpose and will.\n\n(7) The entrance of serious wilful sin is a yielding of ourselves as\nSatan's captives.\n\n(8) Such captivity means not an idle, passive confinement in some\nspiritual prison, but an active enlistment in the armies of hell to\nfight against our Lord Jesus Christ.\n\nLet us keep these considerations before us; let us ask the Holy Spirit\nto give us a right understanding of these truths; and our study of the\nChristian warfare will not be in vain.\n\n\nIV.  _The Nature of Temptation_\n\nWe have said above that Satan's chief weapon in his war against the\nsoul is what is commonly called Temptation, whereby he allures the soul\nto consent to some thought, word, or deed that is contrary to the\ndivine will.\n\nTemptation is always a testing of the soul.  {10} This testing may be\napplied by God Himself, by Satan, or one of his fallen angels, or by\none of our fellow-men.\n\nGod may be said to tempt man in the sense of applying tests to prove or\ninstruct him, as when it is said that \"God did tempt Abraham\"[17] in\ncommanding him to offer up Isaac.  In every such case, however, God\nbeforehand gives the soul He is testing sufficient grace to bear the\ntrial.  This is taught us by St. Paul in the text that we shall come\nback to over and over again: \"God is faithful who will not suffer you\nto be tempted above that ye are able.\"[18]  Should failure and sin\nresult, it would be because there had been wilful neglect to use the\nstrength given.  God cannot tempt man in the sense of inducing him to\nsin.  Such a suggestion would be blasphemous.  \"Let no man say when he\nis tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil,\nneither tempteth He any man.\"[19]  Trials may also come through man,\nacting consciously or unconsciously, under the direction of God, who\nmight use such a one to try His servant.  We do not mean to treat in\nthese pages, however, this aspect of temptation.  We are to deal with\nthe word in its popular use, as meaning some inducement to commit sin.\n\n{11}\n\nBefore going further, therefore, it will be well for us to define\ntemptation in the sense in which we are using it.\n\n_Temptation is any solicitation, from whatever source, directed towards\nan intelligent, moral creature, who is in a state of probation, to\nviolate the known will of God._\n\n(1) All such temptation comes primarily from Satan as its source.  He\nis originally responsible for every solicitation to sin, although he\ndoes not always act directly and immediately.  He does perhaps most of\nhis work through agents, men or devils.  One very active agent of Satan\nis ourselves, though we often fail to realize it.  By entering into\noccasions of sin we assist the tempter, and by repeated acts we so\ntrain our hearts to delight in some particular sin that no outside\nsolicitation is necessary.  We sin, and go on sinning, not because he\nis busy persuading us to it, but because, like rebellious Israel of\nold, we \"love to have it so.\"[20]\n\n(2) In order to constitute temptation, the solicitation must be\ndirected to an intelligent, moral creature.  An idiot or an insane\nperson cannot be tempted, because he has neither the intellect to\nunderstand what is going on, nor any moral responsibility.\n\n{12}\n\n(3) To be tempted one must be in a state of probation.  Neither the\nSaints nor the angels in heaven, nor the souls of the faithful\ndeparted, can be tempted; they are beyond the sphere in which it is\npossible for temptation to operate.  Nor yet can the devils, nor the\nsouls of the lost, suffer from temptation, for the nature of temptation\nindicates a choice, and they have made their eternal choice, which at\ntheir Judgment received the divine ratification; for this, in its\nessence, is what the Judgment is,--the divine ratification of the\nchoice the soul made when it was free to choose.\n\n(4) Nothing can constitute temptation save what is a solicitation to\nviolate the known will of God.  He does not hold the soul responsible\nfor so-called sins of ignorance, for there can be no real, formal sin\nsave where there is knowledge.\n\nIt is a legal maxim in the kingdoms of this world that \"Ignorance of\nthe law is no excuse\"; but, thank God, it is an excuse in the Kingdom\nof Heaven.  He does not hold us responsible for that which we do not\nknow.  Let us remember, however, that much of ignorance of spiritual\nthings is the result of our own culpable failure to lay hold upon the\nlight and grace which He offers.  Our ignorance is, perhaps in most\ncases, our own fault; and yet such is the tenderness of {13} our God to\nHis children, that He is willing to overlook it, and to count sin as\nthough it were not sin.\n\nSurely the soul that is not wholly base will long to make a generous\nresponse to this so great goodness, and will rise from its lethargy and\nseek by every means to lay hold upon the divine light, and strength,\nand knowledge, not only for its own sake, but to show a tender Father\nthat His love does awaken in our hearts an answering love which\nquickens us to a generous service.\n\n\nV.  _Precept and Counsel_\n\nWhen we speak of temptation being a solicitation to violate the known\nwill of God, it is necessary for us to understand that conformity to\nGod's will is not in every case required of us under penalty of sin.\nHis will is revealed to us in two ways, in _precept_ and in _counsel_.\nTo violate a precept is in every case sin; to reject a counsel is, in\nitself, never a sin.  God may set before us two alternatives, both of\nthem being good, but one a higher and better thing than the other.  In\nsuch a case, we are often--in fact, generally--tempted to accept the\nlower.  For example, a young man may have set before him, at some\nparticular time of his life, the alternative {14} of serving God in\nwork in his home parish, or of giving himself, by one great and final\nact of sacrifice and dedication, to the service of God in the monastic\nlife.  The former alternative is thoroughly good and holy, but none\nwill deny that the latter is better.  But the monastic life is a call\nof such a nature that compliance is never required under pain of sin;\nand one may even feel entirely sure that the call is directly from God,\nand yet be at liberty to refuse it because it is a form of service that\nbelongs to counsel and not to precept.\n\nWhile the soul is weighing the question, strong temptation invariably\ncomes to choose the lower service.  Not that the tempter is interested\nin our serving God in any sphere whatever, but he hopes that if he can\ninduce us to choose the lower now, he may be able later on still\nfurther to lower our ideals, and so in the end induce us to reject the\ndivine will in some matter that belongs to the precepts of God's law.\nWith this hope he even strives earnestly to induce us to do a good\nthing in order to dissuade us from choosing that which is better.\n\nSo while it is entirely true, as we said above, that the rejection of a\ncounsel is never, in itself, sinful, yet there is great peril always in\nrefusing the known will of God, even when He does not {15} bind us to\nthat will under the penalty of sin.  The soul that truly loves is ever\nalert to perform the entire will of the beloved.\n\n\"The noble love of Jesus forceth man to work great things, and stirreth\nhim up always to desire the most perfect.  Love wills to be aloft and\nwill not be kept down by any lesser thing.\"[21]\n\n\n\n[1] St. Matt. x, 34.\n\n[2] Exod. xxxii, 18.\n\n[3] Rev. ii and iii.\n\n[4] 1 Pet. ii, 11.\n\n[5] Rom. vii, 23.\n\n[6] Eph. vi, 11.  See also Rom. xiii, 12; 2 Cor. vi, 7, and 1 Thes. v,\n8.\n\n[7] 1 Tim. i, 18.\n\n[8] 1 Tim. vi, 12.\n\n[9] 2 Tim. ii, 3.\n\n[10] 2 Tim. iv, 7.\n\n[11] See Pusey, _Parochial Sermons_, Vol. II, pp. 113-114.\n\n[12] 1 Cor. x, 13.\n\n[13] 2 St. Pet. iii, 9.\n\n[14] Eccles. viii, 8.\n\n[15] Eph. v, 30.\n\n[16] 1 Cor. ii, 16.\n\n[17] Gen. xxii, 1.\n\n[18] 1 Cor. x, 13.\n\n[19] St. James i, 13.\n\n[20] Jer. v, 31.\n\n[21] _Imitation_, III, v.  (Bigg's Trans.)\n\n\n\n\n{16}\n\nCHAPTER II\n\nTHE TEMPTER: HIS HISTORY AND NATURE\n\n\nI.  _Satan's Fall and its Effects_\n\nWe have already reminded ourselves that it is as important to\nunderstand somewhat of the enemy's force and resources as it is to have\nour own equipment and training complete.  Let us therefore consider the\nadversary, for next to the unceasing recollection of the presence,\npower, and goodness of God, the most necessary thing for the Christian\nsoldier is the recollection of the presence and character of the enemy.\nVigilance in maintaining this recollection is what the Apostle solemnly\ncommands.[1]\n\nWe cannot speak with theological exactness of the cause and occasion of\nthe fall of Satan and his rebel host, for God has revealed but little\nconcerning it; but when we compare Scripture with Scripture, it seems\ninevitable that the sin of Satan was one of pride, and, very probably,\n{17} its particular form was a desire to make himself equal with God.\n\nIn the account given in Revelation of the war in heaven, St. Michael,\nwhose name is simply a Hebrew word meaning \"Who is like God?\" is\nmentioned as the captain of God's host, who fought against the dragon\nand his angels, and overcame and cast them out.[2]  It would seem that\nthe leader of the loyal angels took his name from the battle cry with\nwhich the armies of God, as they pressed upon the rebel ranks,\nrepudiated the blasphemous claim of him who was seeking to be like the\nMost High.[3]\n\nAs we think of Satan as he is to-day, and as he meets us in the\nconflict, it will be of great value to us to keep definitely in mind\nthe effect that his fall must have had upon his nature and powers.\n\nNot only is the adversary finite, with all the limitations common to\nfinite beings, but he is one who, by his fall from original\nrighteousness, has become a blasted creature, maimed and wounded in all\nhis faculties.\n\nMan, too has fallen, and the blight is also upon {18} all his powers;\nbut with every return to God in penitence man's powers are recuperated;\nhe regains somewhat of his former strength.  Nay, more, the spiritual\nstrength we lay hold of through penitence is often greater than that\nwhich we lost through sin.  \"Where sin abounded, grace did much more\nabound.\"[4]  God through the Precious Blood of His Son so mightily\noverrules the evil that, as we think of our sin, we can indeed\ntriumphantly cry, \"_O felix culpa!_\"\n\nNot so with Satan and his companions.  From the day of their fall the\npoison of the evil that is in them has been working relentlessly, and\nwith never a moment's cessation, toward their ultimate destruction.  By\nan humble, earnest effort for God's service in the little opportunities\nof daily life, we go on from strength to strength, while our foe,\nhowever powerful he may be in his warfare against the weakness of man,\nis daily drawing nearer to the time when he will lie in hell, an\nimpotent and inert slave of the evil he has chosen as his portion.\n\nEven now, when so much of his ancient might remains, we can see the\nsigns of his growing weakness.\n\nOne illustration of the effect of his fall upon him is found in the\nstupidity which marks his {19} work.  It is almost incredible that,\nafter all the long millenniums of his warfare, and especially his\nexperience since the Incarnation, he should be so incapable of\nrealizing the inevitable consequence of his warfare against God.\n\nIn innumerable cases he has seen the Saints strengthened by his\nantagonism; he has seen the weak becoming strong through the right use\nof the opportunities his temptations afford them; he has stood at the\nJudgment of souls as their accuser, and been covered with confusion as\nhe saw his accusations rejected, and crowns given them, all the more\nglorious because of the occasion for battle and victory his hate had\nafforded them.  All this he has seen, and yet its real significance has\nnever dawned upon him.[5]\n\nMore astonishing still, in spite of his experience, he has never been\nable to see that when he joins the struggle with us he is only seeking\nto renew the old warfare which was brought to a final issue on Calvary\nto his eternal discomfiture; that it is not the weak human soul he is\nfighting, {20} but the omnipotent God Who in human flesh, and by the\nexercise of human powers and faculties, bruised him under His feet,\ninvaded his infernal kingdom, broke the gates of brass, and smote the\nbars of iron in sunder.[6]\n\nAre we wiser than Satan?  Have we caught the true significance of the\nbattle, the vision of its final issue?  Do we realize, when the\nconflict comes, that our heart is but the arena of a struggle between\nthe omnipotence of God and the weakness of Satan, and that we are\ncalled to fight along with Him \"Who is the Author of unconquerable\nmight, the King of the Empire that cannot be overthrown?\"  If so, then\nthere can be no fear or repining because of the battle, but with the\nglad war-cry, \"Emmanuel,--God with us!\" can we plunge into the glorious\nstrife, knowing that with His own right hand and with His holy arm will\nHe get Himself the victory.[7]\n\n\nII.  _The Hopelessness of his Warfare_\n\nThe hopelessness of Satan's warfare is shown in its final issue.  Sin\nentered into the world through Satan, and by sin came death.[8]  Death\nseems, when we first consider it, Satan's triumph; but in reality it is\nhis destruction.  He pursues a {21} soul through life, but the hour of\ndeath marks the absolute cessation of his power and influence.  The\nfaithful departed in the Church Expectant are in the hand of God, and\nnevermore can the torment of temptation touch them.  The very act of\nwreaking the utmost of his power is the act which places them forever\nbeyond even the possibility of communication with him.  So both prophet\nand apostle cry out in an ecstasy of triumph, as the Holy Spirit leads\nthem to this conclusion,--\"O death, where is thy sting?  O grave, where\nis thy victory?\"[9]\n\nSo also is it with \"the spirits of just men made perfect,\"[10] who,\nhaving been purged of all stain of sin, stand in the glory of the\nBeatific Vision in Paradise.  Satan thought by means of death to make\neternal life with God impossible; but by the divine overruling death is\nmade the gateway of everlasting life.  He watches the progress of the\neffect of sin; he sees the bodily weakness which he introduced into the\nrace when he induced our first parents to sin, increasing, only to\nrealize that the supreme result of evil in the world is to remove the\nsoul he has been pursuing with malignant hate, forever from the sphere\nof his action.\n\nEven with the lost the same holds good.  With {22} infernal glee he\nwatches by the deathbed of a reprobate soul, of one that has yielded\nhimself to his rule.  He sees the last hour approaching; the dread coma\nof death settles down on the mind and heart where Satan's seat is; and\nhe watches for the rending of soul and body asunder which will seal for\neternity his claim to his possession of the sinner.  The hour strikes;\nthe horrible spasm of death seizes the frame and passes; the Evil One\nclutches with hellish eagerness the liberated spirit that is now his\nforever.  The lost soul with the swiftness of thought is judged,\nSatan's claim is granted, and the lost wretch flees into outer\ndarkness, the eternal slave of hell.  But what a difference now\ntranspires! for such a soul can no longer be used as the active\ninstrument of the divine dishonour, and Satan finds satisfaction in\npossessing a soul only when he can use it as a co-worker with himself\nin his warfare with God.\n\n\nIII.  _The Limitations of the Tempter_\n\nOur consideration of Satan's strength has shown us something of the\nawful and malignant character of his office.  We see that he is not a\nfoe to be despised, and the soul that thinks lightly of his antagonism\nis marked by him as a sure {23} victim.  Yet despite all this, to fear\nSatan is to dishonour God.  What would be thought of a soldier in the\narmies of an earthly kingdom who was afraid of the enemy?  He may be\nfar from despising him; he may recognize his power and skill, but to be\nafraid of him would be the mark of the caitiff.  How much more\ndishonourable is it in the soldiers of Jesus Christ, our Captain, to\nstand in fear when He is fighting for us, and has promised us certain\nvictory if only we be faithful.\n\nThis is the first consideration that should nerve and enhearten us; but\nthere is a second and most important one to which God would direct our\nattention, namely, the natural limitations of the adversary himself.\n\nThe popular notion of Satan is an extraordinarily erroneous one, and\nthe reaction from it has driven many to a complete denial of his\nexistence.  Many make a god of him, endow him with attributes of deity,\nregarding him as both omnipresent and omniscient.  But we are ever to\nremember that Satan is a creature, finite and limited.\n\n(1) He is in no sense omnipresent.  \"No angel nor devil has any gift of\nubiquity.  If any created spirit be in one place, he is not in another.\nIf he is busy protecting, or endangering, the soul of {24} one, he is\nnot with another.\"[11]  Satan has no more power than we have to be in\nmore than one place at the same time, although, through the faithful\nagency of his many evil angels, fellow-devils with himself, he is able\nto deal with every soul.  We speak in popular language of Satan\ntempting us, but it is probable that most of our temptations, though\ninspired by him, are not brought to us by him directly and in his own\nproper person, but through spiritual or other agencies under his\ncontrol.\n\n(2) Again, Satan is not omniscient.  This attribute, like that of\nomnipresence, belongs to God alone.  Doubtless, in common with other\npurely spiritual beings, and in spite of his fall, he has, in virtue of\nhis nature, vaster knowledge of things than we can now grasp, but his\nknowledge is necessarily limited and finite, and any attainment, or\nincrease of it, must be through finite processes.\n\n(3) Another truth that brings us the greatest comfort and courage is\nthat which is revealed in Holy Scripture, namely, that he has no power\nof reading our minds and hearts.  It must ever be a consolation to us\nto know that in times of temptation neither he nor the fallen spirits\nhe employs can know what effect their evil suggestions are producing in\nour hearts, except in so {25} far as we give outward evidence of\nit.[12]  Could he at times see how troubled and afraid we are, how near\nto yielding, he would redouble his assault with such fury as might\nsweep us wholly away; but God in His merciful kindness withholds this\nknowledge from him.\n\nThis should teach us the necessity of a calm and untroubled front in\ntimes of temptation; giving no outward sign of perturbation that might\nencourage him; remembering how Satan's experience has given him skill\nbeyond our thought in reading such signs.  To give such outward\nindications would be to notify him of our fear of him; and also would\nadvertise him that we were not putting our trust wholly in God.  Let\nhim be given these two assurances, and our chance of escape would be\nsmall.\n\n\nIV.  _The Restraint of the Divine Decrees_\n\nAs we have seen, Satan is limited as are all creatures, but his\nlimitations are more than those which belong of necessity to a finite\nand created {26} nature.  Because of his rebellion and his warfare\nagainst the Saints, God by decree has set him his bounds, as perhaps He\nhas done with none other of His creatures.\n\n(1) He can tempt a soul that is in grace only with explicit permission\nfrom God.  This is taught clearly in the history of the temptations of\nJob.[13]  He defames the character of this servant of God, challenging\nGod, as it were, to give him permission to test the Saint.  The\npermission is given, and then, and not till then, is Satan able to lay\nsiege to the heart of the patriarch.\n\n(2) After God's permission has been given, the extent of the temptation\nis also specially marked out by God.  He sends Satan forth with\npermission to try His servant, but decrees what he can, and what he\ncannot, do.  \"Behold all that he hath is in thy power; only upon\nhimself put not forth thy hand.\"  This was the limitation of the first\ntemptation, and when in it \"Job sinned not, nor charged God foolishly,\"\nfor the further perfecting of His servant and the confusion of the\ntempter, He gives a second permission, for each detailed temptation had\nto be stamped with the divine approval.  But here again was the\ndefinite bound set.  \"Behold he is in thine hand, but save his life.\"\n\n{27}\n\nBut in many cases God sets for Satan an even more baffling limitation\nthan was done in the trial of Job, not allowing him to know definitely\nhow far he will be allowed to go.  He has no rights in his work of\ntemptation.  God has made no covenant with him to allow him anything;\nhe is permitted to operate little by little, here and there, and from\ntime to time, not according to his own will or wish, but only as God\nwills for His own glory.\n\nIf he knew in the beginning the exact limit, if nothing more, he could\nso much the more intelligently prepare his plans.  He is, however, in\nthe position of a man who is bidden to prepare for a journey, but is\ngiven no idea of the distance it is to cover, along what road it will\nbe, or what space of time it will occupy.  The plan laid out in such a\ncase must be, at best, a poor kind of thing.  God has promised us that\nwe shall not be tempted above that we are able.  In other words, that\nHe will preside over this battle, watching it in its every detail, and\nwhen the limit of our strength is reached, the tempter will be\ninstantly checked.  What must be his rage and chagrin to find so often\nthe spoil of the battle apparently all but within his grasp, when\nsuddenly his arm is shortened, his power paralysed.\n\n\n\n[1] \"Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a\nroaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.\"--1 Peter v, 8.\n\n[2] Rev. xii, 7.\n\n[3] \"It seems certain that this sin was pride, which is the beginning\nof all sin....  More specifically, the pride of the fallen angels seems\nto have been a refusal to accept the position of creature, subject in\nall things to their Creator.\"--Hunter, _Outlines of Dogmatic Theology_,\n448.\n\n[4] Rom. v, 20.\n\n[5] \"According to the divine economy, the Evil One is not consigned at\nonce to the place of punishment allotted to him, but is permitted to be\nat large for the trial and probation of men; that he may, though\ncontrary to his own design, render the Saints more righteous through\npatience, and become the cause of greater glory to them.\"--St. Macarius\nthe Egyptian, _Institutes of Christian Perfection_, Bk. IV, ch. ii\n(London, 1816).\n\n[6] Ps. cvii, 16.\n\n[7] Ps. xcviii, 2.\n\n[8] Rom. v, 12.\n\n[9] 1 Cor. xv, 55.  Compare Hosea xiii, 14.\n\n[10] Heb. xii, 23.\n\n[11] Moberly, _The Administration of the Holy Spirit_, p. 25.\n\n[12] \"For Thou, even Thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children\nof men.\"--1 Kings viii, 39.\n\n\"After all, with all his vast knowledge and experience, he is but a\ncreature.  He cannot know you from within; he is not omniscient, not\nomnipresent.  He can only _guess_ at your motives,--the secret spring\nof your actions.\"--Webb, _The Presence and Office of the Holy Spirit_,\npp. 78-79.\n\n[13] Job i and ii.\n\n\n\n\n{28}\n\nCHAPTER III\n\nTHE TEMPTER: HIS CHARACTERISTICS AND METHODS\n\n\nI.  _Satan, the Deceiver_\n\nThe foremost characteristic of Satan is that which marks him as a\nDeceiver.  It was by deceit that he brought death into the world and\nall our woe.  Our first mother was \"beguiled through his subtilty,\"[1]\nand \"being deceived, was in the transgression.\"[2]  Our Lord declares\nhim to be the father of lies,[3] and the constant apostolic warning is\nagainst his falsehood and deceit.  He secures the active allegiance of\nmen by \"blinding the minds of them which believe not\";[4] he is able to\nlead astray God's people by being \"transformed into an angel of\nlight,\"[5] and through his wiles and lying wonders he seeks \"to seduce,\nif it were possible, even the elect.\"[6]  So we are taught to watch and\npray \"lest the devil find room to deceive, who never sleeps, but goes\nabout seeking whom he may devour.\"[7]\n\n{29}\n\nNevertheless there is great consolation in the fact that his chief\nweapon is deceit.  By using it he bears his testimony that, though we\nbe far gone from righteousness, yet, should we be permitted to see\nclearly, truth rather than error would appeal to us.\n\nNo man chooses evil for evil's sake.[8]  Before he makes such a choice\nhe is deceived into thinking either that the thing is good, or that\nunder the particular circumstances it is right for him to make what,\nunder other conditions, would be a sinful choice.  Thus, much of the\nsin we commit comes from making ourselves an exception to rules which\nwe ourselves acknowledge, and it has been said that such action is of\nthe very essence of immorality.\n\nOne of Satan's favourite deceptions is practised upon us in regard to\nhimself.  It has been well said that Satan's master-stroke in these\nlatter times is his policy of persuading men that he himself has no\nexistence.  If an army disbelieves in the existence of an enemy, no\nguard will be kept, and it will be easily surprised and overcome.[9]\n{30} So we may be sure that those who deny the personality of Satan\nwill sooner or later be his captives.  Knowing this he operates as\nhiddenly as possible.\n\nHow different is his plan of warfare from what it was two thousand\nyears ago.  Men believed in him then, and he fought them in the open.\nNow they question his existence, and he goes softly lest they should\ndiscover their error through his too manifest activity.  In our Lord's\ntime, for example, demoniacal manifestation was common; it is rarely\nheard of now.  Satan does not care to be too much in evidence.  He\nencourages us to think lightly of him that we may all the more surely\nfall into his snares.\n\nHere we see the evidence of his absolute devotion to his cause.  Wiser\nin his generation than the children of light,[10] he is willing to be\neffaced if thereby the glory of the kingdom of hell can be enhanced.\nWe often mar what we do for God by conspicuously claiming the credit;\nhe asks for no credit if only the result redounds to his power.\n\n{31}\n\nII.  _The Fact of his Personality_\n\nThe question of the personality of Satan is one that we must briefly\nconsider here.  Do we believe in a personal devil?  The answer to this\nquestion will show what is our attitude towards the spiritual conflict.\nWe may go further, and say that it will show whether, in the last\nanalysis, we believe there is any spiritual conflict.[11]\n\nIn these days when man is made the measure of all things, both divine\nand devilish, we often hear it said that every soul is its own tempter,\nthat what revelation calls temptation is but the working out of a\nso-called \"evil principle\" that resides by nature in every human\nspirit.[12]\n\nOf course, there is a partial truth in this, for {32} when we yield\nourselves to Satan's power by consenting to sin, we then become his\nservants, and just as one man often acts as Satan's agent in tempting\nanother, so, too, we can act as his agent in tempting ourselves.  But\nit is none the less his personal work though carried out through\nanother.\n\nTo deny the personality of Satan involves one in all manner of denials\nof Scripture and Church teaching.  Revelation declares that God made\nour first parents and pronounced them \"very good.\"[13]  Whence then\narose the inherent \"principle of evil\" that wrought their temptation?\nDid God create in them and pronounce \"very good\" that which asserted\nitself so desperately against His will, or did it come from a\npersonally directed intelligence outside of them?\n\nAgain, in the second Adam, if He is indeed the God-man, the Incarnate\nJehovah, whence came His temptation?  If it came from some principle\nwithin Him, then just in so far as His temptation was greater than ours\nmust the evil principle dwelling in Him have been greater; and when we\nconsider the extent of His temptation we must then conclude that His\nhuman nature had more inherent evil in it than that of any other who\nhas ever braved the perils of the spiritual conflict.\n\n{33}\n\nAgain, the verdict of the Christian experience of all ages has been\nthat the more nearly men attain to the likeness of Christ, the more\nthey are tempted.  Does then the increase of the Christ-character give\nadded virulence and strength to the evil that is within?\n\nThese illustrations of temptation show that those who reject the\npersonality of Satan and of his evil angels, and substitute for it the\nidea of temptation arising from an evil principle within, are involving\nthemselves in conclusions which strike at the very fundamentals of\ndivine revelation concerning God and His relations to man.\n\n\nIII.  _His Experience and Wisdom_\n\nOne of Satan's most powerful means of warfare lies in his experience in\ndealing with the souls of men.  We dare not presume to think that we\ncan oppose or overreach him with any gift of discernment that we have\nof ourselves.  His experience in this warfare has been age-long.  Ours\nhas covered but a few brief years.  His devotion to his cause has been\nunflagging, and so, by his strenuous attention to the business in hand,\nhe has acquired vast stores of knowledge as to methods of temptation.\nOur knowledge of attack and resistance is a poor and beggarly thing,\nbecause when God would place us in the school {34} of temptation that\nwe might learn this military science, we are wanting in devotion to our\ncause and miss the numberless opportunities that are offered.\n\nFurthermore, Satan has dealt with millions of souls of the same type as\nours, dealt with them and mastered them.  It were the height of folly\nfor us to imagine that there might be any thing in our nature, or in\nour aim and purpose, that he has not met and studied in characters far\nstronger than ours.  Taken apart from God, there is nothing in us that\ncan for a moment baffle so powerful and experienced a foe.  We can\npresent no new front to him.  Only the infinite strength and variety of\nGod's grace can supply that which will surely baffle and defeat him.\n\nAs we study the history of his dealings with the souls of men we see\nnot only that he is faithful to his own abominable ideals and aims, and\nso acquires great knowledge of the methods which avail against us, but\nthat he is faithful and methodical in using the experience he has\ngained.\n\nHe makes the most of what he has.  If he discovers that a certain mode\nof temptation is effective against men, he wastes neither time nor\nforce in wandering afield after new things.  He works one method\nthoroughly, getting out of it {35} all possible dishonour to God,\nbefore seeking new ways and means.  He never scatters his force, but is\never intensifying and concentrating it, daily seeking to perfect more\nand more his method of warfare.\n\nLet us see how careful he is to utilize his own tremendous experiences.\nTake the first recorded temptation that he brought against man.  What\nwas his course of reasoning in devising it?  \"I fell through the desire\nto be like God,\" he reflects.  \"This same temptation will ensnare this\nnew handiwork of God whom He has made in His own image and likeness.\"\nIt was to him unthinkable that any intelligent being should not have\nthat aspiration, and he approaches our first mother, promising as the\nreward of sin, \"Ye shall be as gods.\"[14]  His confidence was not\ndisappointed.  The lure attracted, man fell, and sin and death entered\nthe world.\n\nWe note that he again falls back upon his experience in tempting the\nsecond Adam.  He hears the Father's voice declare, \"Thou art My Beloved\nSon,\"[15] and immediately he proceeds to test Him.  Mark the substance\nof his insolent assault.  \"If thou art the Son of God, prove it,\nvindicate your claim.  I challenge it.  Turn {36} these stones into\nbread, and by this miracle show me that you are like God.\"[16]\n\nThis he believed would be the supreme test.  His own fall had come\nthrough his ambition; the fall of the human race had its beginning in\nthe same proud aspiration; and surely, he argued, it would prove\neffective against this new opponent of his power as prince of this\nworld.  We know what was the issue of the attempt.  No sin could enter\nthe heart of the Sinless One, and yet He allowed Himself to be thus\ntempted that we might find in His example a means of offsetting the\nadvantage our enemy has in his vast experience with men and their\nfrailties.\n\n\nIV.  _The Methods of his Might_\n\nNot in a single chapter, nor yet in many chapters, would it be possible\nfor us to discuss all the forms of the might with which Satan wars\nagainst the servants of God.  We must hasten on to the consideration of\nsome of those that he most commonly employs.\n\n(1) His activity.  He never sleeps; he never rests on his arms.  What\nseem to be pauses in the battle are only intervals he is employing to\nstudy us more carefully, and to plot some more {37} subtle and\ningenious method of attack.  Even in moments of defeat he is alert to\nrecover even the smallest advantage.  How often when we have just won\nfrom him some hard-fought battle, and are pausing, as it were, for\nbreath, our vigilance relaxed ever so little, does he discharge a\nParthian shot of pride in our victory, or of impatience which, if it\ndoes not wound us grievously, at least mars the perfection of the\nvictory we had secured by God's grace.\n\n(2) His aggression.  We are, perhaps, in many instances, ready to use\nthe opportunities that present themselves to labour for God's glory,\nbut how salutary a lesson have we to learn from him who, in the\ninterests of eternal unrighteousness, does not wait for opportunity,\nbut labours unceasingly to _create_ occasions for the dishonour of our\nGod.  He goes up and down the world \"seeking whom he may devour,\"[17]\nletting nothing slip that can forward his infernal designs.\n\nIn furthering the glory of God and the work of the kingdom we count\nourselves to have done well if we have been fairly faithful to the\nopportunities that come.  We hear much, among even the best of\nspiritual teachers, of seizing opportunities of grace, but little is\nsaid of _making_ such opportunities, of watching and labouring, keen\n{38} and alert to turn to good account and to God's glory every\ncircumstance, whether or not it seem in itself to bear the hall-mark of\nheaven-sent opportunity.\n\nHow much more zealous is Satan in the evil cause!  He not only uses\nevery opportunity that comes, but he counts himself to have done little\nunless he has forced occasions for wounding the divine Majesty and\nenslaving souls made in the image of God.\n\n(3) His persistency.  Though it is within the power of the soul, by a\nstout and persistent defence, to discourage Satan in regard to certain\nparticular temptations, yet in regard to temptation in general he is\nnever discouraged.  However many times we may inflict defeat upon him,\nhowever mighty in battle the soul of saint or sinner may wax, he never\nresigns the hope that he may yet secure dominion in the heart in which\nGod now reigns.\n\nWhat a frightening suggestion this offers!  He who knows us so well,\nbetter than we know ourselves, better than anyone knows us save God and\nour Guardian Angel, sees ever in us possibilities of final and eternal\nfailure.  There is always some definite thing in us that buoys up his\nhope that he may yet be able to persuade or deceive us into rejecting\nthe service of God and accepting {39} his.  Every time we yield to the\nslightest sin or laxity, we encourage and embolden him still more,\nuntil he feels that he can safely attack the soul that but a little\ntime before he feared.  It is thus that we become responsible for our\nown temptations, raise up occasions for sin, and give, by our often\ndeliberate acts, vantage ground and footing to him from which he can\ndrive home a deadly stroke.\n\n(4) A fourth characteristic is the patience with which he works.  He\nbides his time.  We should naturally think that when he found a soul in\na sinful environment he would immediately use the occasion to lead it\ninto some serious sin, but by no means does he always take this course.\nOften in the most sinful surroundings he does not, for a long time,\nallow the sight of sin to suggest participation in it.  He waits until\nwe are accustomed to its presence; until the sense of shock wears off.\nHe begins by getting us to tolerate the fact of sin about us, for he\nknows that any toleration of sin in the general life with which we are\nsurrounded is a long step towards tolerating it in ourselves.\n\nSo he waits with a patience born of a deep-laid plot.  He notes that\nafter a while we see our Lord fearfully dishonoured, and our souls are\nnot thereby grieved and outraged; that we come {40} and go in a world\nwhere He is being crucified daily, but with a smiling countenance that\nmasks no broken heart beneath.\n\nThen he begins to insinuate his suggestions to evil.  Perhaps the\ntemptation at first is to some slight sin only, merely venial.  He\nwould not rouse our slumbering conscience by the frightening\ntemptations to that which is serious.  But Satan has no interest in a\nsoul committing venial sins merely for their own sake.  Venial sin\ncannot deliver us into his power, and cannot keep us out of heaven.\n\nIt is well for us to remember this.  Satan cares nothing for venial sin\n_per se_.  He never tempts a soul to it save as a cunningly laid\npreparation for that deadly sin which follows logically upon a long and\nreckless course of venial sin; and the soul that deliberately yields to\nlittle temptations is knowingly, wilfully, and deliberately aiding and\nabetting the devil in his plan for the supreme dishonour of our God.\n\nSo through all these steps the Satanic patience endures.  He sees the\nsoul's sensibilities becoming more and more blunted; the conscience\nless and less sensitive.  He sees the little act of sin lightly\nconsented to, then the habit formed.  He marks the soul's defences\ncrumbling, and in a well-chosen hour, subtly and in some familiar {41}\nguise, he presents the temptation to the great offence, and his triumph\nis complete.\n\n(5) The last characteristic we shall consider is his ready adaptability\nto every circumstance that transpires in the midst of the battle.  He\ncares not how we are tempted, if only our fall can be secured.  We, in\nour self-will, often desire to serve God in some particular way, and\nlose interest when we have to change our method.  Satan gives us an\nexample in this, for he cares not how he fights, if only he can, in\nsome small measure at least, accomplish God's dishonour.  He has no pet\nplans to which he clings in a self-willed way.  Utterly devoted to his\ncause, he feels no reluctance or sense of personal chagrin at having to\ngive up a certain method he has been using to dishonour God in us.  He\ngladly and immediately resigns what he finds is not to the purpose.\n\nWe see this illustrated in the swiftness with which he shifts the point\nof attack, often with great readiness and seeming graciousness\naccepting as his own the point of view from which we reject his first\noverture.\n\nThis is vividly illustrated in his temptation of our Lord in the\nwilderness.  In response to the first temptation, our Lord shows that\nman is not to live by bread alone, not by merely natural means, even\nthough in themselves they may be {42} good, but that he is to be\nsustained by a trust in God.  Instantly Satan changes his front.  He\ntakes Him up upon a pinnacle of the temple and delivers the second\ntemptation, which in substance is this: \"You are entirely right.  God\nmust be trusted implicitly and in all things.  Now give an evidence of\nyour trust in Him.  Cast yourself down, for it is written--(and here we\nsee how the devil so completely shifts to our Lord's point of view that\nhe begins to quote Scripture himself),--'He shall give His angels\ncharge concerning thee, and in their hands they shall bear thee up,\nlest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone.\"  But the Blessed\nOne could not be deceived.  Again fell the crushing _Scriptum est_, and\nagain the tempter is vanquished.\n\nAs we have just seen in his quotation from Scripture, if it suits his\npurpose he will make use of the best and holiest things if only he can\nbalk God's will,--things which, in themselves, he must fear and hate.\n\"So he may cozen and deceive thee, he cares not whether it be by truth\nor falsehood,\" says a Kempis.[18]  He will try to induce us to go to\nchurch when he knows that in so doing we may be neglecting plain,\nGod-sent duties at home.  He could not possibly desire us to meditate\non holy things, and yet a {43} self-willed meditation, to the neglect\nof charity or obedience, is most pleasing to him, and he will incite us\nto it, even smoothing the way for us, suggesting to us beautiful and\nholy thoughts, and glad to help us with our meditation because he knows\nit is being made selfishly, and therefore contrary to the divine will.\n\n\nV.  _The Soul's Safety_\n\nOur assurance of escaping the power of this malignant and tireless foe\nlies:\n\n(1) In never parleying or arguing with him.  He is far cleverer than we\nare, and if we stop to consider his proposals, or to reason about them,\nour fate will, sooner or later, be that of our first mother, who,\nbecause she was willing to hear what the tempter had to say, found\nherself deceived to her utter undoing.  Our only safe course lies in\ninstant and vigorous rejection of all that he suggests.\n\n(2) But, although we shall see later that it is often wise to ignore\nhim wholly,[19] our resistance is not to be merely a passive one.  We\nare to meet point with point, attack with counter-attack.  If he is\ntirelessly active in his cause, there must be in us a corresponding\nactivity and zeal for God's {44} service and for the safety of our\nsouls; a like aggressive spirit, a forcing of circumstances and\nconditions, wherever possible, that glory may be won for our King, and\nthe power of the devil diminished; a like persistency, and equal\nalertness, a ready trying of one method, then another; and no matter\nwhat past failures may have been, a continuing the fight, that in the\nend we may be worthy of the victory.\n\nIf we can learn these lessons, though the strength and prowess of Satan\nbe an hundred-fold greater than that which human might can own, yet we\nshall have no fear of him.  On the contrary he will fear us, delivering\nhis attacks warily, lest he find his power shattered by the weapons\nwith which we shall be able to oppose him.\n\nWe were considering a little while ago how Satan \"walketh about,\nseeking whom he may devour.\"[20]  These words of St. Peter have another\nsignificance.  True, he goes about with strong and ceaseless\naggression, but he goes about seeking only those whom he _may_ devour.\nHe does not fall without discretion upon the throngs of men, as the\nlion upon the flock.  He seeks only those who will, he thinks, in the\nend yield themselves to him.  He skulks about, hiding himself, seeking,\nas we have seen, to blind men to the {45} very fact of his existence,\nuntil he finds opportunity for attack when he thinks the soul will\nyield.  Some strong souls he does not openly seek, for too often has he\nbeen defeated by them, and he fears to tempt them save in some\ninsidious, hidden way.  In dealing with such souls he loses his\nlion-like character, and lies in ambush like the coward who is afraid\nto strike save from behind.\n\nA great comfort, therefore, we must draw from the thought that Satan's\ncareer has been one of failure as well as of victory.  God's Saints,\nfollowing the lead of the King of Saints, have on a thousand\nbattle-fields trampled him under their feet; and with whatever insolent\nconfidence he may approach us, it is never without a haunting,\nunnerving fear lest the issue be what it has been many times before, a\ncrushing defeat.\n\nIt is not the weak human soul only that trembles at the impending\nconflict, but the soul of Satan, so often beaten down and humiliated at\nthe hands of the weakest of the soldiers of God.\n\n\n\n[1] 2 Cor. xi, 3.\n\n[2] 1 Tim. ii, 14.\n\n[3] St. John viii, 44.\n\n[4] 2 Cor. iv, 4.\n\n[5] 2 Cor. xi, 14.\n\n[6] St. Mark xiii, 22.\n\n[7] _Imitation_, I, xiii.\n\n[8] \"The soul, from her nature, always relishes good, though it is true\nthat the soul, blinded by self-love, does not know and discern what is\ntrue good.\"--St. Catherine of Siena, _Dialogue_, p. 122.  (Thorold\nTrans., London, 1907.)\n\n[9] \"There is something satanic in the contempt and the ridicule with\nwhich men treat Satan.  I say it is satanic because it is a Satanic\nillusion to make men cease to fear him, or cease even to believe in\nhim.  He is never more completely master of a man than when the man\nridicules his existence,--when, as we hear in these days, men say,\n'There is no devil.'\"--H. E. Manning, _Sin and Its Consequences_, pp.\n168-169.\n\n[10] St. Luke xvi, 8.\n\n[11] It is perhaps best to avoid such expressions as \"personality of\nevil,\" lest they be misunderstood.  \"Evil cannot be personal in or of\nitself; it can only obtain the advantages of personal embodiment and\naction by being accepted by an already existing creature, endowed with\nwill,--a creature which freely determines implicitly to accept it by\nrejecting good....  In Satan evil has become dominant and fixed as in a\npreviously existing personal being; there was no such thing in the\nuniverse of the Almighty and All-good God as a self-existing or\noriginally created devil.\"--Liddon, _Passiontide Sermons_, p. 95.\n\n[12] \"What do they exactly mean by this imposing phrase?  How can evil\nitself be, strictly speaking, a principle?  The essence of evil is\nabsence of principle, principle being something positive.  Evil is\ncontradiction to positive principle.\"--Liddon, _Passiontide Sermons_,\np. 88.\n\n[13] Gen. i, 31.\n\n[14] Gen. iii, 5, or rather \"as God.\"  The word in the Hebrew is simply\n_Elohim_.\n\n[15] St. Mark i, 11.\n\n[16] See Pusey, _Parochial Sermons_, Vol. II, p. 148.\n\n[17] 1 St. Peter v, 8.\n\n[18] _Imitation_, IV, xxx.\n\n[19] See page 142.\n\n[20] 1 St. Peter v, 8.\n\n\n\n\n{46}\n\nCHAPTER IV\n\nTHE UNIVERSALITY OF TEMPTATION\n\n\nI.  _The Common Lot_\n\n\"So long as we live in this world we cannot be without tribulation and\ntemptation.  Whence it is written in Job,[1] 'The life of man upon\nearth is a temptation.'\"[2]\n\nMan did not have to wait for the full revelation of God in His Son\nbefore knowing this truth.  Holy Job testifies to it out of his own\nexperience, and the Son of Sirach gives the warning, \"My son, if thou\ncome to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation.\"[3]  The\nconstant and definite warning and promise of our Lord and His Apostles\nwere to the same effect.  In the only prayer He taught His disciples, a\nprayer He commands us to use daily, they are taught to say, \"Lead us\nnot into temptation\";[4] and on the night in which He was betrayed,\nfull of tender solicitude for their souls, He warns them, \"Pray that ye\nenter not into temptation.\"[5]\n\n{47}\n\nIn all His teaching He takes it easily for granted that temptation is\nan inevitable factor in the life of those who would follow Him.  In the\nparable of the Sower He assumes, without so much as making the\nstatement, that temptation must come to every heart in which the seed\nof the Word is sown.[6]\n\nEverywhere His Apostles give us the same teaching.  St. Paul testifies\nto the presence of temptation in his own life, and warns and comforts\nhis converts concerning it, telling them of the sweetness and loving\ncare of God in it all: \"There hath no temptation taken you but such as\nis common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be\ntempted above that ye are able.\"[7]  And further, God reveals to us the\ndepth of our Lord's temptation as a source of comfort and\nencouragement: \"In that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is\nable to succour them that are tempted\";[8] and again, He \"was in all\npoints tempted like as we are.\"[9]\n\nSo likewise is it through the writings of all the Apostles.  St. James\nassumes the universal fact, and points out the way of temptation as the\nway of joy;[10] St. Peter shows how temptation {48} leads on to \"praise\nand honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ\";[11] and the\nEpistles of the Beloved Disciple, tender and full of all gentleness as\nthey are, ring with the suggestion of the Satanic antagonism, the\nwarfare and the victory.  What a trumpet call there is to the elect\nlady and her children: \"Look to yourselves, that we lose not those\nthings which we have wrought.\"[12]  It is like an echo of the\nrevelation on Patmos, the message to the faithful Philadelphians, \"Hold\nthat fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown.\"[13]\n\n\nII.  _Enduring Hardship_\n\nIt is a part of the temptation itself that, as we contemplate the fact\nof its universality, the question should arise in the soul, weary with\nthe battle, sore with long buffeting, \"Is there no rest, no cessation\nfrom the strain and stress of the warfare?\"\n\nThe question comes from Satan.  Assuming the role of a comforter, he\nwhispers to us of the hardness of the ceaseless struggle.  It is a\ntemptation to induce us to forget our character as the followers of our\nLord.  When we were baptized we were signed with the Sign of the Cross\nin {49} token that we should \"manfully fight under Christ's banner\nagainst sin, the world, and the devil, and continue Christ's faithful\nsoldier and servant unto our life's end.\"[14]\n\nIn short, at our Baptism we were enlisted and sealed as soldiers, and a\nsoldier who never fights has no reason for existing.  A soldier who\nturns himself back in the day of battle is not only unworthy of his\nname and character, but is by this act reversing the whole principle of\nhis life and vocation.  We are members of the Church Militant,--the\nfighting Church.  The Son of God has gone forth to war, the\ntrumpet-call to His soldiers has sounded.  It were shame upon the\nsoldier of an earthly army should he, at such a time, linger and repine\nbecause of the battle, and surely those who contend for no earthly\nlaurel, but for the \"crown of glory that fadeth not away,\"[15] cannot\nafford to do less.\n\nLet us never forget that we are members of an army, that it is a time\nof war; our Captain has gone forth with His host; \"The ark and Israel,\nand Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord\nare encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house to eat\nand to drink?\"[16]\n\nWe must not, however, leave the matter at {50} this point, lest some be\n\"swallowed up with overmuch sorrow,\"[17] and find only despair where\nthey looked for consolation.  In the spiritual combat, unceasing as it\nis, there are many considerations which offer comfort.  These we shall\nnot here meditate upon at length.  They will find their place before we\nclose our study of this holy warfare.  But it will help and encourage\nus to remind ourselves that in this struggle the exercise of strength\ndoes not exhaust the soul.\n\nIn the moment that we seem weakest, then are we strong, because\nChrist's strength is made perfect in our weakness.[18]  Then it is that\nGod teaches us our own insufficiency that we may look not to anything\nthat we have or do, but to Him that He may send us \"help from the\nsanctuary and strengthen us out of Sion.\"[19]  Great strain upon bodily\nstrength depletes it, but the more unsparing the call upon our\nspiritual energies, the more are they confirmed and increased.  Then\nagain, the harder the battle, the more splendid the victory and the\nreward.  Every Satanic device and energy that is directed against us\ndoes but swell the opportunity for a more glorious place in the\nKingdom.  So a Kempis {51} says: \"These help to virtue; these test the\nyoung soldiers of Christ; these fashion the heavenly crown.\"[20]\n\nThus does evil react upon itself for its own destruction, and surely\nnone but a pusillanimous soul will desire to flee the honour of being\nused as the sure occasion and instrument of the glory of our God, and\nof the overthrow of Satan.\n\n\nIII.  _The Sufferings of the Saints_\n\nThe holy author of the \"Imitation of Christ\" tells us, \"No man is so\nperfect and holy as not sometimes to have temptations.\"[21]  The\nuniversality of temptation is found not only in respect to outward\ncondition and circumstance, but also in respect to the character of\nthose against whom Satan directs his malice.  Saintly souls longing for\na still greater saintliness, if they truly discern the things of the\nSpirit, will not fall into the snare of thinking that perhaps some day\nin this life they will become so like our Lord that temptation can\nnever more vex and torment them.  To become like Him will be to invite\nmore desperate {52} attacks.  The more we are conformed to His\nlikeness, the more must we expect to arouse the hatred and malice of\nthe Evil One.  He who is the Holy of Holies was, just because of that\nfact, tempted as never other man was tempted.\n\nNot only is our greater conformity to Christ the signal for Satan's\nattack, but we must expect the particular occasions of God's outpouring\nof grace upon us to be also the occasions of special and perhaps\nimmediate assault.\n\nIt was so with our Lord.  There are few words in the narrative of\nstronger or more valuable significance than the adverb with which St.\nMatthew begins the fourth chapter of his Gospel: \"_Then_ was Jesus led\nup of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.\"\n\nBishop Andrewes says: \"When as Christ was but newly come out of the\nwater of Baptism, and immediately after the heavens had opened unto\nHim, and the Holy Ghost descended upon Him in the likeness of a dove,\nand while He was yet full of the Holy Ghost, did the devil set upon\nHim\";[22] and saintly old Leighton warns us: \"Thou shalt be sure to be\nassaulted when thou hast received the greatest enlargements from\nheaven, either at the Sacrament or in prayer, or in any other way; then\nlook for an onset.  {53} This arch-pirate lets the empty ships pass,\nbut lays wait for them when they return richest laden.\"[23]\n\nThus the soul that has received special blessings of God must expect\nspecial attack, not only because it is natural for Satan to seek\npromptly to offset and quench the divine grace, but because when God\ngives us special spiritual strength He gives it in order that it may be\nused, and He Himself will supply the opportunity by permitting Satan to\nmake his attack.  \"It is God's property to look for much at his hands\nto whom He hath given much.  When He gives a man a large measure of\ngrace, He gives the devil withal a larger patent.\"[24]\n\nThe like experience has ever been suffered by the Saints.  We read of\ntheir struggles with temptation, and of the methods the adversary\nemploys against them, and they sound often impossible and grotesque.\nWe are inclined to dismiss them as the product of the childish\nimagination of some mediaeval chronicler; but how do we know the method\nof the devil with the Saints?  He never has occasion to deal with us in\nany unusual way.  He is able to overthrow us daily with the most\nordinary and commonplace {54} temptations; how then dare we say how he\nmight approach those against whom no common temptation can avail?\n\nThus are we taught not to look forward to growth in holiness as a means\nof escape from temptation.  Such expectation would in itself be sin,\nbecause we should then be seeking God's gifts for our own selfish ease\nand indulgence, and not for His honour.  If He should vouchsafe us the\ngrace to attain to great achievement in the spiritual life, it would be\na base return for His goodness to shut those graces up in our hearts\n(were such a thing possible), instead of using them in more extended\nendeavour for the glory of His Kingdom; instead of arming ourselves by\ntheir means for more complete and crushing conquests of His enemies.\n\nThe Saints are led along the path of sanctity that they may be more\neffective soldiers; not that they may by such progress escape from the\npresence of the foe, and find a pusillanimous peace in this life, while\nall the powers of evil are storming at the gates of the Kingdom, and\nmaking captives of the King's children.\n\nPeace is to be had indeed, and in this life, \"for the Kingdom of God is\nrighteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost,\"[25] but, says a\nKempis, {55} \"he that knows how to suffer will possess the greatest\npeace.\"  Endurance of hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ is the\nonly passport to honourable peace in this life, the only pledge of the\n\"peace of God which passeth all understanding\"[26] in the life to come.\n\n\nIV.  _Satan in the Sanctuary_\n\nThomas a Kempis tells us again, \"There is no order so holy nor place so\nsecret where there be not temptations.\"[27]\n\nIt would seem that the energies of Satan against God would, from the\nnature of things, find themselves paralysed under certain conditions.\nSurely, one should think, the devil could introduce his temptations\nmore readily in a brothel than in a church, in ordinary secular\nemployment rather than when we are engaged in the service of the\nsanctuary.\n\nSuch, however, is not the case.  Amid the common employments of the\ncarpenter shop in Nazareth we should scarcely have wondered had He been\ntempted; but that the enemy should have approached the Incarnate Son of\nGod while in the midst of His great retreat in preparation for His\nministry does fill us with astonishment.  {56} Or if it seem not\nunnatural that He should have been tempted in the desert solitudes, yet\nwe do marvel at the audacity that led the tempter to bear Him to the\nholy precincts of the temple, and seize upon the circumstances there to\ntempt Him to seek other than His Father's will.  But so it was with the\nMaster, and so shall it be with the disciple.[28]\n\nWho has not been tempted at the holiest times and in the most sacred\nplaces?  Is it not, furthermore, the common experience that Satan the\nmore eagerly and readily pursues us under such circumstances?  There is\na principle in it, and a most natural one.  It is a favourite device of\nthe enemy to assault us at such times for two reasons.\n\nFirst, because he knows that could he induce us to sin under such\ncircumstances, his victory would be greater, the dishonour of God would\nbe deeper, the hurt to the soul more serious.  Many a soul has been\nstartled while kneeling in the very act of receiving the Blessed\nSacrament by the swift, sudden onslaught of some strong temptation.  To\nyield at such a time would not only bring upon it the guilt of the sin\nitself, but there would be added to it something of the nature of\nsacrilege.  Satan knows this, and is keen to gain every advantage from\nit.\n\n{57}\n\nSecondly, he seeks to lead us into sin under these conditions because\nhe fears especially what is going on in our souls.  God is drawing near\nto us, and we are drawing near to Him.[29]  We are hearkening what the\nLord God will say concerning us,[30] and He is preparing to speak in\nour souls with the Voice that is \"mighty in operation,\"[31] with the\nVoice of which it is said, \"He spake the word and they were made, He\ncommanded and they were created.\"[32]\n\nSatan knows how that Voice in the attentive heart can speak into being\nnew creations of divine grace, and of strength unto the battle; and it\nis to his utmost interest that our hearts be turned aside from hearing\nthe divine Voice within.  It is a great blow to his power for a soul to\nmake a good Communion, to pray a holy prayer, or to be able to listen\npiously and without distraction to a spiritual instruction or\nexposition of God's holy word.  Such acts are acts of offensive warfare\nagainst him, and it is no wonder if he then rouses himself and his evil\nagents to check this inroad into his kingdom.\n\nSo let us not be surprised if many distractions come in these times of\ndevotion, and if they endure long.  Nor must we expect to be freed {58}\nfrom them as long as we live, for they constitute one of Satan's\nfavourite modes of attack.  St. Francis de Sales was once asked by a\nSister of the Visitation how she could be rid of distractions in\nprayer.  With that wise humour so characteristic of the Saint, he\nreplied, \"Die and be saved.\"[33]  He knew of nothing short of this,\nthat could free one from Satanic interruption.  \"To be clean delivered\nfrom it,\" says Walter Hilton, \"so that he shall feel no suggestion, nor\njangling of fleshly affections, or of vain thoughts at any time, that\ncan no man come to in this life.\"[34]\n\nLet us remember, however, that involuntary distraction is not sin.  If\nas soon as we are conscious that the mind has wandered we bring it back\nagain, our souls are clear.  We may wander again the next minute, but\nas long as we {59} continue by acts of the will to bring the attention\nback again, no sin is upon us.\n\nThe sin, at such times, lies in being disheartened, but a little\nreflection on the principle involved will keep us safe.  Satan seeks to\ninterrupt our prayers because he fears them; and God help the poor\nblinded soul who is happy and satisfied because the Evil One does not\nthink his devotions are worth interrupting.\n\n\nV.  _The Sacrament of Temptation_\n\nIf temptation be so universal, and if, as is usually the case, it is a\ncondition which is attached more particularly to the lives of those who\nare making the greatest effort of conformity to the divine will, we are\nirresistibly drawn to the conclusion that there must be some signal\nblessing to be gained from enduring it.\n\nSt. James tells us, \"Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for\nwhen he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord\nhath promised to them that love Him.\"[35]  This apostolic beatitude can\nhardly be said to refer only to the blessedness that comes from so\nmeeting temptation as merely to escape sin.  This would make the\nbeatitude a poor thing that might {60} be supposed to belong as truly\nto the man who is never tempted at all.  The Apostle is, we can be\nsure, speaking of a special blessing that comes from bearing a part in\nthe spiritual warfare; and he goes on to say that the crown which\nconstitutes the reward is not one that is promised to those who succeed\nin the negative work of merely avoiding sin, but to those who excel in\nthe positive service of God, and exercise love,--\"the crown of life\nwhich the Lord hath promised to them that love Him.\"  So we see that\nthe crowning blessing derived from being tempted is that it affords us\nthe best possible opportunity of exercising that divine love which must\nbe the motive underlying all our spiritual life and action.\n\nSo it may be said that the temptation of the present moment is the\nsacrament of the present moment.  A sacrament is the outward and\nvisible sign of an inward and spiritual grace; and temptation, if met\nwith the right disposition, is a sign of a special grace with which God\ndesires to adorn our souls, a grace which we make our own whenever we\nfight valiantly, and by the power of God gain the mastery over the\ntemptation.\n\nSatan seems never to have realized this truth, or else for the\nmaintenance of his own kingdom he would refrain from his assaults on\nGod's {61} people.  So has sin blinded the very Prince of Sin.  He\nassaults the Saints of God.  In a strength not their own they drive him\nback baffled and defeated, and the turrets of the infernal citadel\ntopple and crash.  In the age-long conflict with God, he has never\nlearned how the divine purpose is using him and his malice, nay, giving\ndirect permission for its exercise against Himself, in order that the\neternal Kingdom may be the more surely built up among men.\n\n\n\n[1] Job vii, 1.  (Septuagint Version.)\n\n[2] _Imitation_, I, xiii.\n\n[3] Ecclus. ii, 1.\n\n[4] St. Matt. vi, 13.\n\n[5] St. Matt. xxvi, 41.\n\n[6] St. Matt. xiii.\n\n[7] 1 Cor. x, 13.\n\n[8] Heb. ii, 18.\n\n[9] Heb. iv, 15.\n\n[10] St. James i, 2.\n\n[11] 1 St. Peter i, 7.\n\n[12] 2 St. John 8.\n\n[13] Rev. iii, 11.\n\n[14] Office of Holy Baptism.\n\n[15] 1 Pet. v, 4.\n\n[16] 2 Sam. xi, 11.\n\n[17] 2 Cor. ii, 7.\n\n[18] 2 Cor. xii, 9.  \"Weakness is the guardian of our\nstrength.\"--Pusey, _Parochial Sermons_, II, 337, quoting St. Greg. Mag.\n\n[19] Ps. xx, 2.\n\n[20] _Imitation_, III, xxxv.  \"It happens sometimes that men's souls\nare shipwrecked through evil thoughts, but also it is by the entering\nin of such thoughts that we become worthy of being crowned.\"--_Verba\nSeniarum_, x, 86.  Quoted by Hannay in _The Wisdom of the Desert_, p.\n221.\n\n[21] _Imitation_, I, xiii.\n\n[22] Andrewes, _Sermons_, Vol. V, p. 501.\n\n[23] Archbishop Leighton, _Commentary_, in loc.\n\n[24] Andrewes, _Sermons_, Vol. V, p. 501-502.\n\n[25] Rom. xiv, 17.\n\n[26] Phil. iv, 7.\n\n[27] _Imitation_, I, xiii.\n\n[28] St. Matt. x, 24.\n\n[29] St. James iv, 8.\n\n[30] Ps. lxxxv, 8.\n\n[31] Ps. xxix, 4.\n\n[32] Ps. cxlviii, 5.\n\n[33] St. Francis de Sales, _Spiritual Conferences_, p. 138.\n\n[34] Hilton, _The Scale of Perfection_, Bk. II, Pt. I, ch. viii.\n\n\"A certain brother came to the Abbot Pastor, and said, 'Many evil\nthoughts come into my mind, and I am in danger through them.'  The old\nman led him out into the air, and said to him, 'Stretch yourself out,\nand stop the wind from blowing.'  The brother, wondering at his words,\nreplied, 'I cannot do that.'  Then the old man said to him, 'If you\ncannot stop the wind from blowing, neither can you prevent evil\nthoughts from entering your mind.  That is beyond your power; but one\nthing you can do,--conquer them.'\"--_Verba Seniorum_, xi, 50.  Quoted\nby Hannay, p. 217.\n\n[35] St. James i, 12.\n\n\n\n\n{62}\n\nCHAPTER V\n\nTHE SPIRIT OF SOLICITUDE\n\nThomas a Kempis tells us that since the life of man upon earth is a\ntemptation, \"Everyone ought therefore to be anxious about his\ntemptations and to watch in prayer.\"[1]\n\n\nI.  _True and False Anxiety_\n\nThe anxiety to which we are exhorted is not, however, that attitude of\nmind and heart which would follow upon any uncertainty, or want of\nassurance, in regard to the result.  The word a Kempis uses gives, in\nits original significance, no such suggestion.  It is _sollicitus_,\nwhich has the force of _being wholly aroused_.  That is to say, because\nlife on earth is a temptation, we are warned that our whole being must\nbe stirred in the face of such a condition.\n\nThere must not be a single faculty that is not keen and alert to enter,\nat a moment's notice, upon the conflict.  Every part of our nature must\nbe as a soldier fully armed, standing ready to {63} spring instantly\nforward to the conflict at the word of command.[2]\n\nThe anxiety that engenders doubt and fear is indeed too often found\namong God's people.  \"It is never free from imperfections and always\nsprings from some evil root of self-love,\"[3] and is the result more of\na lack of faith than of any true, supernatural solicitude for the\nsafety of our souls.  We can well afford to leave all these cares with\nGod.  Says the saintly writer we have been quoting, \"Greater is Thy\nanxiety for me than all the care that I can take for myself; for he\nstands precariously who casts not all his anxiety upon Thee.\"[4]\n\nThe true Christian anxiety is closely akin to the virtue of Holy Fear,\nwhich, as we know, is one of the special gifts of the Holy Ghost.  We\nare anxious about our temptations and the possibilities of sin, because\nwe have a dread of offending a Father whose love has ever been poured\nout upon us in most precious benefactions.  The soul recognizing God's\ngoodness, and His tender, {64} fatherly love, shrinks from the baseness\nand ingratitude of wounding that love.  We are not afraid of God; we\nare afraid of offending God because we love Him.  There are few virtues\nthat are so immediately rooted in love as Holy Fear.  Of course, we\nhave no reference to that servile fear which St. John tells us is cast\nout by perfect love.[5]  He refers to the fear of the slave who dreads\nto offend because he is afraid of the lash.  Holy Fear is the fear that\nis aroused in the pure heart of a little child who shrinks from that\nwhich would wound the love of a tender father.  We find the true\nexpression of our filial anxiety in the familiar words of Faber's hymn:\n\n  \"Oh, how I fear Thee, living God,\n    With deepest, tenderest fears,\n  And worship Thee with trembling hope,\n    And penitential tears.\"\n\n\nII.  _Worry Versus Faith_\n\nThe presence of worry is proof of absence of trust in God.  The two\ncannot abide in the same heart; and there is no more subtle device of\nthe tempter than this of arousing in us the spirit of worry concerning\nour temptations.  It is a temptation within a temptation, and this very\n{65} complication has the effect of sadly clouding the real issue.\n\nWe have the word of the Holy Ghost that \"God is faithful, who will not\nsuffer you to be tempted above that ye are able.\"[6]  The word\n_faithful_ as used here by St. Paul signifies faithfulness in carrying\nout an agreement.  It is implied that God has entered into a covenant\nwith the soul that He will permit no temptation beyond our strength to\nassail us.  The Apostle says that God is faithful and will fulfil His\npart in this covenant.  But the soul that admits worry is, in\nsubstance, saying that it is not convinced of God's faithfulness in the\nmatter, and considers, in spite of the promise, that there is much to\nfear.\n\nWorry is the mother of an innumerable brood of sins.  Well did the\nPsalmist say, \"Fret not thyself else shalt thou be moved to do\nevil.\"[7]  He knew somewhat of the sources of sin.  His own experience,\nas well as the inspiration of the Spirit, had taught him that the\nfretted soul was a fair target for a hundred darts of the enemy.  \"The\nvery sound of the word anxiety is painful,\" says a modern writer; \"next\nto sin there is {66} nothing that so much troubles the mind, strains\nthe heart, distresses the soul, and confuses the judgment.\"[8]  Imagine\nan army troubled, strained, distressed, confused; what possible chance\nwould it have of victory against a powerful and confident foe?  It\nwould be the plaything of the enemy, as indeed the human soul often is\nwhen it allows itself to be unnerved by a false anxiety.\n\nThus we see that the anxious soul is the doubting soul, and the soul\nthat doubts God's goodness and loving care in the midst of the trial\nand conflict has already flung away its weapons and prepared the terms\nof its surrender to Satan.  Even if our own experience did not teach us\nbetter, His word, so often repeated, should reassure us.  What can be\nmore comforting than the many passages concerning the divine care and\ncompassion with which the Scriptures teem?\n\nWe recall the final summing up of the last great blessing which Moses\ngave his people from God before he went up into the mount to be seen of\nthem no more.  \"The eternal God is thy refuge, and underneath are the\neverlasting arms.\"[9]  Do these words leave room for anxious doubt that\nin every assault of the enemy He will be with us?  Or those other words\nthat have brought strong {67} consolation to so many souls in the midst\nof the conflict: \"I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee\"?[10]\n\nWould that we could learn the lesson as the Psalmist learned it, that\nwe might rest upon the divine compassion, not enervated as we too often\nare by human sympathy, but with our hearts thrilling with courage,\nfearing naught, knowing that He is faithful that hath promised,[11] and\nshould the battle prove too strong He will save and deliver.  \"He shall\nsend down from on high to fetch me; and shall take me out of many\nwaters.\"[12]\n\n\nIII.  _The Cure of a Doubting Spirit_\n\nThere are many practical means we can employ to allay that kind of\nsolicitude which is both the cause and effect of a doubting spirit.\n\n(1) Think not overmuch of the dangers of the warfare.  The imagination\nbrooding over them will be apt to paint them in lurid colours that will\nterrify and weaken.  If the thought of the peril presses upon us,\nsupplant it by recalling the oft repeated pledges of divine help.\nThink rather of the glory of a conflict in which God is our Leader, and\nin which victory is absolutely assured if only we do not lose heart but\nfight on to the end.\n\n{68}\n\nRecall the precious promises He has given us, and how that often in the\nvery language of these promises we gain a glimpse of conditions of the\nwar that ought mightily to encourage us.  \"Resist the devil and he will\nflee from you,\"[13] says the Spirit, comforting us concerning the peril\nof the conflict.  Glance for a moment at the particular words the Holy\nGhost here chooses.  \"Resist the devil\"; or, to go back to the\netymology of the word, Stand against him; yield not one step to him\nhowever he may fling the full weight of his power against you.  But\nwhat will be the result?  Not only that your soul will be safe from\nstain or guilt, but that you will carry consternation into the ranks of\nhell.  \"He will flee from you,\" and the word used by the inspired\nwriter means not merely that he will withdraw and leave you, but that\nhe will make a precipitate flight, as one in a panic flees from\nimpending danger.[14]\n\nLet us remember when suggestion of fear comes that this is in itself a\nspecial temptation from Satan, and nowhere in his temptations is he\nguilty of more deliberate lying.  As a matter of fact there is no\ndanger, even in the fiercest of his assaults, to the soul that\ncherishes the {69} presence of Christ within.  For if He be in my\nheart, then the conflict is between Him and the tempter, and so long as\nmy heart is His, and I do not, by wilful sin, drive Him forth, it is as\nimpossible for Satan to conquer as it was for him to have triumphed\nover our Lord in the great conflict in the wilderness.\n\nIn short, at such times all our Lord asks is that we maintain our\nhearts for Him that He may use them as battle-fields upon which to join\nissue once more with the adversary that He may administer to him\nanother crushing defeat.  True, He uses our faculties with which to\nfight, but the battle is His, and if we stand not in the way His will\nbe the victory.  There can be no real danger to the faithful soul when\nthe struggle is conducted under these conditions.\n\n(2) Speak not of your anxieties to everyone.  We may rightly take\ncounsel with some wise spiritual guide who may be able to interpret\nthem for us; but experience shows us that many times much speaking of\nthese matters gives body and reality to troubles which have no adequate\nground, and which might easily have been driven away, had we only\nsought to divert the mind from them, and so to forget them, instead of\nimpressing them still more on the consciousness by dwelling upon them\nin thought and conversation.\n\n{70}\n\nAbove all things let not our conversation concerning our anxieties take\nthe form of complaint, for in every case the complaint is against God.\nHe is directing the detail of the warfare, and each complaint is an\nopen questioning of His justice and wisdom and love.  When Satan sees\nthat our spirits are thus inclined, how quick he is to take advantage\nof it.  How thick and fast do suggestions come that lead us swiftly on\nto that state of self-pity at the supposed hardness of our lot, that\nmeans a speedy extinction of divine grace within.  Remember that\ncomplaint means disloyalty, and disloyalty is a long step toward open\nrebellion.\n\nEven if our querulous spirit does not lead directly to such serious\nsin, it involves us in great peril.  We have already seen that Satan\nhas no means of knowing the effect of his assaults except by the\noutward indications we give.  When we openly complain of the force of\nhis attacks, are we not advertising him of our weak points?  The\ngarrison that is maintaining a siege not only seeks to keep its\nfortifications intact, but, should weakness transpire at any point, is\nmost careful not to give the enemy knowledge of it.  Keep a brave front\nalways.  This not only encourages our own heart, but discourages the\nadversary.\n\n{71}\n\n(3) We must also draw upon our past experience to convince ourselves\nthat most of our anxieties have no real basis in fact.  How many hours\nand days of troubled care can we recall which were proved by the issue\nof the event to have had reality only in our anxious imagination.\n\n\"My sons,\" said an old man on his deathbed, in giving his last counsel\nto his children, \"I have had much trouble in this life, but most of it\nnever happened.\"  This is the universal experience, and it holds good\nwith the solicitude that we feel over our temptations and other\nspiritual trials as in the less important matters of our temporal life.\n\n(4) It will be a help to remind ourselves very frequently that in\nindulging a false anxiety concerning our spiritual difficulties, we are\nseeking to-day to bear the morrow's burden, something God means no soul\nto undertake.  There are surely temptations enough to-day to require\nall of to-day's grace and strength; and, conversely, we know that no\ngrace will be wanting for the trials of the present hour.\n\nThe promise is given to us as to God's people of old, \"As thy days so\nshall thy strength be\";[15] that is, according to the need of each\nparticular occasion so will strength be given.  There is no {72}\npromise that strength will be given to-day to bear the anticipated, and\noften imaginary, ills of the future; and when we allow ourselves thus\nto anticipate them, we are courting sure defeat.\n\nSatan delights to lead us into this false anxiety, for he knows we have\nat the present moment no grace to grapple with temptations and trials\nwhich do not belong to this time; and further, he knows that a faithful\nconfidence in God now is the _sine qua non_ to securing and storing up\nstrength against the future trial.  If he can disturb that confidence\nto-day, when the real temptation comes to-morrow we shall not have laid\nhold of the grace that was offered, and so cannot but fail, unless some\nextraordinary mercy of God saves us then in spite of our faithlessness.\n\nNor should we ever permit ourselves to forget that there may be no\nto-morrow.  \"Remember that it is God's, not thine.\"[16]  How sad a case\nwould it be (and doubtless there have been many such), if we should\nweaken our souls and God's power within them, by fretting over what\nmight happen to-morrow; then, the call suddenly coming, find ourselves\nsaved indeed perhaps, but occupying a lower place in heaven forever,\nbecause in troubling our hearts over the burdens of a to-morrow that\nnever came we lost the {73} grace of to-day.  Every grace given us here\nis transmuted into glory there.  Let us not lose one of them, for the\ngraces proffered and accepted here are pledges of the measure of the\nheavenly glory that will be ours.[17]\n\n\nIV.  _God's Sympathy_\n\nBut, do what we will, after all, the best and only unfailing refuge\nfrom the snare of a false solicitude is to turn in these anxious\nmoments to Him with Whom alone true sympathy is found.  With profit may\nwe hearken to the warning of the blessed a Kempis: \"By mutual speech we\nseek mutual comfort, and desire to ease the heart overwearied with\nmanifold anxieties.....  But, alas, often in vain and to no end; for\nthis outward comfort is no small loss of inward and divine\nconsolation.\"[18]\n\nIn our solicitude we desire, and rightly desire, human sympathy, and\nGod means us to have it.  It was for this very thing that He sent His\nSon to take our nature and a human heart, full of warm love and\nsympathy, that we might find in perfection that for which we\nyearn,--the tender sympathy of our own kind.  What sweet and {74}\nstrong consideration for our weakness is shown in this.  Mere human\nsympathy only enervates, and in the end the soul is left weaker than\nbefore.  Every man's experience has told him this, and yet deep in the\nhuman heart there is that uncontrollable longing for the loving touch\nof another heart, human like our own.  God sees this, and condescends\nto it.  He takes humanity, full and complete, up into the Godhead, that\nin Him we may find that human Heart that will give us perfectly the\ncomfort and sympathy for which we yearn.\n\nSo in our solicitude let us turn to Him, our Elder Brother, and the\ndisciple who lay on His breast at Supper will have no more loving a\nwelcome, no sweeter a sympathy, than that which He will give to us who\nare wearied with the burden of life's warfare, and perplexed with the\nproblems of the battle.\n\n\n\n[1] _Imitation_, I, xiii.\n\n[2] \"When the mind ceases to entertain religious anxiety, it becomes at\nthe same time forgetful of the commandments, and while it thinks itself\nadvancing, it wanders from the smooth road, and idles on its way.\"--St.\nMacarius, _Institutes of Christian Perfection_, Bk. I, chap. v.\n\n[3] Scupoli, _The Spiritual Combat_, chap. xxv.\n\n[4] _Imitation_, IV, xvii.\n\n[5] 1 St. John iv, 18.\n\n[6] 1 Cor. x, 13.\n\n[7] Ps. xxxvii, 8.  The R. V. reads, \"Fret not thyself; it tendeth only\nto evil-doing.\"\n\n[8] Archbp. Ullathorne, _Christian Patience_, p. 128.\n\n[9] Deut. xxxiii, 27.\n\n[10] Heb. xiii, 5.\n\n[11] Heb. xi, 11.\n\n[12] Ps. xviii, 16.\n\n[13] St. James iv, 7.\n\n[14] [Greek: _pheugo_], from which our English word _fugitive_ is\nderived.\n\n[15] Deut. xxxiii, 25.\n\n[16] Pusey, _Parochial Sermons_, Vol. II, p. 158.\n\n[17] See a remarkable discourse in Dr. Pusey's _Lenten Sermons_ on \"The\nLosses of the Saved.\"\n\n[18] _Imitation_, I, x.\n\n\n\n\n{75}\n\nCHAPTER VI\n\nOUR PREPARATION FOR TEMPTATION\n\n\nI.  _A Double Weapon_\n\nIf we have the right spirit of solicitude about our temptations, it\nwill arm us with a double weapon against Satan which he will have no\npower to break.  We are told that we are to watch in prayer,--_vigilare\nin orationibus_.[1]  It is the command given by our Lord to his\ndisciples in the Garden in the hour of the power of darkness: \"Watch ye\nand pray lest ye enter into temptation.\"[2]\n\nSt. Paul, also, in his exhortation to the Ephesian Christians to \"put\non the whole armour of God,\"[3] does not regard it as enough to give\nthe great list of virtues with which they are to be panoplied.  The\nloins must indeed be girt with truth; the breastplate of righteousness\nmust be buckled on and the sandals of the preparation of the gospel of\npeace; while above all else there must be the shield of faith; and the\ngreat catalogue of {76} the Christian soldier's equipment ends with the\nhelmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.\n\nBut this armour is not sufficient for the warfare.  Complete as it\nseems, something else is necessary to insure the victory; and so the\ngreat Christian warrior, who himself had \"fought a good fight,\"[4] adds\nsomething more, namely, watchfulness and prayer,--\"_Praying_ always,\nwith all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and _watching_\nthereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints.\"\n\nHow strong are his words, poured forth with such impetuosity of\nexpression as to seem to a superficial reader to be almost\ntautological,--\"praying with all prayer and supplication.\"  How\ncareful, too, is he to remind us that this prayer and supplication must\nbe \"in the Spirit,\" in response to the Spirit's impulse, and with the\nright judgment that He alone can give, and which He will give only to\nthose who ask Him \"nothing wavering.\"[5]\n\nNor will prayer alone suffice.  There must be a \"watching thereunto\nwith all perseverance\"; not relaxing our vigilance, but maintaining it\nto the end.  Neither is the soul to grow faint in its watch, nor\nimagine, in regard to any point, that careful guard is no longer\nnecessary.\n\n{77}\n\nThe word \"thereunto\" calls for comment.  Does the vigilance enjoined\napply only to the work of prayer which has just been mentioned, or does\nit reach back to the whole category of duties included in putting on\nthe armour of God?  At first glance it might seem inadequate to make it\nrefer only to the all-embracing duty of prayer, but if we comprehend\nfully all that prayer means, we shall see that it is not necessary that\nwe should directly connect the injunction to vigilance with anything\nelse.[6]  If we are keenly vigilant to pray as we ought in the power of\nthe Spirit concerning truth and righteousness, faith and salvation, and\nall else that the Apostle has been describing, nothing will be wanting\nto us as good soldiers of Jesus Christ.  How truly did a Kempis catch\nthe thought which the Holy Spirit had given the great Apostle when he\nparaphrased our Lord's command in the words, \"Be watchful in prayer.\"\n\nLet us consider, then, this twofold weapon with which God will arm us,\nfor we note that they are not two separate weapons.  Our Lord said,\n\"Watch ye and pray,\" and the blessed a Kempis gives us, as we have just\nseen, the true commentary on the command in the paraphrase, \"Watch in\nprayer.\"\n\n{78}\n\nVigilance without prayer would be to learn of the danger, and yet fail\nto guard against it.  To pray without vigilance would be to expect God\nto work some miracle for us, to protect us when we ourselves had done\nnothing to employ the means He places in our hands for forestalling and\ndefeating Satan.  In short, it would be a sin of presumption.  So one\ncannot avail without the other.\n\nWith this understanding clear in our minds, let us proceed to examine\nthe relation of vigilance and prayer to temptation.\n\n\nII.  _The Spirit of Vigilance_\n\n\"_Watch._\"  This implies much more than a mere guarding ourselves in a\ngeneral way.  It means that a systematic and regular guard is to be\nkept over our _whole life_, over _all_ our senses and faculties, over\n_all_ circumstances and conditions so far as we can by any means direct\nthem.\n\nHere again we may find our illustration in the world about us.\nApproach the camp of a well disciplined army.  How quickly you are\nchallenged.  Seek to enter it on any side, and a sentinel, alert and\nsuspicious, keeps you at a distance.  The foe may be hovering in the\ndarkness of the neighbouring forest, or he may be a hundred miles away,\nbut this makes no difference in the vigilance of the guard.  They take\n{79} no chances.  The enemy is abroad, and no man sleeps on his post.\nNor is it the known weak points only, or only the side from which the\nattack is expected, that receives attention.  Everywhere strict\nwatchfulness is maintained, while the threatened points are doubly\nsentinelled.\n\nWe have in this the picture of what the watch about the beleaguered\nsoul should be.  The soul that means to give a good and generous\nservice to God must guard itself at every point.  How frequently, when\nattention is called to some sin, do we think, \"Oh, that is not my\nweakness,\" or, \"That would constitute no temptation to me whatever.\"\nVain, boasting spirit!--trusting to escape from evil by merely natural\nmeans!  How Satan gloats as he marks one point that is being left\nunguarded, and waits, alert and observant, for a favourable opportunity\nfor attack.  Through long time, months and years it may be, he\nmaintains a steady, subtle work of suggestion, leading the mind little\nby little, unconsciously because no guard is kept, into an attitude\nwhere the temptation we boastingly defied will prove a terrible foe\nbefore whose sudden onslaught we shall go down in grievous and\nignominious fall.\n\nIf in truth God has spared us the fall into some sin that happens in\nthe lives of those about us, our safety will lie not in\nself-congratulation, {80} but in humble thanksgiving that only through\nthe mercy of God have we been spared this stain.  \"But for the mercy of\nGod, there goes John Bradford,\" exclaimed a rugged old Christian as a\ncondemned murderer passed by on his way to death.\n\nAgain, our vigilance must be especially directed against the\ntemptations to which we have already yielded.  When a sin has once\nfound entrance, it is easy for it to enter again, not only because\nexperience of the sin itself makes it attractive, but because\npsychologically it is easy to do the thing we have done before.  In my\nself-examination to-night I find that a certain sin has been committed.\nLet me mark it over against the morrow that the temptation, if it\nrecur, may be stamped out quickly, lest the fault entering often become\nhabitual, and a binding chain of besetting sin be forged about my soul.\n\nSimilarly must we guard the particular faculty that we find has led us\ninto sin.  Is it pride of intellect, the desire to show what little we\nknow, the instinctive tendency to monopolize conversation, or to\ninstruct and correct others?  Or is it a weakness that has its seat in\nour affections, a tendency to condone sin in those we love, or a\ncritical spirit against those for whom we have no natural affinity?  Or\nperhaps it is a sin of speech; {81} the unkind word we so easily speak,\nthe idle boast of our own achievements; or the sin of idle\nconversation, the \"objectless\" talk that occupies so much of our\nconversation with others, and which our Lord so terribly condemned.[7]\n\nAlthough no sin may have been committed, yet an oft-recurring\ntemptation is always to be diligently watched.  It indicates that\nSatan, who generally knows us better than we know ourselves, has reason\nto believe that here is a weak point in our armour; or that he thinks\nthat God might, for some reason, be particularly dishonoured by our\ncommission of the sin suggested at some special time or place.\n\nVigilance, too, must be kept regarding occasions of sin.  For this\nreason we should practise not only daily examination of conscience that\nwe may learn wherein we have failed, but we should begin each day with\nan anticipation of possible happenings.  Where do I expect to go?  Whom\nshall I see?  What duties are to be performed which may occasion\ntemptation?  Perhaps I know that, if the expected routine of the day be\nnot disturbed, I shall go to a certain place and shall meet certain\npeople.  The last time I was in that place something occurred which\ncaused me to sin.  Is the occasion of that sin still there?  {82} If\nso, I must note it, and be most guarded concerning it.  Perhaps I shall\nmeet a certain person who irritates and annoys me.  This, too, I must\nnote, and forestall by some prompt word or act of charity, before the\ntemptation has time to present itself.\n\n\nIII.  _Prayer and Temptation_\n\nAll this vigilance will, however, avail nothing unless it be combined\nwith prayer.  The good soldier in the field does not depend upon\nhimself, but is constantly referring to headquarters for instructions,\nand this reference on the part of the soldier in the armies of the\nKingdom is what we call prayer.\n\nWe must, however, get beyond the narrow and inadequate notion that\nprayer is confined to formal acts of praise, thanksgiving, confession,\nand petition.  These are real and essential parts of prayer, and we\nhave need of them as we shall see; but they are not all.\n\nEvery act of directing the human will towards the will of God is prayer\nin its truest and most comprehensive sense.  Every longing of the heart\nfor God, every effort to identify ourselves with Him, our wills with\nHis will, though there be neither word, nor even thought, definitely\nframed, is prayer.  Our spoken prayers may have prayed {83} themselves\naway; the mind and body may be so wearied that formal acts of prayer\nare a burden to the flesh, and well-nigh impossible.  But these are not\nnecessary if we are keeping our hearts turned towards Him, and are\nstriving, even though at times we may not appear to succeed, to\nmaintain, around and within, that atmosphere of loving devotion which\nis the Christian's way of keeping open the lines of communication with\nhis base of supplies.\n\nOur first duty in prayer, as a preparation over against temptation, is\nto address ourselves directly to the case in hand, and, pleading our\nown nothingness, to ask God to go with us through the day to defend and\nsuccour us.  Pray about the particular occasion of sin that may seem\nimminent; pray with especial earnestness as we approach it more nearly.\nBut the prayer must not be for ourselves alone.  If there are others\ninvolved we must pray for them, that they too may be controlled by the\nHoly Spirit.\n\nIf the occasion we are approaching is one that is dangerous because we\nhave before yielded to Satan, no prayer can be of greater effect than\nan act of contrition for the past sins, the commission of which is now\ninvolving us in renewed peril.  Every act of contrition purifies the\nsoul more and more, and adds to the strength with which {84} we are to\nmeet the confident enemy on the scene of his former victory, but this\ntime to put him to flight.  \"_Amplius lava me_,\"--Wash me more and\nmore,--was the cry of the Psalmist in his great prayer of penitence.[8]\n\nHere we cannot fail to consider the particular strength which comes\nfrom the greatest prayer of contrition,--sacramental confession and the\nabsolution which follows.  If the anticipated occasion be one of\npossible mortal sin, and if the sin of the past has been grievous, the\nbest preparation will be the seeking of absolution in the tribunal of\npenance.  Every sacrament brings its own particular grace, and the\nspecial grace of absolution is a power infused into us which will apply\nto the especial need of our souls.  Satan has at some time been able to\neffect an entrance at some point; again he draws near to assault the\nabsolved soul, confident that he will find the same avenue open.  To\nhis chagrin, however, he finds it not only closed, but fortified with a\nspecial gift of strength from God; and, fearing the shame of a defeat,\nhe will often withdraw without attacking.\n\nThis is a common experience with those who habitually frequent the\ntribunal of penance.  How many times have we had many and grievous {85}\nfalls into some particular sin; we make a good confession and go away\nnot only cleansed, but strengthened by the grace of absolution; and\nafter some days or weeks we begin to realize with a sense of joyful\nsurprise that the temptation which a little while ago was constantly\nappearing seems to be entirely withdrawn.  The occasion may arise, but\nthe soul feels no drawing to that in which it had before sinned.  It is\nthe operation of the special grace of absolution, a grace which cannot\nbe had other than through the Sacrament of Penance, whatever other\ngreat graces God may give us in reward for true contrition of spirit.\n\nIt is important that the work of prayer in preparation for temptation\nshould cover every point.  As we have already thought in connection\nwith watchfulness, nothing must be done in the natural spirit; no\ntemptation can be overcome by means of dependence on anything else but\nthe gifts of divine grace.  \"Not by might, nor by power, but by My\nSpirit, saith the Lord of Hosts.\"[9]\n\nIt is a part of the Faith that we can do nothing pleasing to God in the\nnatural spirit.  Nothing can be acceptable with Him, nothing can draw\nfrom Him the graces we need, save what is done {86} through the power\nand influence of the Third Person of the Ever-Blessed Trinity.\n\nThe Apostle says that no man can do so simple a thing as to \"say that\nJesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost.\"[10]  So it is the Holy Ghost\nWho is to be our guide and protector.  Do we pray to the Holy Ghost?\nWe pray often to the Father; frequently, perhaps, to God the Son, but\nhow much is prayer to God the Holy Ghost neglected amongst Christians!\nAnd yet He alone is the agent of the Godhead in the Church.  His is the\nwork of sanctification, as the Father's is the work of creation, and\nthe Son's that of redemption.  No grace comes to us save through the\nSpirit.  Everything that comes into our lives from God, whether by\nmeans of prayer or sacrament, faith or good works, comes through the\npersonal action of the Holy Ghost.\n\nTherefore in preparing for temptation let us look to Him and pray to\nHim in all things; and thus \"strengthened by His Spirit in the inner\nman,\"[11] we can go forth to the day's conflict, knowing that the\nassaults of Satan and the occasions of sin can only bring us new\nopportunities of victory that will merit us the crown of life which is\npromised to them that overcome.\n\nIn the midst of this prayer in preparation for {87} temptation we must\nexpect to find ourselves the objects of Satan's peculiar malice.  All\nprayer is a challenge to him, but none so much as the prayer by which\nwe are gaining new force and resource to employ against him.[12]\n\nIn this, as in all else, we see how carefully Satan conducts his\nwarfare.  If it were possible to do so, what leader would fail to\nattack his enemy when he was in the very act of laying in new supplies\nof food and ammunition upon which to subsist, and with which to fight?\n\nLastly, in the very moment of temptation our prayers must be strong and\nunceasing.  The more the temptation increases, the more fervently--yea,\ndesperately--must we pray, crying out as a drowning man might call to\nthe only one from whom he could expect help.\n\nBut, says one, there's the rub.  How can I pray when a thousand\ndistractions are thrust in so powerfully from every side?  We are to\nfind the answer to such questions in our Lord's {88} hour of deepest\ntemptation in Gethsemane where we are told that \"being in an agony, he\nprayed more earnestly\"[13]--literally, more intensely.\n\nLet the intensity of our prayer keep pace with the intensity of\nassault.  We can more than defeat Satan if at such times we compel\nourselves to pray with greater care and exactness, framing with\nextraordinary care the very words we are speaking to God, and if our\nperturbation be such that we can find no words to utter, let us not\ngrow faint, but remember that this was precisely the case with our Lord\nin His Agony, when He prayed over and over again, \"saying the same\nwords.\"[14]\n\nBy his constant effort to interfere with our prayers, especially in\nseasons of trial and temptation, Satan gives his testimony to the\nefficiency which we shall acquire if we are earnest in our work of\npreparation for the battle.  He fears it with a fear born of long\nexperience.  \"Grievous indeed to us,\" says St. Bernard, \"is the\ntemptation of the enemy, but far more grievous to him is our\nprayer.\"[15]  He has through all the ages contended against the grace\nand strength of God as he found it in its manifold forms in the Saints.\nHe sees the history of the spiritual {89} warfare repeating itself in\nus, and surely it should be a source of rejoicing to us that he should\ncount us as foes to be feared, as he feared in other days, or in our\nown time, the great Saints and warriors of the Kingdom of God.\n\n\n\n[1] _Imitation_, I, xiii.\n\n[2] St. Mark xiv, 38.\n\n[3] Eph. vi, 11-18.\n\n[4] 2 Tim. iv, 7.\n\n[5] St. James i, 6.\n\n[6] See _The Speaker's Commentary_, in loc.\n\n[7] St. Matt. xii, 36.\n\n[8] Ps. li, 2.\n\n[9] Zech. iv, 6.\n\n[10] Cor. xii, 3.\n\n[11] Eph. iii, 16.\n\n[12] \"St. Thomas and many other grave doctors say that it is by reason\nof the war that the devil is accustomed to make against those that are\nin prayer, that the Church, directed by the Holy Ghost, ordains that we\nshould begin all the canonical Hours with this verse, 'O God, make\nspeed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help me.'  Whereby we implore\nGod's assistance in prayer against the snares and temptations of the\nenemy.\"--Quoted by Rodriguez, _Christian Perfection_.\n\n[13] St. Luke xxii, 44.\n\n[14] St. Matt. xxvi, 44.\n\n[15] St. Bernard, _Serm. in Dedicat. Eccles._, III.\n\n\n\n\n{90}\n\nCHAPTER VII\n\nTRAINING THE INNER LIFE\n\n\nI.  _Environment and Character_\n\nA psychological principle we should never lose sight of is that the\nattitude of mind and heart towards all moral questions is just what we\nchoose to make it.  Surround a man with debasing associations, and let\nhim yield to the resulting influences, and he becomes debased.  On the\nother hand, the influence of a pure and noble environment makes for\npurity and nobility of character.  Every man in his inner character,\nand in that outward expression of character that we call life, is the\nproduct of the influences to which he yields himself.\n\nOne of our chief dangers, however, is that many influences flow out\nfrom our daily environment of which we are quite unconscious.  We are\nnot always in a position to realize our surroundings and their effect,\nand even when we can realize them, it is often beyond our power to\ncontrol them.  But before an external influence can work any hurt to\nus, there must be something {91} within that answers to it.  A child\nmay pass unscathed through an environment of vice, because there is\nnothing in the child-heart that responds to the call of sin.\n\nOur Lord had this in mind, perhaps, when He laid it down as a condition\nnecessary to entrance into the Kingdom of God that we should become as\nlittle children,[1] and He was able to make this condition quite\nabsolute, because while no man can control his external environment and\nthe consequent influences, he can, by the deliberate use of his will,\nacting in the power of the Holy Ghost, create, in very large measure,\nwhatever interior condition he wishes.  By his daily course he can\ndevelop a moral and spiritual interior that will habitually respond\nwith alacrity to the evil and be deaf to the good; or, on the other\nhand, one that will not only rise up quickly to entertain every good\ninfluence and suggestion, but will in a large measure (though never\nwholly in this life) be even unconscious like little children of the\npresence of evil influences.[2]\n\n{92}\n\nSo let us learn how to create an interior environment in which the Holy\nGhost will be the dominant force.  Otherwise Satan will surely surround\nus with so much of sin, that becoming accustomed to it, and to the\nthought of it, we shall be unable to resist the effort he will make to\nuse our faculties as instruments for his work.\n\nNor must we wait until conscious of his approach before seeking to\ncreate the proper interior environment.  In most cases it will then be\ntoo late.  It is not easy to surround ourselves with an atmosphere of\ngood and pious thought in the moment of assault.  We must be beforehand\nwith him.  In times of peace we must prepare for war.\n\nWe may be quite sure that it is with the intention of affording us the\nopportunity to do this that God often gives us rest from the attacks of\nthe enemy.  He does not mean us to lie idle at such times, but to seize\nthe opportunity to train for future battles, just as soldiers in\nbarracks engage in daily drill that they may be more efficient fighters\nwhen again called to take the field.  \"After thou hast escaped these\n{93} temptations, or else if our Lord hath so kept thee (as He doth\nmany by His mercy), that thou hast not been troubled much by any such,\nthen it is good for thee that thou beware of turning thy rest into\nidleness.\"[3]\n\nLet us consider how Satan uses certain of our faculties as instruments\nof sin, and see how by a definite system of spiritual exercises we can\nso forestall him that he will find nothing in us ready for his use.\n\n\nII.  _Educating the Memory_\n\nHow much sin, for example, is due to the action of memory!  It is\nindeed strange that this wonderful faculty, which more than any other\noperates to give unity, consistency, and proportion to our life, should\nbe so often used to call up past sins that we may sin them over again\nin will if not in deed.  We linger with pleasure, by the exercise of\nthis faculty, over past sins, making them our own again, staining our\nsouls once more with that which we thought had been buried forever in\nthe far-off years.\n\nWe bring to renewed life old revenges, ancient hates, and revel again\namid scenes of impurity which can never be re-enacted in real life.\nSuch {94} acts, frequently indulged, grow into a habit, and the habit\nbecomes necessity when the memory not only easily and naturally reverts\nto those events and conditions of the past that were bound up with sin,\nbut becomes so trained that it must recall the evil, and can only with\ngreat stress, difficulty, and distaste be made to recall that which is\ngood.\n\nIf, on the other hand, by persistent acts of will we force the memory\nto recall the righteous passages from our past, far-off happenings\nsweet and holy, we, little by little, train it to retain these\nrighteous things, while all other impressions grow more and more dim as\nthe years go by.\n\nThose who have practised such methods find that after a time the\nmemory, even when left alone, will engage itself with that which is\ngood, just because it has become accustomed to it, and will reject the\nevil (in many cases, of itself, without the direct interposition of the\nwill), because long exercise has so trained it that in its ordinary\noperation evil memories are repugnant to it.\n\nTherefore keep the memory definitely busy.  Too often when we think it\nis browsing, as it were, carelessly among the fields of the past, it\nis, as a matter of fact, being subtly directed by Satan, until, ere we\nknow it, it has fallen upon some evil thing whose touch is poison.\n\n\n{95}\n\nIII.  _Guiding the Imagination_\n\nSo likewise with the imagination.  Perhaps no human faculty is\nresponsible for so much sin, and there is a peculiar heinousness in\nsins of the imagination.  In His mercy God has limited our sphere of\nsin.  There are certain evils impossible for us because He has withheld\nus from the condition necessary for their commission.\n\nInstead, therefore, of being grateful for such a blessed limitation, we\nuse the imagination to conjure up impossible situations.  We create new\nworlds for ourselves, new theatres for our exploits of pride and\nwickedness, and in them, through will and imagination, we enact the sin\nthat it would be impossible to commit in our actual external lives.\n\nThis strong activity of the imagination can and must be directed.  If\nthis mysterious faculty be so prone to produce its own creations, if we\nindeed will dream of things that do not belong to the present moment,\nlet them be holy things.\n\nYes, let the imagination run as fast as it will, check it in nothing\nsave in the subjects of its activity.  Let it transport us to heavenly\nplaces.  Let it picture to our astonished vision the things that will\nbe hereafter, the company of heaven, {96} the companionship of the\nSaints, the glory of the Lamb.\n\nOr, if these ranges be too lofty, let the fancy create new earthly\ntheatres for our activity.  Let us picture ourselves following Jesus as\nHe \"went about doing good\";[4] let us see Him healing the lepers,\nopening the eyes of the blind, raising the dead, blessing the little\nchildren; let us bring vividly before us the great example of His life;\nand let the picture so burn itself, through the power of the\nimagination, into the very fabric of the brain, that we cannot choose\nbut make it the model for our own lives.\n\nSo, after a time, the imagination will become so trained that it will\never be creating holy things, and presenting them for our\nconsideration, and will become incapable, in the end, of producing any\npicture that could not find ready reflection in the stainless mirror of\nthe human mind of our Blessed Lord.\n\nWhen we consider the method of thus training the inner man, we find\nthat our course must be shaped by means of certain practices, which\nshould be strenuously pursued if real progress is to be made.  These\npractices will be, as a Kempis says particularly of one of them, as a\nrudder guiding the ship, keeping it on its proper course.  {97} Those\nwe shall consider especially are: (1) Constancy of mind and will; (2)\nPatience; (3) Calmness; (4) Diligence.\n\n\nIV.  _The Practice of Constancy_\n\nThomas a Kempis says, \"The beginning of all evil temptations is\ninconstancy of mind, and small confidence in God, for as a ship without\na rudder is tossed to and fro by the waves, so the man who is slack and\nquits his purpose is many ways tempted.\"[5]\n\nGod, knowing human weakness and incapacity, requires but little of man,\nbut He does emphatically require that this little be resolutely\npurposed, and definitely executed.  The soldier who threshes wildly\nabout the field, however fiercely and courageously, is not the one to\ncontribute to the victory.  He who sets a definite purpose before him;\nwho knows just what he wants to do, and allows nothing to shake his\npurpose, is the one on whom the commander can depend to accomplish\nsomething in the battle.\n\nSo in our spiritual warfare the most important factor is definiteness\nof purpose, and constancy in executing it.  The Christian warfare must\nbe conducted by rule.  When I arise each morning {98} to the work of\nanother day, I must know, as far as possible, what that work is; I must\nknow the particular method by which it is to be performed; I must have\nsubmitted it all to God so that, feeling assured of \"a right judgment\nin all things,\" I shall be able to go forward to my duty without doubt\nor hesitation.  The army that knows not when to fight, whose officers\nare in confusion and uncertainty regarding the next move, falls an easy\nprey to the enemy.  But let the same army be provided with a definite\nplan of campaign; let every officer and man, each in his place, know\njust what he is to do under every condition that may arise; and the\nenemy will have no easy task to defeat it.\n\nThis all points to the necessity of the Christian having a Rule of\nLife, and holding fast to it; allowing himself to be drawn off to\nnothing else until that be fulfilled.  Satan has a subtle way at times\nof seeking to disturb our spirit of constancy by suggesting something\nthat, in itself, is better and higher than that we have resolved upon.\nBut let us not be deceived by this clever move on his part.  If we have\nundertaken a definite thing for God, that is the highest and best for\nus until it be accomplished; and the thought that any thing can be more\npleasing to Him is but a wile of the devil; and to entertain the {99}\nsuggestion is to be guilty of pride.  Better a small and humble service\nwell performed, than great things poorly done.  \"Our advancement and\nperfection consist not in the performance of very extraordinary things,\nor in the being employed in the highest and most labourious offices of\nreligion, but only in doing our ordinary actions well, and in\nacquitting ourselves well of whatsoever obedience employs us in, be it\never so mean or easy.\"[6]  So Christian perfection, against which all\ntemptation is directed, consists in doing ordinary things\nextraordinarily well.\n\nThe conclusion of the matter is that we cannot be safe unless our whole\nlife is lived by definite, practical rule; a rule for rising in the\nmorning, for prayers, for our Bible reading, our Communions, our\nConfessions, for the commonest details of our daily routine, leaving\nnothing to be decided by chance or whim.  A life thus ordered and\ncarried out with constancy of purpose and will, for the glory of God,\nis a standing {100} menace to Satan's power.  He fears it, because he\nknows that it possesses a power against which his long experience and\nconsummate skill are as nothing.\n\n\nV.  _The Practice of Calmness_\n\nA life lived as has been described above is one that will be dominated\nby a spirit of calmness, a calmness born of strength.  The strong man\nis always the calm man.  An agitated spirit is the evidence of a\nconscious weakness.  The soldier who has faith in his commander, who\nknows he can rely on the weapons furnished him, and who is certain that\nhis strength is greater than that of his enemy, is not excited in the\nface of attack.  He receives it with serenity because he feels assured\nof what the result will be.  It is uncertainty that brings agitation;\nit is the uncertainties of life that produce the worry that kills--and\nworry means want of faith.  But the Christian soldier is beset by no\nuncertainties.  If, in unswerving trust, he keeps his will firm for\nGod, knit up with the perfect human will of our Lord, he knows there\nare no contingencies in the warfare he is waging.  There can be but one\nissue,--that of complete and glorious victory.\n\nIf this assurance concerning the issue produces calmness, the spirit of\ncalm will in its turn react {101} upon us for the greater certainty of\nthe victory.[7]  The heart that is calm is the one that is capable of\nseeing all things in their true nature and relation.  Such a heart is\nnot easily deceived by the tempter, nor can it be frightened by the\nclamour of his onslaught.  With steady hand it parries his deadliest\nthrusts, and assuming the offensive is able in its turn to inflict\nmortal wounds upon the power of Satan wherever it may be manifested.\n\n\nVI.  _The Practice of Patience_\n\nPatience is also a necessary virtue that has constantly and assiduously\nto be cultivated if we would be ready always for the battle.\n\n(1) We are to be patient with God, biding His time, tarrying His\nleisure,[8] awaiting whatever He may send in the conflict, assuring\none's heart always that He rules and overrules, and that all things\nwork together for good to those who love Him.[9]\n\n(2) We know the necessity of patience with our fellow-men.  Our daily\nexperience show us how large a proportion of temptation arises from\nfailure to bear with those among whom we live, {102} not infrequently\nthose who hold the first place in our hearts.  A wholesome remedy for\nimpatience with those about us is to remember ourselves.  \"Endeavour to\nbe patient in bearing with the defects and infirmities of others of\nwhat sort soever they be: for thou also hast many which must be borne\nwith by others.  If thou canst not make thyself what thou wouldest, how\ncanst thou expect to have another to thy liking?  We are glad to see\nothers perfect; and yet we mend not our own faults.  We will have\nothers severely corrected: and will not be corrected ourselves.  The\nlarge liberty of others displeases us: and yet we will not have our own\ndesires denied us.  We will have others restrained by laws: but will\nnot in any way be checked ourselves.  And thus it appears: how seldom\nwe weigh our neighbour in the same balance with ourselves.\"[10]\n\n(3) All these things we have just been considering are doubtless\nfamiliar to us, but perhaps the thought of patience with ourselves is\nnot so common a one, although there is no more important a factor in\nall the Christian warfare.\n\nPatience must be exercised towards oneself as towards a weak and\nwayward child.  We are not to expect too much of ourselves.  To turn\nupon oneself angrily or bitterly because we cannot {103} immediately\ndrive away some persistent temptation, or because we have yielded,[11]\nis an act of spiritual pride.  It shows that we thought ourselves quite\nable to cope with the tempter; prided ourselves indeed upon our\nspiritual powers; and are now in a state of surprise and indignation\nthat we should have failed; when all the while, had we known ourselves,\nwe should have seen that the real wonder is that we are ever able at\nall to resist him successfully.\n\nNor must we be surprised if there seem to rise up out of our own hearts\nfoul and humiliating temptations.  We are not to forget that we are\nmade from the dust of the earth that can, of itself, bring forth naught\nbut thorns and thistles.  The material of temptation is everywhere,\nwithin and without, the soul \"having the worst temptation within itself\nin its own temptibility.\"[12]\n\nNor will he who understands himself and his own weakness grow impatient\nwith the long {104} continuance of the battle.  He will recognize that\nif he had his just deserts he would long since have been cast out from\nGod rather than permitted to wear the King's uniform, and fight battles\nfor the honour of His Name.  He who knows himself will go softly all\nthe days of his life, knowing that only by so great a salvation as that\nwrought on Calvary has he been preserved from the power of the enemy.\nSo \"by little and little, and by patience with long suffering through\nGod's help thou shalt better overcome, than by hardness and thine own\npertinacity.\"[13]\n\n\nVII.  _The Practice of Diligence_\n\nThere remains to be considered the spirit of diligence that must\ncharacterize the soldier of Christ.  Keep yourself always busy with the\nthings of God.  Keep the whole mental faculty engaged; keep it under\nthe command of the Holy Ghost, for just as in all else that belongs to\nman, if God does not direct it, Satan will.  There is a deep spiritual\ntruth in the old proverb, \"An idle brain is the devil's workshop.\"\n\nNot only will this course superinduce such habits of thought and\ncharacter as will strengthen us mightily, but, the human mind being\nwhat it {105} is, will render it often impossible for Satan to find\nlodgment in it for his temptation.\n\nThe mind can only be engaged with a limited number of things at any one\ntime.  This varies with various persons, according to their mental\ntraining and development, but even the most highly developed mind can\ncompass but few things at the same moment.  Our common mental processes\nconsist of one thought, or group of thoughts, thrusting out others, and\ntaking their place until in their turn they are displaced.  Since this\nis the case, one's safety from evil thoughts lies in diligently keeping\nthe mind filled with good and holy thoughts.  Keep the will at work\ncalling up a continuous procession of suggestions and pictures of\nthings righteous and God-like, and when Satan approaches to insinuate\ninto the heart his temptations, he will find it so full that there will\nbe no room in it for him or his works.\n\nThis must be done in an organized and methodical way.  Let us not trust\nto chance opportunity.  At every moment the will is, consciously or\nsubconsciously, making a choice either for good or evil.  Our part is\nto seize upon these moments and force that inevitable choosing to be\nnot only righteous, but definitely and explicitly a choice of\nrighteousness.\n\nPractise over and over again the work of {106} choosing God.  Arraign\nbefore the mind things good and evil, the higher and the lower, that\nthe will may be drilled in the repeated preference of what belongs to\nHim.\n\nThis will be a much simpler method than may seem at first.  How many\nmoments are there in each day when we are, of necessity, unoccupied.\nWe have to wait five minutes for an appointment; we spend a quarter of\nan hour on a crowded car; we have a little distance to walk to reach\nsome destination; or occasionally there is a wakeful hour at night.\nWhat are we doing all this time?  We can be sure the will is operating.\nIt stands sentinel to admit or repulse every thought that comes; and\nwhat is the nature of the thoughts admitted?  Idle thoughts, critical\nthoughts of those about us, silly vain thoughts of self,--how covered\nwith confusion and shame we should be if some by-stander were able to\nlook within and see the busy, thronging procession that streams through\nour mind unchallenged, nay more, welcomed and indulged.  Yet this is\nthe very opportunity God gives us to busy ourselves for Him: and\ninstead of using it, we let it run to sinful waste, marring our whole\ncharacter, for as a man thinks, so he is.\n\nHow much better would it have been had we said, when we realized the\nunoccupied minute: {107} \"I will use this little time to make an act of\nlove, of hope, of faith.  I will speak to Him familiarly in some\nejaculation of prayer.  I will, for His praise, repeat some psalm I may\nknow by heart.  I will pray for some of these people, strangers though\nthey be to me.\"[14]  Then immediately perform this resolution in a most\ndefinite way, framing with care even the very words with the lips, that\nthe body as well as the mind may have its part in the work.\n\nTry this for a month, earnestly and persistently, and at the end of\nthat time see if the whole inner being does not spontaneously turn to\nsuch holy exercises.  So far as the human aspect of it is concerned, it\nis a mere matter of psychology.  The mind acts thus, because it has\nbeen trained to it.  The repeated act has formed the habit, and the\nhabit in its turn repeats the act; but through and in it all is divine\ngrace, the very life of God, operating in the infinite activity of His\nlove.\n\nEspecially must we exercise this diligence when we perceive the\ntempter's approach.  When we become conscious of the slightest\nsuggestion that seems to point to sin, let the will rally all our {108}\nfaculties to expel it, and to fill the mind so full that it can have no\nchance of returning.  But here as everywhere else must we be on our\nguard against Satan's subtilty and power.  Often in response to such an\nattitude on our part, he presents some attractive thought, pure and\ngood, perhaps; then another and another, leading the soul that is not\nwatchful by a long train of associated ideas up to the goal he has\nprepared, to some one thought that is either itself sin if consented\nto, or the ready vehicle of sin.\n\nAccustom the mind with unwearied diligence to such thoughts as we can\nreadily, conceive finding place in the mind of Christ, rejecting all\nothers.  \"Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest,\nwhatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever\nthings are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be\nany virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.\"[15]\n\nLet the mind be thus employed, and Satan may indeed be able to lead us\nalong some line of thought up to the place of temptation, but it will\nbe only to find, as with our Lord, when he bore Him up to the pinnacle\nof the temple, that this place of his own choosing will prove the scene\nof his own utter defeat.\n\n\n\n[1] St. Matt. xviii, 3.\n\n[2] \"A temptation can never be divorced from a course of life.  It is\nwoven into the very texture of life's continuity.  It is a temptation\nbecause of what we are _at the time_.  It is the conditions of the\ncrisis which make a moment, a decision, critical....  It is thus the\nwhole setting of a life which brings temptation.  So temptation is\nnever clean detached from the past, or the future, of the tempted; for\nthere is no such thing as a human experience which has not its roots in\nthe past, and its fruit in the sequel.\"--H. J. C. Knight, _The\nTemptation of our Lord_, p. 55.\n\n[3] Walter Hilton, _The Scale of Perfection_, Bk. I, Pt. II, chap. i.\n\n[4] Acts x, 38.\n\n[5] _Imitation_, I, xiii.\n\n[6] Rodriguez, _The Practice of Religious and Christian Perfection_,\nVol. I, p. 86.  Pere Grou teaches \"that nothing is small or great in\nGod's sight; whatever He wills becomes great to us, however seemingly\ntrifling, and if once the voice of conscience tells us that He requires\nanything of us, we have no right to measure its importance....  There\nis no standard of things great and small to a Christian, save God's\nwill.\"--_The Hidden Life of the Soul_, p. 206.  (\"Half-a-Crown\" Ed.)\n\n[7] \"Be still, then, and know that I am God.\"--Ps. xlvi, 10.  \"In\nquietness and in confidence shall be your strength.\"--Isa. xxx, 15.\n\n[8] Ps. xxvii, 16.\n\n[9] Rom. viii, 28.\n\n[10] _Imitation_, I, xvi.\n\n[11] \"You are vexed at the vexation, and then you are vexed at having\nbeen vexed.  I have seen people in the same way get into a passion, and\nthen be angry because they had lost their temper!\"--St. Francis de\nSales, _Spiritual Letters_, xxvii.\n\n[12] S. T. Coleridge, _Aids to Reflection_, p. 186.  (Bohn Ed.)\n\nBishop Andrewes in his second sermon on the Temptation of Christ,\nspeaking of it being impossible for Him to have sinned since there was\nno fire of concupiscence in Him, quaintly says: \"To us the devil needs\nbring but a pair of bellows, for he shall find fire within\nus.\"--Andrewes, _Sermons_, Vol. V, p. 508.\n\n[13] _Imitation_, I, xiii.\n\n[14] A busy Wall Street financier not long since told the writer that\nfor several years, whenever stepping from an omnibus or car, in the\nthronged street or crowded railway station, he had made a practice of\noffering an ejaculation of prayer for his fellow-passengers.\n\n[15] Phil. iv, 8.\n\n\n\n\n{109}\n\nCHAPTER VIII\n\nTHE STAGES OF THE BATTLE\n\nThe spiritual masters in every age are at agreement concerning the\nprocess by which the soul passes from a state of grace into a state of\nsin.  They express it in various ways, and in varying degrees of\nelaboration, but when analysed it can be brought down to three steps\ngiven us by St. Gregory, _Suggestion, Pleasure, Consent_.[1]  Thomas a\nKempis presents it somewhat more fully, and it is with his statement of\nthe process that we purpose engaging ourselves.\n\n\"First,\" he says, \"a bare thought comes to the mind; then a strong\nimagination; afterwards pleasure, and evil motion, and consent.\"[2]\n\n\nI.  _The Satanic Suggestion_\n\nFirst of all, then, \"the bare thought,\"--_simplex cogitatio_,--\"comes\nto the mind\"; or more literally _runs upon_ (_occurit_), the mind.  The\nword {110} is full of action.  The suggestion of evil does not drift\ninto the mind in any merely accidental way.  It is propelled from\nwithout by a strong, alert intelligence,--none other than the\nTempter,--and under just the conditions and circumstances that his\nexperience shows him are the most advantageous for his uses.  A Kempis\ndoubtless had here in mind St. Paul's thought, expressed to the\nCorinthians, \"There hath no temptation _taken_ you, but such as is\ncommon to man\";[3] the idea being that of the temptation laying hold of\nthe soul as a warrior might take hold upon his adversary in battle.\n\nHe proposes the evil thing, not perhaps as a thing sinful in itself,\nfor, as we have already seen, his experience has taught him that few\nsouls, even of the most depraved, can be induced to accept evil for\nevil's sake.  He presents it sometimes under the guise of that which is\npositively good; or perhaps, with an assumption of great virtue, he\nacknowledges it to be wrong in itself, but seeks to persuade us that it\nwould be right for us to make an exception of ourselves under the\npeculiar circumstances that are present.\n\nIt is necessary for us to study with care the subject of suggestion of\nsin, lest either through Satan's wiles, or our own ignorance, we be\ndeceived, to our soul's hurt.  It is at this point {111} that we must\nunderstand the difference between temptation and sin.  The failure to\ngrasp this difference has been the cause of great distress to many\nfaithful souls; it has been the root of fatal discouragement in\nnumberless cases, and, in not a few, of downfall and final wreck.\n\nThe suggestion may often be the result of our past unfaithfulness.  It\nis not always easy to trace the pedigree of a temptation, but in most\ncases it is highly likely that it is to be traced back to some failure\nof our own in the past.  Men indulge themselves; they whet the\nimagination with evil thought and conversation and reading.  They\ndevelop their passions by giving rein to them.  By continued failure to\nresist, they go on in the same sin under many varying conditions, until\na hundred commonplace, every-day happenings, entirely innocent in\nthemselves, become charged with sinful suggestions, recalling the old\nsin whenever they occur.  It is as though a commander should plant\npowerful batteries about his own fortress, preparing them to be used by\nthe enemy.  Thus learning from our past, we know how to guard ourselves\nfor the future.  Present faithfulness is the pledge, and the only\npledge, of future security.[4]\n\n{112}\n\nOr it may be that Satan, accustomed to success in leading us astray in\ncertain things, is encouraged to suggest like evil to our minds again.\nHowever this may be, whether the suggestion arises from the evil bent\nthat our minds have received through former yielding, or whether it be\nSatan's device and unprovoked solicitation, _there is no sin in the\nmere fact that evil is suggested to our minds, however persistently or\nstrongly_.[5]\n\nIn any case it had its origin outside of us, and unless we have\ndeliberately run into the occasion of sin, or in some culpable way\ninvited it, we are in the immediate case not responsible for the\nsuggestion.\n\nTherefore, the suggestion can in no way be regarded as sin, for unless\nour wills have brought it about, or consciously encouraged it, our\nsouls are unstained.  Without the action of the will, no sin can enter\nthe heart.  \"What is done without, or against, our will, rather takes\nplace in us, than is done _by_ us.\"[6]\n\n{113}\n\n\"No risings, then, of any passion, yea, though it should rise again and\nagain, against thee, and by rising weary thee, and almost wear thee\nout: no thought by night when thou hast not power over thy soul, and\nthy will is not conscious: no thoughts by day, which come to thee again\nand again, and besiege thee and torment thee, and would claim thee for\ntheir own: no distractions in prayer, even if they carry thee away, and\nthou lose thyself and awake, as it were, out of a dream, and thy prayer\nbe gone,--none of these things are thine.  Nothing without thy will is\nthine, or will be imputed to thee.  It is not the mere presence with\nthee of what thou hatest: it is not the recurrence, again and again, of\nwhat thou loathest, which will hurt thee: not even if it seems to come\nfrom thy inmost self, unless thy will consent to it.\"[7]\n\n\nII.  _The Response of the Natural Heart_\n\nFollowing upon the suggestion, a Kempis tells us there comes \"a strong\nimagination.\"  The undisciplined soul does not instantly turn from the\nsuggestion.  It allows a vivid picture of it to attract and hold the\nattention.  This may be quite involuntary, and, if so, is not in itself\nsin, but unless the attention be speedily withdrawn {114} there follows\nthe second stage of temptation, namely, Pleasure.  _Deletatio_ is the\nword a Kempis uses, which has the sense of a pleasure which entices one\nfrom the right way.\n\nHere again, however, we must make the careful distinction between\ntemptation and sin, if we would not be entangled in a fatal network of\nscruples.  Though there may spring up in our hearts a distinct sense of\ndelight at the thought of committing the sin suggested, yet in this\ndelight itself there is no sin, unless the will enters in to confirm it.\n\nThis is not the kind of delight that St. Paul speaks of in his terrible\ncondemnation of those \"who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in\nunrighteousness\";[8] for if the will comes in promptly to resist the\nsense of delight, we are free from blame.  The pleasure which often\nfollows the suggestion of sin to a faithful soul, while definite, and\nperhaps even long continued, has its seat in our lower nature, in what\nspiritual writers call the \"inferior will\" of which we shall speak\npresently.  So long as it does not capture the higher will, no sin has\nbeen committed.\n\nA simple illustration will suffice to show what is here meant.  One is\nwalking with a companion on the street.  Some one appears in sight who\n{115} has recently wronged him.  All the memory of the wrong surges up\nin the heart instantly, and there comes a sharp suggestion to say some\nunkind, revengeful thing.  The heart responds to the suggestion, and it\nwould be a real pleasure to speak this unloving thought.  But,\nrealizing the sin of it, we refrain; we even say to ourselves, \"It\nwould be an intense satisfaction to speak, nothing would give me so\nmuch pleasure; but I know it is not the will of God, and therefore\nnothing will induce me to do it.\"\n\nHere is the Satanic suggestion, followed by a definite sense of\npleasure therein, and yet so met and disposed of that no sin, but\nrather the blessing of a victory, results.  And this victory is more to\nGod's honour than it would have been had we rejected the temptation\nwith disgust, having found no sort of pleasure in it.  When we found\npleasure in it, but refused it, there was a greater victory over self\nand Satan.\n\n\nIII.  _The \"Inferior\" and \"Superior\" Wills_\n\nThe existence of the two operations of will in man is proved from Holy\nScripture.  St. Paul, writing to the Roman Christians, lifts the veil\nfrom his own spiritual experience and shows us how they operated in\nhim.  His experience we all recognize as our own.\n\n{116}\n\n\"I find then a law,\" he says, \"that when I would do good\"--that is when\nI will to do good,--\"evil is present with me.  For I delight in the law\nof God after the inner man, but I see another law in my members warring\nagainst the law of my mind and bringing me into captivity to the law of\nsin which is in my members.\"[9]\n\nIt is well before going further to inquire what is this \"inferior will\"\nthat manifests itself in the great Saints, as well as in us sinners,\nand in which this delight at the thought of sin is said to have its\nplace.  How is it to be distinguished from the higher will, which,\nwhile acknowledging the sense of pleasure, yet refuses to yield to it?\nAnd what relation have these two wills to the act of consent, which\nconstitutes the sin?  Let us find the answer to our question in one of\nthe best of spiritual masters, the author of \"The Spiritual Combat\":\n\n\"Although we may be said in this combat to have within us two wills,\nthe one of the reason, which is thence called reasonable and higher,\nthe other of the senses, thence called sensual and lower, and commonly\ndescribed by the words 'appetite,' 'flesh,' 'sense,' and 'passion'; yet\nas it is through the reason that we are men, we cannot truly be said to\nwill anything which is willed {117} by the senses, unless we are\ninclined thereto by the higher will.\n\n\"And herein does our spiritual conflict principally consist.  The\nreasonable will being placed, as it were, midway between the Divine\nWill which is above it, and the inferior will or the will of the\nsenses, which is beneath it, is continually warring against both, each\nseeking in turn to draw it, and bring it under obedience.\"[10]\n\n{118}\n\nIt is the inferior will that runs forward with delight to act upon\nSatan's suggestion; it is the higher will that checks this\nprecipitation and says, \"I know it is not the will of God, and\ntherefore nothing will induce me to do it.\"  This higher will is what\nis commonly meant when we speak of the human will being conformed to,\nor arrayed against, the Divine Will.  It has to act before man becomes\nresponsible.[11]\n\nIt is this higher will that enjoys its freedom, and therefore\nconstitutes in us a part of the {119} divine image.  There is no power\nthat can compel it until, by its own free action, it yields itself to\nthat power.  God, reverencing His image, as He sees it in us, will not\nforce a reluctant will to serve Him; and Satan cannot.[12]  Scupoli\nsays again:\n\n\"God has, in truth, endowed our will with such freedom and such\nstrength, that were all the senses, all the evil spirits, nay, the\nwhole world itself, to arm and conspire against her, assaulting and\noppressing her with all their might, she could still, in spite of them,\nwill or not will, most freely all that she wills or wills not, and that\nhow often soever, whensoever, howsoever, and to what end soever, best\npleases her.\"[13]\n\n{120}\n\nIt is on these grounds that the \"superior will\" has been called the\n\"Royal Faculty,\" because like a king it sits enthroned over all other\nfaculties, guiding and ruling them.  No matter what dispositions we may\nhave, they are inoperative until the will commands; and according as\nthe will dictates, so is our whole life.  We, and all that pertains to\nus, are good or bad according as the will operates for good or evil.\n\nLet us understand clearly, however, what is meant by the freedom of the\nhuman will, lest we fall into error.  As we have seen, the will is\nindeed free.  Satan cannot force it; God will not.  But this does not\nmean that the will is free to stand alone.  It means simply that the\n_will is free to choose_.  Man was made for service.  It has been said\nthat the dream of mankind has ever been of liberty, but the one\npractical question that faces us every moment from the cradle to the\ngrave is, Whom shall I serve?  Furthermore, there are but two\nalternatives of service,--God or Satan.  Man, from his very nature,\ncannot choose to serve himself.  Brought down to its final analysis,\nall service is that of God or Satan, heaven or hell.\n\nNor is man and his life, so organized that the will can choose once for\nall, and have done with it.  We may choose once for all, but that same\n{121} choice must every day and hour be repeated and ratified, else it\nwill not stand.[14]\n\nIt is a thought that must give us pause, that in every waking moment of\nour lives, consciously or unconsciously, explicitly or implicitly, the\nwill is choosing, and that each several choice is making for our\neternal weal or our eternal woe; is gathering material for an immortal\ncrown, or for our accusation and possible condemnation at the end.\n\nNor is it possible, as we have just seen, for the will to refrain from\nchoosing.  It is free to choose what it will, but choose it must.  Some\nhave thought it possible to stand neutral, but not so.  \"Not to choose\nis to choose amiss.\"  Not to choose the service of God is to choose the\nservice of Satan.\n\nThe will, like our other faculties, does most readily that which it is\naccustomed to do.  The law of habit holds good here as elsewhere, and\nhabit is mostly acquired by the repeated performance of little acts.\nWe do not ordinarily perform great deeds of love as a means of\ntraining; {122} rather do we perform them because we are already\ntrained.  Some great act of love may confirm the will in its tendency\nGodward, but it is not in high and lofty things that we are to seek our\ntraining.  Therefore in training the will so that it may acquire the\nhabit of spontaneously choosing God in all things, it must be taught to\nacquiesce constantly in the little hourly leadings towards Him.  If we\nmake a habit of consenting to another person, after a time it is\ndifficult to refuse consent.  This holds equally good with the sweet\nand happy rule of the Holy Spirit when we have aligned our wills with\nHis, and with the horrid slavery of hell when we have committed our\nwills to Satan.\n\nIn fitting the will for the great warfare, it must be taught little by\nlittle, in numberless minor things, to consent to God's Will.  So after\na time the habit will be formed; God's Voice will become the signal for\nprompt action, and the voice of Satan will be as the voice of a\nstranger whom the will, like the sheep in the parable, will not follow.\n\nSurely then it will be worthy to be called the Royal Faculty, for as a\nking indeed will it reign, one with the Will of Him Who is the King of\nkings.\n\n\n{123}\n\nIV.  _The Fatal Consent_\n\nWe see that there is no power that can compel the will, unless it be\nthat the will has, by its own act, delivered itself to be bound by\nSatan.  This brings us to the third stage--Consent.  The suggestion to\nevil may be strong, the pleasure that follows may be keen; and yet\nthere is no sin until the will has yielded consent; until its denial,\nits hesitation, have been beaten down, and it has cried, \"I yield.\"\n\nIt is around this point that the conflict centres.  The suggestion may\ncount for nothing; it is often but a random shot that the enemy fires\non the chance of striking a vital point, \"just as a besieging army\nsends rockets here and there into a city to try for the powder\nmagazines.\"[15]  The pleasure that follows, great as it may be, is not\nin itself sinful, and may be the occasion of greater merit and grace to\nthe soul that feels it and, instead of yielding, beats it down\nruthlessly.  But if Satan can induce the will to give consent, the deed\nis done, the evil has entered, and, in proportion to the seriousness of\nthe matter, the divine love is quenched, and the power of the devil\nquickened and strengthened.\n\nA distinction, too, must be made between {124} deliberate and\nindeliberate consent.  St. Francis de Sales refers to what he calls\ninclinations to sin,[16] when the mind, not being thoroughly aroused,\nmay amuse itself for some time with a thought or imagination, without\nreflecting that it is a temptation to sin.\n\nFather Augustine Baker says likewise, \"The simple passing of such\nthoughts or imaginations in the mind is no sin at all, though they\nshould rest there never so long without advertence, but only the giving\nof deliberate consent to them\"; and to constitute this deliberate\nconsent he requires that the mind must be \"fully awake,\"--that is, to\nthe fact that these were of the nature of sin,--\"and had reflected on\nthem.\"[17]\n\nOur only hope lies in a stubborn refusal of consent.  Our safety lies\nin fixing the will on this one thing.  Never mind how fiercely the\nenemy may assault.  He may deliver charge after charge with a rapidity\nthat bewilders the soul, and makes it grow sick and dizzy.  We may seem\nto be beaten down under his feet, and all the storms and billows of a\nfierce and terrible temptation may sweep over us, and yet so long as\nfrom the {125} midst of the confusion we cry, \"I will it not,\" the soul\nis safe.[18]\n\nThe refusal of consent should be instant upon the first consciousness\nof temptation.  It is of great peril to dally even for a moment with\nthe sinful suggestion.  Not only does it encourage the tempter on the\none hand, and weaken our powers of resistance on the other, but\ndeliberate dallying with evil is a sin in itself.  It means that an\noutpost has been surrendered, and even though in the end we reject the\nmain suggestion, yet we have by no means come off unscathed.  We are\nless capable of resisting the next attack than we were before; for \"the\nimagination of sin, the {126} dallying with it, the indulgence of the\nsenses, short of what the soul must own to itself to be a grave fall,\nsteeps and drags the soul more thoroughly in sin, immerses it in a\nthicker and more blinding mist, interpenetrates more the whole moral\ntexture of the soul with evil, than, at an earlier stage, does the\nactual sin itself.\"[19]\n\nIt is not always, however, with confusion and noise of battle that\nSatan seeks to force our consent.  Often the hardest temptations to\nendure are those in which he comes very gently, and with long continued\npressure seeks to weary, and discourage, and break down the will.\n\nIt is a fatal error into which scrupulous souls are not infrequently\nled, to think that the long continuance of the suggestion, or even of\nthe delight with which our lower nature responds, constitutes consent.\nThe devils have a mysterious power, allowed them by God, of holding a\ntemptation before the soul continuously or repeatedly, and we are often\nas powerless to put it away as we are to refuse to see an object which\nis actually reflected on the retina of the eye.\n\nHow many times have loving hearts that would choose death a thousand\ntimes rather than dishonour our Lord become sick with terror when in\nthe midst of such prolonged temptation there {127} comes a dread\nwhisper within, \"You have consented, though you knew it not.\"  It is\nthe voice of the tempter, and the ruse is a favourite one in his\nwarfare against the soul, for he knows that for us to think we have\nsinned is almost as fatal in its effects on the _morale_ of the soul as\nto have actually yielded consent.\n\nSo when the lying whisper comes, let us cry out against him, charge him\nwith his lie; and then turning swiftly to our Lord, renew our\nallegiance to Him with such strong, passionate acts of love, that the\nevil spirit, filled with despair, will take his flight, departing from\nus \"for a season.\"\n\n\n\n[1] S. Greg. Mag., _Regulae Pastoralis_, III, xxx.  See also the\nopening paragraph of Dr. Pusey's sermon on \"Victory over Besetting\nSin,\" _Parochial Sermons_, Vol. II.\n\n[2] _Imitation_, I, xiii.\n\n[3] 1 Cor. x, 13.\n\n[4] \"Our trial, by God's appointment and mercy, lies mostly in some few\nthings.  We bring trials upon ourselves which God did not intend for\nus.  We increase manifoldly our own trials by every consent to\nsin.\"--Pusey, _Parochial Sermons_, Vol. II, p. 121.\n\n[5] \"Past sin involves present trial, not present sin.  When a man has\nonce turned to God his past sin will not be imputed to him either in\nitself, _or in its effects_.  One who has given way would by God's just\nappointment, visiting for sin, have trials.  He need not, if he wills\nnot by God's grace, have sin.\"  _Ibid._, p. 335.\n\n[6] _Ibid._, p. 334.\n\n[7] _Ibid._, p. 338.\n\n[8] 2 Thess. ii, 12.\n\n[9] Rom. vii, 21-23.\n\n[10] Scupoli, _The Spiritual Combat_ (Pusey's Trans.), chap. xii.\n\nSt. Francis de Sales, in a letter to the Mere de Chastel, has a\ndelightfully characteristic passage, full of paternal tenderness\ncombined with playful and reverent humour, in which he sets forth the\nmode of action of the two wills.  \"Indeed, my dear daughter Marie,\" he\nwrites, \"you say truly that there are two beings in you.  The one is a\nMarie who, like St. Peter, is tender, sensitive, ready to be irritated\nby a touch.  This Marie is a daughter of Eve, and so her temper is\nfrail.  The other Marie wills to be wholly God's; and in order so to\nbe, she wills in all simplicity to be humble and gentle towards\neveryone, and she would fain imitate St. Peter after he was converted.\nThis Marie is the child of the Blessed Virgin.  These two diverse\nMaries come into collision, and the bad one is so bad that often the\nother scarce knows how to defend herself, and then perforce she fancies\nherself beaten, and believes the bad Marie to be stronger.  But not so,\nmy poor, dear child; the bad one is not stronger than you.  She is more\nperverse, more enterprising, more obstinate, and when you lose heart\nand sit down to cry, she is pleased because it is so much time lost for\nyou; and if she cannot make you lose eternity, at all events she will\ntry to make you lose time.  My dear daughter, rouse your courage ... be\nwatchful of your enemy; tread cautiously for fear of the foe; if you\nare not on your guard against her she will be too much for you.  Even\nif she should take you by surprise, and make you totter, or give you a\nslight wound, do not be put out....  Now do not be ashamed of all this,\nmy daughter, any more than St. Paul was when he confessed that there\nwere two beings in him, one rebellious against God, the other obedient\nto Him.\"--St. Francis de Sales, _Spiritual Letters_, lvii.\n\n[11] \"It is impossible,\" says the Abbot Moses, \"for the mind not to be\napproached by thoughts, but it is in the power of every earnest man\neither to admit them or reject them.  Their rising does not depend upon\nourselves, but their admission or rejection is in our own power....\nThe movement of the mind may well be illustrated by the comparison of a\nmill-wheel.  The headlong rush of water whirls it round, and it can\nnever stop its work so long as it is driven by the water.  Yet it is in\nthe power of the man who directs it to decide whether he will have\nwheat, or barley, or darnel ground by it.  For it must certainly crush\nthat which the man in charge of it puts in.  So the mind is driven by\nthe torrents of temptation which pour in on it from every side and\ncannot be free from the flow of thoughts, but we control the character\nof the thoughts by the efforts of our own earnestness.\"--Cassian,\n_Conferences_, I, 17, 18.\n\n[12] \"The power of divine grace, like that of the Adversary, is\nimpulsive, not compulsive, that the free power of our will may be\nentirely preserved.  Wherefore, for the evil things which a man does by\nthe influence of Satan, it is not Satan that receives the punishment,\nbut the man himself; forasmuch as he was not involuntarily forced into\nthose things, but was consenting in his own will.  In the same manner\nalso with respect to what is good, Grace does not ascribe it to itself,\nbut to the man, and it therefore assigns to him glory, as the cause of\ngood to himself.  For grace does not so constrain by compulsive force\nas to render a man's will incapable of altering; but though it be\npresent to him, it gives way to his free and arbitrary power, that his\nwill may be manifested how it is disposed to good or to evil.  For the\nlaw is not applied to our nature, but to our free-will, which is able\nto convert itself either to good or to evil.\"--Macarius, _Institutes of\nChristian Perfection_, Bk. VII, chap. iii.  (Penn's Trans., London,\n1816.)\n\n[13] Scupoli, _The Spiritual Combat_, chap. xiv.\n\n[14] \"I shall fulfil Thy Will if, for Thy Love, I contradict my own,\nwhich Thou wilt not in any way constrain, but dost leave it perfectly\nfree that I, _by voluntarily and constantly subjecting it to Thine_,\nmay become dearer and more full in Thy sight.\"--St. Catherine of Siena,\n_Dialogue on Consummated Perfection_, in Drane's History of St.\nCatherine, Vol. II, p. 348.\n\n[15] Faber, _Growth in Holiness_, chap. xvi.\n\n[16] St. Francis de Sales, _Spiritual Letters_, cxiv.\n\n[17] Baker, _Sancta Sophia_, pp. 284-286.  See also Hilton, _The Scale\nof Perfection_, Bk. 2, Sec. 1, chap. viii.\n\n\n[18] Using anger as an illustration, Father Baker enters into a\ndetailed description of what may happen, and yet the soul be free from\nsin.  Perhaps there is not one of us who can read the following words\nwithout a sense of deep gratitude and relief concerning not infrequent\nexperiences of our own.  He says: \"A person being moved to anger,\nthough he find an unquiet representation in the imagination, and a\nviolent heat and motions about the heart, as likewise an aversion in\nsensitive nature against the person that hath given the provocation;\nyet if, notwithstanding, he refrains himself from breaking forth into\nwords of impatience to which his passion would urge him, and withal\ncontradicts designs of revenge suggested by passion, such an one,\npracticing internal prayer and mortification, is to esteem himself not\nto have consented to the motions of corrupt nature, although besides\nthe inward motion of the appetite [i.e., the inferior will], he could\nnot hinder marks of his passion from appearing in his eyes and the\ncolour of his countenance.\"--_Sancta Sophia_, pp. 237-238.\n\n[19] Pusey, _Lenten Sermons_, p. 264.\n\n\n\n\n{128}\n\nCHAPTER IX\n\nIN THE HOUR OF BATTLE\n\n\"Like as the children of Ephraim, who being harnessed and bearing bows,\nturned themselves back in the day of battle.\"[1]  Thus does the\nPsalmist recall a day of shame and humiliation in the history of God's\npeople.  Well prepared for the battle, with every hope of victory\nbefore them, the children of Ephraim failed in the hour when they faced\nthe enemy.\n\nThus has it been with many souls in the spiritual warfare.  We may be\nforewarned, we may be armed with the manifold gifts of the Spirit, and\nyet fail, for the preparation is not everything.  When in the actual\npresence of the foe, the soul must smite boldly and well.  The weapons\nGod supplies must be used.  Not to use a grace is to lose a grace.\n\n\nI.  _Realizing God's Friendship_\n\nIt is easy to find theories of opposing temptation; but often hard to\napply them in the actual {129} moment of the assault.  The cause lies\nin the fact that we do not realize our relation to God.  God is our\nfriend; and we must think of Him in the ordinary terms of earthly\nfriendship.  The Eternal Son came to earth and was Incarnate, just in\norder that we might find in Him an earthly relation, by means of and\nthrough which we might be able to rise up to the heavenly friendship.\n\nSo far as mere intellectual knowledge is concerned, we know quite well\nwhat we are to Him, and yet so dull is our appreciation of it that it\nis only with painful care that we are able to keep from mortally\noffending this good God.  We should have slight regard for an earthly\nfriendship that rested on so precarious a foundation.  When shall we\ncome to that blessed time when our friendship with God will be as\nspontaneous in its action, and as free from peril of violation at our\nhands, as the friendships we enjoy with those fellow-mortals whose\nhearts are knit up with ours in loving earthly friendship!\n\nBefore we go on to consider definitely the methods we may profitably\nemploy when the battle is actually upon us, let us use an illustration\nthat may help us to grasp very practically just what our relationship\nis to God.\n\nYou know a man whom you look up to with profound regard and reverence.\nNot only this, {130} but his unfailing goodness to you under many and\nvarious conditions has claimed and won your deepest love and gratitude.\nThis man has an enemy, a despicable character, universally known to be\ndevoid of every sentiment of common decency and honour, who has for\nyears scrupled at no means, even the foulest and most contemptible, to\ninjure the object of his hate.  You know these facts to be true, and\nhave yourself had the misfortune to have many dealings with him, and\nhave always found that his actions justify the low opinion that all\nright-thinking men have of him.  One day this creature has the audacity\nto approach you, and try deliberately to turn you against your\nbenefactor, and to induce you to consent to something that would be to\nthe dishonour and contempt of the one to whom you owe so much.  How\nlong would you listen to him?  Do you think you would stop to weigh\ncalmly the arguments for and against his proposition?  Or would you\nnot, without a moment's hesitation, turn upon him with indignation, and\ndrive the contemptible creature from your presence, with a sense of\nloathing, almost of contamination, that you had been made to listen to\nsuch a suggestion?\n\nWe do not have to go far to find a key to the parable.  The benefactor\nwhom we regard with {131} so deep a reverence is our loving heavenly\nFather, who has claimed and won our love through the goodness and mercy\nwith which He has followed us all the days of our life.  The enemy\nwhose age-long efforts have ever been for His dishonour is the devil,\nwho seeks to make us the instrument by which he would dishonour God.\nWhen illustrated thus, the audacity of the tempter, and the insulting\ncharacter of every temptation, are made plain.\n\nThis simple parable will surely enable us to grasp the relations\nbetween God and ourselves and Satan, and with this realization fresh\nupon us, we can go on to consider some of the special methods we may\nuse to overcome God's enemy and ours.\n\n\nII.  _The Divine Example of Humility_\n\nIt is interesting to note that when our Lord was assailed in the\nwilderness by the Tempter, His method of resistance was to turn\nimmediately to the consideration of His Father's word.  He did not\naddress Himself to the pros and cons of the Satanic suggestion.  He\ninflicts instant and crushing defeat upon His adversary by turning His\nattention, not to the character of the temptation, but straight to the\nwill of the Father.\n\n{132}\n\nIn this our Lord showed by His action what He afterward taught\nconcerning Himself when He said, \"I can of Mine own self do\nnothing.\"[2]  His first act in His temptation was to declare His entire\ndependence on His Father.  So, if in our temptations, we would share\nHis victory, our method of battle must follow His.  The tempted soul\nmust fling itself instantly upon God in the humblest acknowledgment of\ndependence.  Much of our failure in the conflict arises from a\nforgetfulness of this.  How often does the very dread of the sin so\nagitate the soul that instead of turning to God, we stand, as it were,\nfascinated by the horror of the suggestion, losing precious moments\nthat should be devoted to flinging open all the channels of\ncommunication with God, that His own strength may flow into us for the\nbattle.  This course of defence is effective in two ways.\n\n(1) First, as regards God.  Nothing can so completely open the channels\nof communication with Him as an utter abandon of humility in His\npresence.  Scripture is full of the divine teaching on this point.  The\nHoly Spirit declares by the great Prophet of the Incarnation, \"Thus\nsaith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is\nHoly, I dwell in the high {133} and lofty place with him also that is\nof a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble.\"[3]\nSt. James declares, \"God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the\nhumble;\"[4] and St. Peter, repeating the same teaching, adds this\nexhortation, \"Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God\nthat He may exalt you in due time.\"[5]\n\n(2) But not only does this self-abasement in the first moment of\ntemptation bring down new power from God for the struggle, but it has a\ndirect and disastrous effect on Satan.  Nothing so completely bewilders\nhim as self-humiliation.  He, the very personification of pride, cannot\nunderstand how a soul can for a moment so humble itself.  He is\npuzzled, nonplussed.  He knows not how to proceed.  He thought he\nunderstood us; he had studied our lines of defence, and thought he knew\njust how to approach and break through them; but this unexpected\nmanoeuvre shatters his plan of battle.  Many a soul that, in the\napproach of temptation, has thus flung itself at the feet of God has,\nwhile lying there awaiting the divine word, felt the awful sense of the\nSatanic presence pass, and the sickening tug of temptation cease.  The\nenemy in the face of a situation so far beyond his power of {134}\nunderstanding had made haste to withdraw his attack, lest while thus\nfighting in the dark he should meet still more humiliating defeat.\n\n\nIII.  _Instant in Prayer_\n\nThe humble soul is always the praying soul.  The soul that realizes its\ndependence will lose no time in calling upon Him on Whom it leans, and\nthis earnest prayer is the weapon in the warfare, without which certain\noverthrow must ensue.\n\nAs in the case of humbling ourselves, the use of this weapon is to be\nconsidered in its relation both to God and to Satan.\n\n(1) Its relation to God.  We know that prayer for help must of\nnecessity bring help, because the divine promise is given and repeated\na hundred times in Holy Scripture, that the Lord will hear us in the\nday of trouble.[6]  It is needless to multiply texts.  One word of God\nthe Eternal Son suffices, \"And shall not God avenge His own elect which\ncry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them?  I tell you\nHe will avenge them speedily.\"[7]\n\nImpossible as it may seem, the prayer of the humble heart can command\nthe very Godhead.  {135} Ascending to the throne of grace in union with\nthe intercession of Christ, the cry of the hard-pressed child of God\nhas power to liberate the divine Omnipotence, and set in motion all the\ninfinite energies of the kingdom which come forth in their\nunconquerable might to wage war on our behalf.\n\nThis power that the praying soul has over God (we dare use such an\nexpression with entire freedom) is one of the mysteries of our union\nwith Him, and since He has given us so repeated a revelation of it, we\ncan expect nothing of Him if we neglect it.\n\nOne or two Scripture passages will make this clear to us.  When Israel\nrebelled and Moses prayed for them, God's answer was, \"Now therefore\nlet me alone that my wrath may wax hot against them.\"[8]  Why should\nthe Omnipotent One have spoken thus since none is able to hinder Him or\nbind His hands?  The Holy Ghost, speaking by the Psalmist ages after,\ngives us the meaning when He says: \"He said He would have destroyed\nthem had not Moses, His chosen, stood before Him in the gap.\"[9]  The\nwrath of God was paralysed in the face of the prayer of the Saint.\n\nIsaiah, sounding his lament over the lost condition of Israel, says,\n\"There is none that calleth {136} upon Thy name, that stirreth up\nhimself to take hold of thee.\"[10]  The Hebrew tongue affords us no\nstronger expression than that which the Spirit here inspired the\nprophet to use.  The meaning is, to lay, as it were, violent hands upon\nGod, by means of prayer, and with a holy audacity to hold Him back from\nlaunching the thunderbolt of His wrath against the apostate nation.\nThe expression \"stirreth up himself\" indicates by a bold rhetorical\nstroke the power which the prophet knew such a one would have if he\ncould be found among the sons of Israel.  When used in the Old\nTestament it invariably implies the arousing of some mighty force,\nwhich when once awakened would sweep all before it, as when Balaam\nprophesied concerning Israel, \"He couched, he lay down as a lion, as a\ngreat lion; who shall stir him up?\"[11]\n\nThus in the power of prayer shall we be able to sweep all before us, if\nin the hour of temptation we pray with a like holy audacity.\n\n(2) But not only does prayer in the hour of temptation call the power\nof God to our succour, but the bare fact that we pray at such a time\ncompletely overreaches Satan.  The primary reason {137} of his\ntemptation is to draw us away from God.  If the invariable result of\ntemptation is thus to draw us the more surely and closely to His feet\nin prayer, the tempter will not be slow to realize that he is being\nused as the instrument, and his assault as the occasion, of\naccomplishing this very thing that his labour is directed against.\nWhen he realizes this, baffled and discouraged, he will have no\nalternative but to withdraw.\n\nWe must say a word about ejaculatory prayer, for in the hour of\ntemptation this method of prayer is to be our chief source of strength.\nMost frequently, perhaps, in temptation there is no time or occasion\nfor formal prayer.  Our appeal to God in such times must be instant.\nThese prayers of ejaculation have been described as \"short, sharp, and\nswift darts [Latin, jaculum, a dart], and desires, shot by our burning\nhearts, and reaching heaven in an instant.  Our forefathers, the\nSaints, frequently used them, for being short, they trouble not the\nmemory; being fervent, they rouse our dulness and dryness to affection\nand devotion; being frequent, they still renew our attention to God's\npresence, and put us perpetually in mind of our duties.\"[12]\n\nTo this, it may be added that ejaculatory {138} prayer is apt to be a\nmeasurably perfect prayer, because, being so quickly finished, the\ndevil has not time to chill its fervour by distractions, such as we\ninvariably suffer from in longer forms of prayer.  Even were it so\ndisposed, the average mind cannot act with sufficient quickness to\nperceive the distraction ere the prayer be finished.\n\nThose who study God's word piously will find numberless prayers in the\nvery language of the Holy Ghost, which will be most effective in the\nmoment of danger.  The briefer these are, the better.  The Psalter is\nfull of them, and there is no better military exercise for the\nChristian soldier than to spend his time when not actually in battle,\nin learning as many of them as possible by heart, so that they may be\nready at hand when the battle begins.\n\nShort, quick prayers like the following will be found of great profit:\n\n\"O Lord, my God, in Thee have I put my trust; save me from all them\nthat persecute me, and deliver me.\"[13]\n\n\"Save, Lord, and hear us, O King of Heaven.\"[14]\n\n\"Save me, O God, for Thy Name's sake, and avenge me in Thy\nstrength.\"[15]\n\n\"Have mercy upon me, O God, after Thy great goodness.\"[16]\n\n{139}\n\n\"Lord, he whom Thou lovest is sick.\"[17]\n\n\"Like as the hart desireth the water-brooks, so longeth my soul after\nThee, O Lord.\"[18]\n\n\"Why art thou so heavy, O my soul, and why art thou so disquieted\nwithin me?  O put thy trust in God, for I will yet give Him thanks\nwhich is the help of my countenance and my God.\"[19]\n\n\"O God, Thou art my God, early will I seek Thee.\"[20]\n\n\"Thou, Lord, art my hope.\"[21]\n\n\"O help us against the enemy, for vain is the help of man.\"[22]\n\n\"Out of the deep have I called unto Thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my\nvoice.\"[23]\n\nWe need not multiply instances of these prayers.  Let each one take the\nPsalter, the Gospels, and other parts of Scripture, and go over them\nfor himself, copying them out, committing them to memory in quiet\ntimes, thus filling his quiver full of heaven-tempered darts, the use\nof which in time of stress will surely put to flight the audacious\nenemy.\n\nIt is well to remember in the use of prayer in the moment of\ntemptation, that the mind must be wholly set upon God.  There is real\ndanger {140} in trying to pray while at the same time our thoughts are\nupon the special form of temptation that is being presented.  Turn your\nback upon it, and cry to God.  Think only of Him, His goodness, His\nloving protection.  The diversion of the mind alone is a victory over\nthe tempter; and where it is turned from him, and set upon strong and\nholy appeals and aspirations, it is not possible but that the enemy\nwill be driven utterly from our path.\n\n\nIV.  _A Holy Perversity_\n\nAnother effective method of resistance is to make a rule of doing, in a\ndefinite and precise way, and instantly if possible, just the contrary\nof what Satan is seeking to induce us to do.  For instance, he\ninsinuates into our minds some bitter, resentful, and uncharitable\nthought.  We know the thought is evil, and we abhor it accordingly, nor\ndo we give any sort of consent to its presence; but still it is not\neasy to crush.  Perhaps it is a revival of some old bitterness in\nregard to a real wrong done us long ago.  We fight hard against it, and\nthus save ourselves from sin; but how much shall we add to Satan's\ndiscomfiture, how shall we indeed crown our victory, if, instead of\nexpending our energy in the merely negative {141} work of refusing\nadmittance to our hearts of an unloving thought, we proceed to do or\nsay some loving thing; or at any rate offer a resolution instantly to\nGod to watch for an opportunity, and, if need be, to go out of our way,\nto perform some act of kindness before the day is over.\n\nOr in case of temptation to pride, personal vanity or self-assertion,\nto perform some little act of meekness; or when the temptation is to\nsome form of self-indulgence or selfishness, deliberately to do some\nunselfish thing, preferring for our greater self-denial something that\nnaturally we should not care to do.\n\nA simple illustration will show how discouraging such a course will be\nto the tempter.  Suppose whenever you had occasion to ask a certain\nacquaintance to do something for you, instead of complying with your\nrequest, he did just the contrary thing, and that with a precision and\nregularity that gave evidence of a deliberate plan and policy.  Suppose\nagain that this contrary thing was the very act that he knew was most\ndispleasing to you.  How long would you persist in your applications to\nhim?  Surely, not for long.  So will it be with Satan.  He is far too\nintelligent a creature, and knows and serves his own interests all too\nfaithfully, to continue his efforts long under such conditions.\n\n\n{142}\n\nV.  _Scorning the Tempter_\n\nA most excellent method, which can often, though not always, be\napplied, is that of ignoring the tempter.  It is a helpful thing in the\nChristian warfare to remember always that Satan is the embodiment of\npride.  Nothing cuts the proud soul so deeply as being ignored.  It can\nendure opposition, even defeat, but the thing that is intolerable is to\nbe taken no account of.  So when Satan attacks, in not a few instances,\nthe resistance that to him will be the most cruel will be to go calmly\non one's way, ignoring him.  As St. Francis de Sales says: \"You should\nnot answer, or seem even to hear, what the enemy says.  Let him hammer\nas he will at the door; do not you even say so much as, Who is\nthere?...  Beware that you never open the door, either to peep out and\nsee what it is, or to drive away the clamour.\"[24]\n\nAn illustration similar to the one employed in our discussion of\nresisting by doing the thing contrary to the temptation will help us\nhere.  Imagine yourself having occasion frequently to apply to a\ncertain person for a service.  Imagine such a person deliberately\nignoring you whenever you spoke, pretending not to hear you, {143}\ngazing with feigned absent-mindedness out of the window.  Do you think\nyou would long continue your application to such an one?  Indeed you\nwould not.  Pride, even right-minded self-respect, would forbid it; and\nyou can be sure Satan, acting on the same principle, will soon cease to\nannoy you when he finds himself the object of so studied a contempt.\n\nSince the human mind, however, always demands something upon which to\nbe engaged, we can much more successfully ignore Satan's addresses if\nwe divert the mind by an act of the will into some totally different\nchannel.  \"Temptations,\" says Walter Hilton, \"vex the soul indeed, but\ndo not harm it, if so be a man despise them and set them at naught; for\nit is not good to strive with them, as if thou wouldst cast them out by\nmastery and violence, for the more they strive with them, the more they\ncleave to them.  And therefore they shall do well to divert their\nthoughts from them as much as they can, and set them upon some\nbusiness.\"[25]\n\nThis diversion of the mind will be all the more effective if it is in\nthe direction of those holy things which Satan abhors.  Therefore \"let\nus turn our hearts to converse with God, which is better than to\nreflect upon our temptations and {144} troubles.  Let us be so\nattentive to Him, that we have neither leave nor leisure to give ear to\nSatanic suggestions.\"[26]\n\n\nVI.  _Staying not the Hand_\n\nWe are told in the Second Book of the Kings[27] that when the prophet\nElisha was fallen sick of the sickness whereof he died, Joash, the King\nof Israel, came unto him.  The man of God commanded him to take the\narrows and smite upon the ground, whereupon the King, weak in ambition,\nand with no vision of God's destiny for him as a national deliverer,\nsmote thrice upon the ground and stayed.  \"And the man of God was wroth\nwith him and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then\nhadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it.\"  If he who goes\nforth to fight for God would utterly consume the enemy, he must seek\nthe vision of His purpose for him, and if he is truly ambitious of\nheavenly honours it is not far to seek.\n\nWe can quite safely say that God never predestined any soul barely to\nwin the victory.  He plans high things for all his children, but how\nmany are there who never attain them because, like the king of Israel,\nthey are giving Him a {145} spiritless service.  They smite thrice with\nthe arrows of deliverance and stay their hand.  They are content to\nremain on a low spiritual plane, within the pale of divine grace\nindeed, but satisfied with this, and using their further energies for\npassing earthly things instead of devoting them with a burning\nsplendour of enthusiasm to an ever higher service in the kingdom that\nshall have no end.\n\nHow disappointing are such lives to God!  He had meant to promote them\nto great honour, and they have no aspiration above the lowest place.\nNor can they plead that they know not His purpose for them.  The\nScriptural revelation is full of the highest assurances.  God lays wide\nopen before us the plan He has prepared for our glory.  He tells us in\na hundred passages, every utterance eloquent with love, what it all is,\nand He stays in His description only when the finite mind of man cannot\nfollow Him; and then He cries: \"Eye hath not seen nor ear heard,\nneither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath\nprepared for them that love Him.\"[28]\n\nIf we are to rise up to satisfy the divine measure of our predestined\nglory, we must smite not thrice, but five or six times.  We must smite\nnot only {146} until we feel the assault stayed, but until we are sure\nthat the tempter has acknowledged himself defeated.  Some spiritual\nguides advise the soul pursuing the tempter, not allowing him to depart\nfrom us without further chastisement and humiliation.  \"Do not leave\noff the conflict until the enemy is, as it were, wearied out, dead, and\nyields himself up discomfited.\"[29]\n\n\"When the assaults have ceased,\" says Scupoli, \"excite them again, so\nas to have an opportunity of overcoming them with greater force and\nenergy.  Then challenge them again a third time so as to accustom\nyourself to repulse them with scorn and horror.\"[30]\n\nRemember, however, as a point of the most extreme importance, that this\ncourse should never be adopted in temptations against faith or against\npurity.  In these cases there should be an immediate avoidance of the\nthought and occasion of the temptation, and the mind should be\ninstantly diverted utterly from it by definite occupation of a contrary\nnature.\n\n\nVII.  _The Final Phase of Victory_\n\nThe counsel of the author of \"The Spiritual Combat,\" appeals to us not\nonly as coming from {147} a great guide of souls, but because (as is\nalways the case with the wisdom of the Saints), it answers our sense of\nthe fitness of things.  A poor soldier he would be who never planned to\nfight on the offensive, who never sought to carry the war into the\nenemy's country.  The Blessed Christ has organized the armies of the\nKingdom not merely for the protection of a weak and incapable people,\nbut for the positive conquest of Satan through the strength and\naggressiveness of His soldiers.  In the account of the armour of God as\ngiven us by St. Paul,[31] we are, it is true, told of the breast plate,\nthe shield, and the helmet, all armour of defence; but we are also told\nof the feet shod that the soldier might march straight forward; and of\nthe sword of the Spirit with which we are to slay the adversary.\n\nUnder the old dispensation, too, the Spirit taught the like truth.  In\none of the chiefest of the Psalms of consolation,--the 91st,--the soul\nis spoken of as finding its refuge in the very secret place of the Most\nHigh; as being covered with His wings,--shielded from the mysterious\nterror that walks by night, from the arrow that flies by day; and there\nis mention of shield and buckler, weapons of defence.  But also there\nis mention of the splendid feats of aggressive conquest that {148} God\nexpects from those to whom He accords His almighty protection.  \"Thou\nshalt tread upon the lion and adder; the young lion and the dragon\nshalt thou trample under feet.\"\n\nThe contrast between the earlier part of the Psalm and this sudden\npromise is startling.  Heretofore God and the angels have been the\nactors prosecuting their work of protection and defence.  Now it is as\nthough He said, \"I have hid thee in My tabernacle, and now it is\n_Thou_, the defenced one, who shall tread upon the lion and adder;\nThou, and I only as acting in and through thee!\"[32]\n\nThe Hebrew form of expression the Holy Spirit employs presents two\npowerful word-paintings.  When it is said, \"Thou shalt _tread_ upon the\nlion and adder,\" there is the suggestion of stamping in pieces, of\ntreading one's enemies as grapes are trodden in the wine-press; and\nwhere the promise is made, \"The young lion and the dragon shalt thou\n_trample under feet_,\" the Holy Ghost is lifting up before ancient\nIsrael, in their own language, the picture of the terrible onset of\n{149} armed horsemen beating down the enemy with ruthless trampling\nbeneath the iron-shod feet of the horses.\n\nThus are the soldiers of God called upon not only to vanquish, but to\ntread the hosts of hell as grapes are trodden in the vintage; not only\nto cause them to flee, but to pursue and trample them with terrible\nstrength as victorious horsemen trample down the flying foe.\n\n\n\n[1] Ps. lxxviii, 10.\n\n[2] St. John v, 30.\n\n[3] Isa. lvii, 15.\n\n[4] St. James iv, 6.\n\n[5] 1 Pet. v, 6.\n\n[6] Ps. xx, 1.\n\n[7] St. Luke xviii, 7-8.\n\n[8] Exod. xxxii, 10.\n\n[9] Ps. cvi, 23.\n\n[10] Isa. lxiv, 7.\n\n[11] Numbers xxiv, 9.  See also Job xli, 10, and Ps. xxxv, 23, and\nlxxx, 2.\n\n[12] Castaniza, _The Spiritual Conquest_, pp. 405, 406.  (Vaughan, 3d\nEd.)\n\n[13] Ps. vii, 1.\n\n[14] Ps. xx, 9.\n\n[15] Ps. liv, 1.\n\n[16] Ps. li, 1.\n\n[17] St. John xi, 3.\n\n[18] Ps. xlii, 1.\n\n[19] Ps. xliii, 5-6.\n\n[20] Ps. lxiii, 1.\n\n[21] Ps. xci, 9.\n\n[22] Ps. cviii, 12.\n\n[23] Ps. cxxx, 1.\n\n[24] St. Francis de Sales, _Spiritual Letters_, xi.\n\n[25] Hilton, _The Scale of Perfection_, I, Pt. II, Sec. 2, chap. i.\n\n[26] Castaniza, The Spiritual Conquest, p. 459.\n\n[27] 2 Kings xiii.\n\n[28] Cor. ii, 9.\n\n[29] Scupoli, _The Spiritual Combat_, chap. xiii.\n\n[30] _Ibid._\n\n[31] Eph. vi.\n\n[32] Compare Romans xvi, 20: \"The God of peace shall bruise Satan under\n_your_ feet shortly.\"  \"The God of peace\" goes forth to war, fighting\nin order to secure that peace whereby His title of \"Prince of Peace\" is\njustified; and it is His power that will bruise Satan, but the bruising\nis to be under _our_ feet.  We give ourselves to Him that He may\nconquer in and through us.\n\n\n\n\n{150}\n\nCHAPTER X\n\nTHE TESTS OF VICTORY AND DEFEAT\n\nIt is all very well to sit down calmly, and consider, as we have done,\nthe stages of temptation, and to draw definite conclusions as to the\npoint at which the temptation passes over into sin.  Such principles as\nthese are not hard to discover.  In fact, as a general rule it is\ncomparatively easy in any matter to arrive at moral principles.  If we\ncannot think them out for ourselves, any handbook of Christian ethics\nwill give them to us, cut and dried.\n\nThe real stress and strain in life arises from the difficulty of\napplying principles to special cases in hand, and it is just this\ndifficulty that is experienced amid the shock of the conflict by many\nsouls, even those who are illuminated by the Holy Ghost.\n\n\nI.  _The Test of Common Sense_\n\nWhat practical tests, therefore, can we bring to bear in order to know\nwhether the will has consented?  Before entering upon a discussion of\nthem, we can sum up the whole matter by saying that to everything must\nbe applied the test of common sense.  At no time are scruples {151} so\napt to intrude themselves as when we seek to apply tests to discover\nwhether or not we have sinned; and no spiritual scruple was ever based\non common sense.  On the contrary, the cherishing of scruples always\npoints to some positive lack of mental balance.  Above all things, we\nare to be reasonable with ourselves.  We shall find with ever so little\nconsideration that the laws which apply to the conditions of our\nordinary daily life are the laws that must apply to our spiritual life.\nThere will be no danger of perplexing scruples if we apply the same\nrules to the inquiry concerning sin as we should apply to a question of\nordinary human relations, and as dutiful children we must give our\nheavenly Father credit for as much loving generosity in His dealings\nwith us as we know would be employed by an earthly parent who had ever\nshowed us a tender and loving consideration.\n\nSo bearing these things ever in mind, we can proceed to think of the\nfurther tests we may apply, to show whether or not we have consented to\nthe devil's temptations.\n\n\nII.  _The Test of Doubt_\n\n\"If you doubt whether you have consented to evil, always take the doubt\nas a negative.\"[1] {152} This is the rule laid down for us by St.\nFrancis de Sales.  In it he follows the great spiritual teachers in\nholding that if sin, especially mortal sin, \"is not _more than\ncertain_, you should decide that it does not exist,\" especially if the\nconscience is prone to be tender.[2]\n\nIt is a principle of divine, as well as human law, that a man is to be\ncounted innocent until he is proved guilty.[3]  We must give ourselves\nthe benefit of the doubt.  This we can do safely, and without scruple,\nprovided we have been ordinarily faithful in the use of the means of\nspiritual knowledge that God supplies, such as Prayer, Sacraments, etc.\nWe must insist upon this; in the first place, because the nature of the\nhuman mind demands it.  A thing that the soul really abhors could not\npossibly find entrance without its certain knowledge.  In the second\nplace, because justice requires it.  We are bound to exercise justice\ntowards ourselves as well as towards others, and it would be manifestly\nunjust to regard a man as guilty of a crime so long as the case is\ninvolved in reasonable doubt.\n\nThe third reason why we must acquit ourselves when doubt exists, is\nthat it is a grave danger to the soul to become accustomed to the idea\nof {153} committing sin.  It is a principle of psychology that it is\nmuch easier to perform an action when we have grown used to the thought\nof it.\n\nA fourth reason is thus expressed by St. Francis in a letter to the\nfamous Angelique Arnauld, Abbess of Port Royal: \"If you accuse your\nsoul without just cause, you spoil its courage, and turn it into a mere\ncoward.\"[4]  It is the Christian's duty by every means to encourage his\nsoul and to do nothing to discourage it.  The Psalmist gives us\nrepeated examples of this, as for instance, when he cries, \"Why art\nthou so heavy, O my soul, and why art thou so disquieted within me.\nPut thy trust in God, for I will yet give him thanks which is the help\nof my countenance and my God.\"[5]  Discouragement has been called \"the\ntemptation of temptations.\"[6]\n\n{154}\n\nThe soldier would not be tolerated in an army who made it his business\nto go up and down the lines in the course of the battle discouraging\nhis fellows.  We always feel that there is a peculiar meanness about\nthe man who tries to take the heart out of those about him.  We must in\nthese spiritual matters, under pain of sin, be as fair to, and as\nconsiderate of, our own souls as of the souls of others, for we have no\nspecial rights over ourselves in such matters.  Our souls are not our\nown.  \"All souls are mine,\"[7] says God, and we wrong Him when we\ninjure any soul.\n\nIt does not acquit us to plead, as silly souls are sometimes heard to\ndo, that we are injuring no one but ourselves.  In the first place,\nthis is not true.  Every hurt we inflict on our souls, every\ndiscouragement into which we lead ourselves, is not only a wrong to\nGod, but inflicts a hurt on every soul that is bound up with us in the\nCommunion of Saints.  This is just what the Apostle meant when he said,\n\"Whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it.\"[8]\n\nThe care and constant strengthening of our own souls is a part of the\nobligation laid upon {155} us as our brother's keeper;[9] and we know\nthe curse that fell upon Cain not only for his crime of blood, but in\npunishment for the far greater crime of refusing to recognize the\nsolidarity of humanity, and the duties that arise therefrom.  He\nmurdered one man's body, but who can tell how many souls we have been\nslaying though weakening our own power to help and rescue them in their\nhour of conflict.\n\nEven were it true that we injure none but ourselves by injustice to our\nsouls, we are in this case injuring that which belongs, not to\nourselves, but to another, namely to God, and He will let no such wrong\ngo unavenged.\n\nAlthough we are not to accuse ourselves in such cases of doubt, it is\nwell to speak of them to a wise spiritual guide.[10]  This will afford\nus the opportunity of receiving such counsel as will aid us should the\nparticular form of assault be repeated.\n\nIt is also a discouragement to the enemy to see that his schemes are\nthus understood and exposed.  He loves ever to work in the dark, and it\nis a matter of common experience that he often abandons a plan of\ntemptation when he finds it {156} has been detected and discussed by\nthose against whom he has been plotting.\n\n\nIII.  _Signs of the Soul's Victory_\n\nIn the course of the struggle there are many circumstances and\nconditions by which we can test how the battle is going.  We shall\nconsider some of these, choosing certain ones which Satan often uses\nfor our discouragement by presenting them to us in a wrong light.  It\nis a favourite device of his to snatch at the very circumstance which a\ngood God, ever tenderly solicitous of our safety, allows for the\nconsolation of His faithful soldiers, and by presenting it from a false\npoint of view, turn it into an occasion of scruple and unnerving\nanxiety.\n\n(1) Continuance and increased severity of attack is proof that the will\nhas not yielded to the temptation.  An army does not direct its\nassaults against an enemy who has already surrendered.  So rather than\nbe frightened, we should draw comfort from the fact of continued\ntemptation.\n\n\"It is a good sign,\" wrote St. Francis de Sales to Madame de Chantal,\n\"when the enemy storms so lustily at the door; it proves that he is not\nattaining his end.  If he had attained it, he would {157} not clamour\nany more; he would go in and be satisfied.  Keep this in mind so as to\navoid scruples.\"[11]\n\nBut although Satan's fiercer malignance of attack be a sign that the\nsoul has not yielded, it is far from being the kind of sign that\njustifies our pausing in the struggle.  If the tempter uses renewed\nenergy and fierceness in his assaults, the soul, in order that it may\ncontinue in safety, must also employ a corresponding increase of energy\nin bringing into action the increased grace that the Holy Spirit stands\nalways ready to give to those who ask Him.  It is just for this that\nthe Blessed Spirit waits upon and presides over the conflict.  \"Hence\ngather we this comfort,\" writes the saintly Andrewes for our\nconsolation, \"that the Holy Ghost is not a stander-by as a stranger\nwhen we are tempted, _tanquam otiosus spectator_, but He leads us by\nthe hand, and stands by as a faithful assistant.\"[12]\n\n(2) A sense of fear that we have consented, or at the thought of the\npossibility of consenting, is an excellent indication that we are, as\nyet, free from the sin to which we are being tempted.  He who has\nactually entered into the sin and made it his own by a deliberate\noperation of his will, {158} has not ordinarily the attitude of fear\ntowards his sin.  The act of consent brings a certain complacency with\nrespect to the sin, and a blindness of spiritual vision, which leaves\nno room for fear, and which is only disturbed by penitence.\n\n\"You will not yield to the temptations which you know and fear; for the\nfear of falling is one of the best gifts of the Holy Spirit.  Through\nthat holy fear He arms His servants against danger, and teaches them\nhow to conquer themselves....  If you had no fear I should fear for\nyou....  Fear then, and let your holy fear be lifelong.  'Blessed is\nthe man that feareth always.'  But keep that fear within due limits, so\nthat you do not become discouraged and forsake your work; let it rather\nmove you to renewed hope, and more earnest watchfulness, self-mistrust,\nand confidence in God.\"[13]\n\n(3) Grief at the temptation implies, of necessity, that the will is\nstill in a state of opposition to the suggestion.  \"So long as you are\ngrieved at the temptation, there is nothing to fear, for why does it\ngrieve you save because your will does not consent to it?\"[14]  A\nglance at the nature of grief shows this to be true.  Grief is {159}\nthe emotion that arises when we are forced to suffer that which is\ncontrary to the will.[15]\n\nOn the other hand, the absence of grief should rouse us to inquire if\nour souls be not in a dangerous state of tepidity.  If one were\nseriously to suggest our doing something that would be a marked\ndishonour to an earthly friend and benefactor, there would be an almost\nimmediate sense of shock and grief that we should be thought capable of\nsuch baseness.\n\nThere would, in all likelihood, be a sense of disappointment with\nourselves that we had given so poor a testimony of our love and loyalty\nthat anyone could think it possible for us to be thus untrue to our\nfriend.  So, along with the grief at the presence of the temptation let\nus make sure that there be a very deep searching of heart to find what\nthere is in our life to encourage the tempter to think we would be\nuntrue to a Father who has loved us with an everlasting love,[16] and\nwhose tender compassions are renewed to us every morning.[17]\n\n(4) A consciousness of the existence of temptation is generally a sign\nthat the will has not wholly, at any rate, yielded consent.\n\n{160}\n\nThe entrance of sin into the soul by consent marks the cessation of\nstruggle, and therefore, when there is still a clear sense of struggle,\nwe are to conclude that as the temptation is still going on we have not\nyet given full consent.  Dom Baker assures us that \"A well-minded soul\nmay conclude that there is in the will a refusal to consent to the\nsuggestion, even in the midst of the greatest disorder thereof, _whilst\nthe combat does not cease_.\"[18]  Those who are wholly unconscious of\ntemptation are too often those who have yielded to the tempter, and he\ntroubles them no more.  Those who still feel the pressure of his enmity\ncan thank God and take courage that the devil still counts them worthy\nof his antagonism.\n\nSays Walter Hilton: \"The soul needeth to be ever striving and fighting\nagainst the wicked striving of this image of sin, and that he make no\naccord with them, nor have friendship with them to be pliable to their\nunlawful biddings, for in so doing he beguileth himself.  But verily if\nhe strive with them, he need not be much afraid of consenting, for\nstriving breaketh peace and false accord.\"[19]\n\n\n{161}\n\nIV.  _Spiritual Safety, Spiritual Victory_\n\nThe reader will observe that although we are speaking of the soul being\nkept from the power of Satan, yet the heading of the foregoing section\nspeaks of the signs, not of the soul's _safety_, but of the soul's\n_victory_.  There is a significance in this choice of words, for in the\nspiritual combat the soul that is safe is indeed victorious.  Herein\nlies one of the radical differences between the spiritual warfare and\nany other.  In the world's wars an army may be safe from defeat and\ncapture, and yet be far from victorious.  But in the spiritual life, to\nbe safe is to be the victor.  There are no drawn battles in this\nwarfare.  Once the soul has been enlisted in God's army, once it has\nbeen signed, and sealed, and has put on the whole armour of God,\nthenceforth to be safe is to be victorious, not to be conquered is to\nconquer Satan.  So we may seem to be making but little progress, but if\nwe hold fast that which we have no man can take our crown.\n\nThis is made quite clear to us in the message of the Spirit to the\nSeven Churches of Asia.[20]  The Church at that time was hard-pressed.\nThe fires of persecution were burning out the dross, and purifying her\nover against the coming {162} of the Lord.  It was a time for\nlongsuffering, for patient waiting until the arm of the Lord should be\nbared to avenge her of her adversaries.  So the Spirit speaks not of\nPentecostal achievements; there is no mention of mighty triumphs that\nthe world could see and applaud.  It was a patient waiting, finding her\nstrength in sitting still.[21]\n\nWhat is it under these conditions that God requires?  No aggressive\nplan of advance is outlined; only a patient faithfulness wherein would\nlie victory and reward.  Examine them one by one.  Ephesus receives\npraise of God because \"Thou hast borne and hast had patience.\"  Smyrna\nis only to \"Fear none of those things that thou shalt suffer.\"\nPergamos is praised, because \"Thou boldest fast My name, and has not\ndenied My faith.\"  To Thyatira it is said, \"That which ye have already,\nhold fast till I come.\"  Sardis has lost somewhat of the heavenly gift,\nbut she will yet be safe if she will but \"Strengthen the things that\nremain.\"  Philadelphia is accounted worthy of great promises because\n\"Thou hast a little strength, and hast kept My word and hast not denied\nMy name.\"  Nor has Laodicea, \"neither hot nor cold,\" over whom the\ncurse is suspended, great things demanded of her.  It is only, \"Be\nzealous therefore {163} and repent.\"  Let her only undo her evil and\nshe, too, will have the blessing.\n\nFrom none of these are great things asked.  If they will but hold fast,\nand in the power of the Spirit let not Satan have the advantage, the\ngrace of God within them will so operate of its own inherent force and\nactivity that each will be counted among those that overcome, and will\nreceive the gracious reward promised to those who are worthy to be\nranked among the victors in the Kingdom.  What strong consolation is\nhere!  What proof of the love and compassion of our God!  Only yield\nnot to Satan, hold fast that which thou hast, and thine shall be a\nshare in the glory of the victorious Son of God.\n\n\nV.  _The Truest Test_\n\nWe have considered briefly some of the tests by which we may try\nourselves in the battle, but, after all, is it best to engage ourselves\nin the application of any tests?  There are indeed certain strong,\nGod-reliant souls who are not content unless they can thus test\nthemselves.  If they believe the Holy Spirit is leading them to this,\nwell and good.  Let them follow such a divine call wherever it may take\nthem, for the leading of the Spirit can never be other than a {164}\nleading of perfect wisdom and perfect love.  But doubtless for most of\nus who desire to serve God in true simplicity, it is far better to\nplace our whole trust in Him, do what we can, lean in childlike faith\nupon His great love, and not seek to measure our progress on the way.\n\nSuch tests may help many, but they should be strictly avoided if they\nlead to introspection and self-analysis, those deadly foes of true\ndevotion; above all, if they lead to self-satisfaction and pride.  If\nthe application of these tests produces mental doubt, distress, and\nscruple, or vain complacency, take it as a distinct warning from God to\nlet them alone, for in souls of this temperament any such testing of\nself will cause them to fall by the wayside, or else to fix their eyes\nso earnestly on the road they are treading that they will lose sight of\nHim Who is at once their Guide and their Goal.  \"Let us love Him,\" says\none who knew the love of God very deeply, \"without striving to inquire\ntoo inquisitively what we are doing for love's sake, so long as we know\nthat our aim is to do all things in and through that love.\"[22]\n\nYes, our safety is to keep the love of God warm in our hearts.  If this\nbe done, nothing else matters.  If we can say, or even have an earnest,\n{165} honest desire to say, with the pilgrim in Hilton's parable, \"I am\nnaught, I can do naught, I have naught, and naught do I desire to have,\nbut only Jesus and His love,\"[23] this will be the highest test of our\nspiritual progress; and this love of God increases most when not held\ndown by formal tests and methods.  Says St. Bernard, \"_Modus diligendi\nDeum, est diligere sine modo_\"; which saying Augustine Baker\nbeautifully paraphrases: \"The measure and manner of loving God is to\nlove Him immeasurably and freely, without a prescribed manner.\"[24]\n\n\n\n[1] _Spirit of St. Francis de Sales_, chap. xii.\n\n[2] Gaume, _Manual for Confessors_ (Pusey Translation), p. 179.\n\n[3] Gury, _Compend. Theol. Moral._, II, pp. 278-279.\n\n[4] St. Francis de Sales, _Spiritual Letters_, cxiv.\n\n[5] Ps. xliii, 5-6.\n\n[6] St. Francis de Sales, _Letters to Persons in Religion_, p. 141\n(Mackey Trans.).  This same Saint warns us against discouragement that\nenters under the guise of humility.  Speaking of the virtue of\nself-mistrust he says: \"Your mistrust of self is good, so long as it is\nthe groundwork of confidence in God; but if it ever should lead you to\nbeing discouraged, disturbed, vexed, or melancholy, then I entreat you,\nreject it as the greatest possible temptation, and do not allow your\nmind to argue or dally with the anxiety or depression to which you are\ndisposed.  It is a simple and certain truth that God permits those who\nseek to serve Him to encounter many difficulties, but also that He\nnever leaves them to sink under the burthen so long as they trust in\nHim.  The great thing you must heed is never to let your mind argue in\nfavour of the temptation to be discouraged, under any pretext whatever,\nnot even under the plausible pretext of humility.\"--_Spiritual\nLetters_, cii (Lear Edition).\n\n[7] Ezek. xviii, 4.\n\n[8] 1 Cor. xii, 26.\n\n[9] Gen. iv, 9.\n\n[10] For conditions under which doubtful sins should be mentioned in\nconfession, see Lehmkuhl, II, 317.\n\n[11] St. Francis de Sales, _Spiritual Letters_, xi.\n\n[12] Andrewes, _Sermons_, Vol. V, p. 499.\n\n[13] Gaume, _Manual for Confessors_ (Pusey Trans.), p. 90.\n\n[14] St. Francis de Sales, _Spiritual Letters_, xiii.\n\n[15] Speaking of certain temptations which result from past faults of\nour own, Dr. Pusey says, \"They are suffering, not sin; nay, so long as\nthey are suffering they are not sin.\"--_Parochial Sermons_, II, 334.\n\n[16] Jer. xxxi, 3.\n\n[17] Lam. iii, 22, 23.\n\n[18] Baker, _Sancta Sophia_, p. 237.\n\n[19] Hilton, _The Scale of Perfection_, Bk. II, Pt. 2, chap. iv.\n\n[20] Rev. ii and iii.\n\n[21] Isa. xxx, 7.\n\n[22] St. Francis de Sales, _Spiritual Letters_, xxxvii.\n\n[23] Hilton, _The Scale of Perfection_, Bk. II, Sec. 1, chap. viii.\n\n[24] Baker, _Sancta Sophia_, p. 413.\n\n\n\n\n{166}\n\nCHAPTER XI\n\nTHE SCHOOL OF THE HOLY GHOST\n\nOne of the most precious promises in Holy Scripture which is repeatedly\nmade to the faithful is that they shall be taught of God.  \"Them that\nare meek shall He guide in judgment, and such as are gentle them shall\nHe learn His way.\"[1]  \"I will inform thee, and teach thee in the way\nwherein thou shalt go; and I will guide thee with Mine eye.\"[2]  \"All\nthy children shall be taught of the Lord\";[3]  \"The Comforter, which is\nthe Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach\nyou all things\";[4] \"He will guide you into all truth.\"[5]\n\n\nI.  _The Teaching of Temptation_\n\nOne of the chief courses of instruction in the School of the Holy\nSpirit is that of temptation.  Victory over Satan is a very glorious\nachievement, but it is only half, and so far as our earthly life is\naffected, the smaller half, of God's purpose in sending and permitting\ntemptation.  He means {167} us in every battle to gain a knowledge of\nself, a knowledge of our weak points, that realizing them our wills may\nbe incited to co-operate with His to re-enforce them.[6]\n\n(1) One of the first lessons it is needful for us to learn is that when\ngreat difficulty is experienced in resisting a temptation we are to\nregard the point of this particular assault as one that requires\nstrengthening.  How wonderfully does the divine wisdom force Satan\nhimself to be our instructor and, in permitting him to buffet us,\ncompel him to proceed according to a principle which teaches the soul\nits own needs, and so turns to his own undoing, and to the profit of\nthe one who is tempted.\n\nEven when, for the time being, he gains a victory, the same principle\nholds good.  After true penitence has come to make good the breach, how\nmuch has the soul learned, how sensitive it is at that particular\npoint, how alert to perceive any renewed attack, how full of a holy\ndesperation that the same disaster come not again.\n\nSatan's desire is to keep us in ignorance of our {168} weakness, and he\nwould persuade the sinner that his relation with God is at all points\nwhat it ought to be.  Then, having soothed the soul with the opiate of\ndeception, he would bind us hand and foot.  But whatever he may be able\nto do with those who have submitted themselves to his unholy will, God\nwill not have it so with those who are seeking to be faithful, but\nforces Satan to act as His messenger to warn us.\n\n\"Temptations,\" it has been said, \"are often very profitable to us\nthough they be troublesome and grievous.\"[7]  We have much to learn in\nthe consideration of this saying.  Why should a child of God who is\ndaily and consciously receiving and enjoying the gifts of a loving\nFather find the direct solicitation to offend Him so difficult to\novercome?  If one whom we knew to be our enemy should try to persuade\nus to commit some act that would be a deep dishonour to a loving\nearthly parent, we should not find it hard to repel the suggestion.\nMore than this, the fact that such a thing had been proposed would\ninstinctively impel us to some immediate word or act of devotion, that\nwould leave no shadow of doubt upon our love and loyalty.\n\nAn answer to this question comes from the Holy Ghost in the very\ntemptation that is vexing us, for in it He would teach us two truths:\n\n{169}\n\n(1) The first is a very humiliating one, namely, that although our\nreason recognizes our relation and duty to God, yet somewhere in our\nnature there is a powerful tendency to choose evil rather than good,\nthe service of Satan rather than the love of God.\n\nThe Apostle describes his own experience in his letter to his Roman\nconverts.  \"That which I do, I allow not,\" he says, \"for what I would,\nthat I do not, but what I hate, that I do....  The good that I would,\nthat I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do.\"[8]\n\nNor need we be in the dark concerning its extent, for the struggle for\nthe right is always grievous in proportion to the strength of the\ntendency to choose what Satan offers.\n\n(2) Again, when God permits a temptation that is hard to overcome, He\nis giving us a sign that should teach us that our love for Him is\nwanting, and that He means us to try by every means to increase it.  We\nought to be able to act towards God as we do when one whom we love with\nan earthly love is involved.  We read the lives of the Saints, and we\nsee with what ready indignation they rejected Satan's suggestions.  It\nwas because their hearts were full of love for God; and when they were\nasked to {170} dishonour Him, they felt that an indignity had been put\nupon them, and they rose up against it with all the force of a nature\nmade strong and pure by divine grace.\n\n\nII.  _The Bulwark of Love_\n\nAt the risk of a digression, we must here consider how we can increase\nour love and acquire that quality in our souls which will enable us to\nmeet with a sense of outrage any persuasion to violate God's will.\n\nThe difficulty we experience in repelling Satan points directly to the\nduty of practising those things which will give us an increase of love\nand loyalty to God.  This is to be accomplished by the execution of\nsome practical resolution which might be framed in this fashion: \"I\nfound it hard to refrain from wounding Him; I know, therefore, that my\nlove for God is weaker than I thought.  I will therefore this day seek\nto increase my love in two ways: (1), I will watch for the evidence of\nHis love for me, and will meditate upon it, and upon my unworthiness of\nit; (2), I will, by His help, force opportunity of doing a definite\nnumber of loving acts toward Him and others, that by the practice of\nlove I may increase my love.\"\n\nThen if we would secure a sure increase of love, {171} we must permit\nno sort of indefiniteness to enter into the fulfilment of our\nresolution.  It must be carried out with precision.\n\nFor our meditation, nothing could be more profitable than to write out\nwith fulness and care the account of some blessing that has come to us\nthrough God's love; and by the side of it write a like definite account\nof some infidelity of ours toward Him.  The shame of the contrast, if\nour hearts be not wholly bad, cannot but drive us to Him with a fuller\ndesire, which will win from Him the gift of a renewed and strengthened\nlove.\n\nThe acts, too, must be of the most definite kind.  Go out of your way\nto speak or do some loving thing, offering it, at the time, to God as\nyour work of love to Him.  Or it may be some simple act of prayer, such\nas kneeling with great recollection and deliberation, folding the\nhands, and lifting the heart in silence for a moment to God, then\nrepeating, very reverently and devoutly, the Lord's Prayer, or some\nother short devotion.  Then, after a pause, add, \"Dear Lord, I offer\nThee this, to show Thee that I love Thee, and that I want to love Thee\nmore\"; or some such little prayer as that of Fenelon's: \"Lord, take my\nheart, for I cannot give it Thee; and when Thou hast it, keep it, for I\ncannot keep it for Thee; and save me in spite of my sins.\"\n\n{172}\n\nMany a sinner has followed some such simple, child-like method, and\nGod's response has come into his heart with a thrill of awakening love\nthat has startled it with its sweetness and power, and filled him with\na keen sense of personal dishonour at ever again wounding the heart of\nJesus by parleying even for a moment with the tempter.\n\n\nIII.  _The Lesson of Humility_\n\nThe greatest of all lessons the Holy Ghost teaches us is that of\nhumility.  Thomas a Kempis shows that one of the special points of\nprofit in temptation lies in the fact that in it \"a man is humbled.\"[9]\n\nThe most necessary virtue the Christian soul must learn is that of\nhumility.  When our Lord would give His disciples the chief reason why\nthey should learn of Him, He said it was because, \"I am meek and lowly\nin heart.\"[10]\n\nIt was a common expression of the Fathers of the Church that humility\nis the mother and mistress of all virtues, and they loved to see in the\netymology of the word (_humus_, earth), the suggestion of the soil\nunder our feet, in which, though often unpleasant and repulsive, all\nfair flowers and fruits have their root and draw their sustenance.\n\n{173}\n\nWe have only to consider pride, the vice which is the contrary of\nhumility, to understand what is meant by the statement that without\nhumility no other virtue can exist.\n\nThe first of the great virtues, Faith, can certainly not exist along\nwith pride, for it is of the essence of pride to make for\nself-confidence, as opposed to trust in God or in anyone else besides\none's self.\n\nHope cannot exist, for the true God-ward Hope which constitutes this\nvirtue has in it an element of meekness and patient waiting on God that\nis incompatible with the presence of pride.\n\nNor can Love and pride exist in the same heart, for love is necessarily\nunselfish, and the proud soul is essentially bound up in self.\n\nHow then are we to obtain this so necessary virtue of humility?  St.\nBernard gives us the answer, an answer by no means original with him,\nhowever, but which has been the burden of the spiritual masters of\nevery age of the Church.  \"_Humility is nurtured only by\nhumiliations_.\"  The soul that constantly rejects that which humiliates\ncan never acquire the virtue of humility, for it is deliberately\nrefusing to learn the lesson set for it by the Holy Ghost.\n\nLet us not be surprised if God then sets very definite lessons for us\nin the school of humility.  {174} We should not be so foolish as to\nthink we could acquire the knowledge of an earthly trade or profession,\nwithout applying ourselves to the lessons set for us.  If a young man\napplied to a lawyer to be allowed to study the law under his direction,\nhe would feel that it was hopeless if the lawyer said: \"You need not\ntrouble to work at this thing very much.  Just stay around my chambers\nfor a year or so, and you will find yourself a pretty good lawyer.\"\nThis would not satisfy him.  He wants to be told that the law is a\njealous mistress, that he must labour long and hard if he would win her\nhonours.  His common sense tells him that this is necessary.  But,\nalas, in learning the highest of all knowledge, that of humility, we\nrefuse to use common sense.  We think we can acquire it without the\nlesson of humiliation.\n\n(1) Temptation humbles the soul by showing it the possibilities of its\ndegradation.  Satan knows us much better than we know ourselves, and it\nis not likely that he would solicit us to commit a certain sin unless\nhe saw something in us that encouraged him to think we would, with some\npersuasion, be willing to do it.  Let us be sure that the presence of a\nspecial temptation, however it may at the time repel us, is the proof\nthat there is something definite in our {175} nature that would be\nattracted by this solicitation, if the grace of God were not holding us\nback.  So temptation brings self-knowledge, and self-knowledge is the\nfirst degree of humility.\n\n(2) Temptation, by showing us the possibilities of degradation which,\nbut for the grace of God, would become actualities, enables us to\nexercise the virtue of humility towards others.  If we really\nunderstand the natural tendency towards what is evil, and that only\nthrough the divine mercy are we saved from the worst forms of sin and\ncorruption, it will be impossible to maintain an \"Holier than thou\"\nattitude towards others.\n\n\"If thou shouldst see another openly sin, or commit some heinous\noffence, yet oughtest thou not to think the better of thyself, for thou\nknowest not how long thou shalt be able to stand fast in good.  We are\nall frail, but thou shalt esteem none frailer than thyself.\"[11]\n\nThis humbling self-knowledge will also produce a train of virtues which\nwill grow out of and at the same time, by their operation, further and\ndeepen, a spirit of humility.  Let us consider three of them.\n\n(1) How quick we are to criticise the sin we see in others, but there\ncould be no such {176} arrogance if through Satan's temptations we were\ndaily made to realize what is possible in ourselves.  On the contrary,\nwe should be filled with the gentle sympathy that a man feels for one\nwho is in the grip of some dread disease from which he himself has just\nrecovered; and sympathy is always humble.\n\n(2) The sight of the degradation of the world in its sin will fill us\nwith a true gratitude to God that we have so far escaped the peril into\nwhich Satan had succeeded in leading others, and true gratitude is\nnecessarily humble because even the smallest exercise of it is, as far\nas it goes, a recognition of our dependence on another, and pride would\nbe unwilling to admit any such dependence.\n\n(3) There will, in view of sin as it appears in life about us, be\nawakened a wholesome fear, such as that which seizes upon a man whose\ncompanion has been struck down at his side by the sting of a deadly\nserpent,--a fear that will drive him back in humble dependence on God,\nand make him realize how utterly powerless he is, of himself, to avoid\na like fate.\n\n\nIV.  _The Lessons of Consolation_\n\nThe teaching of the Holy Ghost is not confined to warning us of danger.\nHe has also many lessons of encouragement and consolation for us {177}\nin the hour of temptation.  Certain of these have already been\nconsidered, and those that we shall consider now, must be disposed of\nbriefly.  Perhaps some of us may take them up at another time as themes\nfor further thought and meditation.  Such an exercise would be of great\nprofit, for Satan so constantly seeks to discourage us in the field,\nthat we may be sure that it is the loving will of God to offset this by\nholding before us always that which will enhearten us, and fill us with\nsomewhat of that \"stern joy\" of the battle which must ever thrill the\ntrue soldier in the discharge of his trust.\n\n(1) Temptation is an advertisement to the soul that it is, at least in\nsome degree, in the grace of God.\n\nTo forget this is always a cause of weakness.  It is a common thing to\nhear the complaint, \"Something must be wrong with me, or temptation\nwould not come so persistently and in such manifold forms.\"\n\nTo see the fallacy that underlies this complaint, one has only to think\nof our Lord \"in all points tempted like as we are.\"[12]  No one was\never so beset with temptation as He was, and if constant temptation be\na sign of something wrong within, then no one was ever quite so far\n{178} gone from righteousness as was our Lord Christ Himself.[13]\n\nSomething is indeed wrong, from Satan's point of view, with the soul\nwhom he besets with many snares.  He is not satisfied with us.  There\nis altogether too much divine love and power in our hearts to please\nhim, and so he sets the battle in array against us.  Surely it is a\nthankworthy thing, one that must bring great joy, to have the evidence\nthat Satan regards us as his enemy.\n\nSuppose no temptation assailed us,--what a terrible significance this\nwould have!  When we went to prayer, or to Communion, or about the\ncommonplace, God-sent duties of the day, what a fearful thing it would\nbe if Satan, observing us, were to reflect that he had no reason to\nattack us because, do what we might, he was sure that no harm could\ncome to his kingdom through us!\n\nThere are men in the world, many of them, indeed, who have no\ntemptations, and who cite the absence of such experience as proof that\nthe Christian teaching concerning the devil and his work is false.\n\n{179}\n\nAlas, they know not their own misery, for \"never art thou more strongly\nset upon than when thou believest thou art not at all assaulted.\"[14]\nSatan does not assail them, and in thus refraining he acts on the same\nprinciple as does a warring king who lays no siege to a fortress that\nis already in his possession, whose sometime defenders lie in his\ndungeons, chained hand and foot.\n\nBut as we saw in our first chapter when considering the terms of this\nwarfare, the captivity that such untempted souls are enduring is no\nidle, passive confinement in some spiritual prison.  These worldly\nsouls are the most effective soldiers of him whose very existence and\npower they deny.  He has no reason to unmask himself to them.  He\n\"leaves them alone, they are doing his work.  The blasphemer is not\ntempted to blaspheme.  Why should he be?  He blasphemes already.  The\nunbeliever is not tempted to unbelief,--he has lost his faith.  The\nscoffer is no longer tempted to scoffing,--he scoffs enough already to\nsatisfy even the 'god of this world.'\"[15]\n\n(2) Temptation is also an advertisement to the soul that God has some\nspecial mark of His love to bestow at the particular time.\n\n{180}\n\nEvery occasion of temptation is pregnant with graces and heavenly\nfavours which God has in store for the victor.  Calling us forth to the\nbattle is just His way of calling us to lay hold of some increase of\nstrength He has prepared for us.\n\n(3) Great comfort is laid hold of by the soul in contemplating that in\ntemptation God is but furnishing us the opportunity to carry out His\ncommands,--\"Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven\";[16] and, \"Work\nout your own salvation with fear and trembling.\"[17]  Unless such\ncommands are fulfilled there can be no redemption for us.  God has done\nHis part and done it perfectly.  So far as His work is concerned, He\ncould, when yielding up His soul on the Cross, most truly cry, \"It is\nfinished,\"[18] for everything necessary for God to do in order that man\nmight lay hold on salvation was accomplished.  But man must have his\npart.  Salvation can come to no soul that does not labour for it, and\ntemptation is the opportunity definitely prepared and presented to us\nby a loving God that the work of the Cross may not for us have been\nwrought in vain.  Therefore great consolation must come with every\nassault, and as we feel the weight and thrust of the awful conflict,\nlet us joyfully cry, \"Now is the accepted time; now is the day {181} of\nsalvation!  Why art thou so heavy, O my soul, and why art thou so\ndisquieted within me!  Look up and lift up your head, for your\nredemption draweth nigh!\"[19]\n\n(4) The greater and more prolonged the temptation, the greater should\nbe our consolation.  The fact that the assault is fierce and persistent\ngives the blessed assurance that the soul has been faithful in the\nlittle temptations.  The tempter realizes that if he is to have us at\nall, it must be at great cost and labour; that we are not going to sell\nourselves cheap.\n\n(5) We sometimes hear men complain against God's justice because He\npermits souls to be so beset by the Evil One; but as a matter of fact\nhis antagonism reassures us on this very point.  Temptation is Satan's\ntribute to the divine justice.  He is the Accuser of the brethren, and\nin tempting us he is acknowledging that he must have something real\nwherewith to accuse us at the Judgment.\n\n(6) When strange, terrible, and unaccustomed flashes of temptation\ncome, we learn with great joy that the tempter is puzzled concerning\nus.  Our steadfast service of God has baffled him, and he can only\nexperiment with us, as it were, hoping a weak point may by some means\nbe {182} discovered.  Such temptations, in many cases, mean that the\ntempter is working in the dark.\n\n(7) Great comfort must be found in the thought of the victory that\nawaits us if we are faithful.  This should not arise merely from the\nsense of relief at escaping a fall, but from the happy thought that in\nevery such victory, great or small, Satan is weaker in my life than he\nwas before, and God and His love are stronger.  True, great conflicts\nmay be still in store for me, but I have greater strength than ever\nbefore for meeting them and overcoming.  So while the warfare\ncontinues, the soul grows keener for the struggle, and finds greater\njoy in it, because it realizes its strength, and rejoices, as does\nevery strong man, to use it.\n\nMany other points of consolation may be found in the spiritual combat,\nbut these will suffice to show us how much of joy there is in the\nactive, militant life of the Christian, if we only try to find it.\n\nLet us, then, thank God for temptation, and if it presses us hard, let\nus rejoice the more, for it is His way of sending us the pledge of our\npeace with Him, the guerdon of His love.\n\n\n{183}\n\nV.  _How to Learn our Lessons_\n\nHow are we going to recognize all these lessons as they are presented\nby the Spirit?  There is hardly time in the thick of the battle to\npause to think these things out, as we have done in the quiet hour we\nhave given to the reading of this chapter.  The soldier cannot stop to\ndraw calm conclusions, and to study the purpose and effect of tactical\nmovements, when the enemy is thundering at the gate, and all but making\nhis way in.\n\nOne simple suggestion may help us.  Let us make a practice of studying\nour past temptations, as soldiers are wont to study the great military\ncampaigns of history in order to learn methods of warfare.  Go to some\nWar College and see the eager young officers as they follow a skilled\ninstructor, all poring intently over a diagram of some battle fought\nand won a century ago.  \"Here Napoleon made his mistake; there was the\nmovement by which the field was won; that splendid manoeuvre turned the\nenemy's flank.\"  They study every move, the effect it wrought, whether\nit failed or succeeded, and why.  And thus, combined with their own\npractice, men learn the art of war.\n\nIn some such way let it be with us in the spiritual conflict.  The\nSchool of the Holy Ghost is a {184} War College in which the campaigns\nof the armies of God and Satan are to be studied under the guidance of\nour divine Instructor.  How constantly has the Church studied the great\ncampaign prosecuted against Satan by our own great Captain in the\nwilderness!  How much has been learned by the study of His methods of\nresistance and attack!  The lives of the Saints, too, are but studies\nof military campaigns waged for God.\n\nBut perhaps most profitable of all will be the study of our own\nbattles.  Under the guidance of the Spirit, go back to some recent\ntemptation, (always excepting scrupulously temptations against faith\nand purity); study its circumstance, how it arose, if it came through\nany fault of ours.  Did we presumptuously run into occasion of perilous\ntemptation?  If not, what occasion did the enemy seize upon for his\nattack?  Was there parleying with him?  Did we meet it in the first\nmoment with prayer and acts of faith, hope, love, contrition, and\nhumility, or were these powerful weapons not brought to bear?  Through\nit all, did we strive to keep our lines of communication with our\nheadquarters and our base of supplies open by prayer?  Or did we forget\nwho our Leader was and grow panic-stricken?  Can we recall the\nparticular point at which downfall {185} began?  Or, if there was\nvictory, what prayer, what thought, was it that imparted a sudden\nstrength to the heart, and drove home the thrust that put the enemy to\nflight?  Or what painful pressing on, inch by inch, forced him at last\nto fly the field?  And when we beheld him fleeing, did we secure\nourselves, and spike his guns, as it were, by fervent acts of gratitude\nto God who had given us the victory?\n\nWe may not be able to find answers to all these questions, but if in\nthe beginning of such a study, we find only a few, well and good.  We\nshall profit by them, and in the next temptation use the knowledge\ngained; and so shall we go on, gaining more and more knowledge out of\nthe study of our own experience, and more and more faithfully putting\nthat knowledge to use, until we become skilled and practised\ncampaigners in the wars of the Lord; until, indeed, we become worthy to\nbe enrolled among those of whom the Apostle speaks, \"Who by reason of\nuse have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.\"[20]\n\n{186}\n\nAll this while, however, we are not to neglect our study of the\nspiritual campaigns of others.  In the pages of the Bible, in the lives\nof the Saints and holy men, in their own experiences that they have\nrecorded for us in their spiritual writings, we can find innumerable\nthings with which we can compare, and by which correct, the conclusions\nof our study of the principles of the warfare.\n\nThese are especially valuable when found in the biographies of the\ngreat servants of God, for in such records we find the theory actually\nworked out in the lives of men of like passions with ourselves.\n\nA beautiful illustration of this is recalled from the life of that\ngreat champion of the Faith, Bishop Gray of Capetown.  When in the\nmidst of his contest with the heretic Colenso, when the Church and the\nworld seemed combined against him, from one of his long wagon-journeys\nacross the lonely African veldt, he writes, \"I find great comfort in\nrepeating the first three petitions of the Lord's Prayer.\"  What a\nmighty weapon was that!  Have we used it as did this servant of God?\n\n\n\n[1] Ps. xxv, 8.\n\n[2] Ps. xxxii, 9.\n\n[3] Isa. liv, 13.\n\n[4] St. John xiv, 26.\n\n[5] St. John xvi, 13.\n\n[6] \"One does not arrive at virtue except through knowledge of self and\nknowledge of Me, which knowledge is more perfectly acquired in time of\ntemptation, because then man knows himself to be nothing, being unable\nto lift off himself the pains and vexations which he would flee.\"--St.\nCatherine of Siena, _Dialogue_, p. 119.  (Thorold Trans., London, 1907.)\n\n[7] _Imitation_, I, xiii.\n\n[8] Rom. vii, 15 and 19.\n\n[9] _Imitation_, I, xiii.\n\n[10] St. Matt. xi, 29.\n\n[11] _Imitation_, I, ii.\n\n[12] Heb. iv, 15.\n\n[13] St. Luke says, \"When the devil had ended every kind of temptation,\nhe departed from Him until a convenient season.\"--Chap, iv, 13.  \"He\nwas tempted throughout the forty days, and that what is recorded is\nmerely an illustration of what took place.  The enemy tried all his\nweapons, and was at all points defeated.\"--Plummer, _Internal. Crit.\nComment_, in loc.\n\n[14] St. Jerome, Epistle to Heliodorus.\n\n[15] H. E. Manning, _Sin and its Consequences_, p. 173.\n\n[16] St. Matt. vi, 20.\n\n[17] Phil. ii, 12.\n\n[18] St. John xix, 30.\n\n[19] 2 Cor. vi, 2; Ps. xliii, 5; St. Luke xxi, 28.\n\n[20] Heb. v, 14.  The words of the author of the Epistle may be\nparaphrased somewhat as follows: \"Who by reason of the possession of\nperfected habit have the mental faculties exercised (by a course of\nspiritual gymnastics), for discriminating between good and evil.\"  See\nWestcott and Alford _in loc_.  St. Macarius, speaking of these\nspiritual gymnastics, says, \"We have need of many and great efforts, of\nmuch secret and unseen toil, to be able thoroughly to sift and\nscrutinize our thoughts, and to exercise the languid senses of the soul\nto discern both good and evil.  We must continually arouse and excite\nthe debilitated members of the soul by a close application of our minds\nto God.\"--_Institutes of Christian Perfection_, Bk. I, ch. vii.\n\n\n\n\n{187}\n\nCHAPTER XII\n\nTHE RETURN FROM CAPTIVITY\n\nWe may set before ourselves the methods of warfare that lead to\nspiritual victory; we may study them with all care and prayer; but the\nweakness of our nature being what it is, we must not expect to go\nthrough life without meeting defeat at the hands of the enemy.  Even\nthe Saints have not been immune from sin.  When St. Paul spoke of\nsinners, he added, \"Of whom I am chief.\"[1]  St. John not only said,\n\"If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,\" but he added\nthose terrible words, \"If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a\nliar.\"[2]\n\nA most necessary part, therefore, of our instruction in the school of\nthe soldier is concerning the course we are to follow when we find we\nhave fallen; how we are to find our way back from the captivity; by\nwhat means we are to renew our allegiance to our divine Leader.\n\nWe all know that the necessary thing is _Repentance_, but it is not\neveryone who understands what repentance is.  In its essence repentance\nis {188} not an emotion; it is not a mere attitude of mind; it is a\nwork, a serious work, and in many instances a hard work.  In this\nchapter we do not purpose using any special method, scholastic or\notherwise, of showing what this work is, or how it should be\naccomplished.  In a simple, perhaps informal way, we shall, as the Holy\nGhost may guide us, consider some of the aspects of the interior spirit\nwe must cultivate if, after a fall, we would by true repentance come\nback to our loving Father.\n\n\nI.  _Hastening to Repent_\n\nIt will help us if we recall one of the principles we thought of in the\nbeginning of our study, when we were considering the terms and\nconditions of the warfare.  We learned then that any fall into sin, in\nthe measure of its seriousness, means, \"not an idle, passive\nconfinement in some spiritual prison, but an active enlistment in the\narmies of hell to fight against our Lord Jesus Christ.\"\n\nWhen we think of this, we shall understand that the first consideration\nmust be the speed with which we must hasten to release ourselves from\nthe horrid bondage into which we have fallen.  Two reasons for this\nhaste suggest themselves.\n\n(1) First of all, the soul that desires to love will make all speed in\norder that God's Name may {189} be relieved of the dishonour that\nbefalls it when one of His family, one called by His name, signed and\nsealed as His soldier, renounces Him and gives in his allegiance to the\nDevil.  We can brook no delay in such a matter.  How keenly sensitive\nis human honour in like affairs!  Let us not think that the divine\nhonour is a duller thing than that indefinable possession men guard as\nthe most sacred of all their moral treasures.\n\n(2) Again, for our own sakes, no time is to be lost in returning to\nGod.  Sin is a poison.  Every moment the poison remains in the system\nmakes it more difficult to expel.  It is absorbed and carried to every\npart of the body, working wherever it touches with deadly effect.  If\nwe should take a poisonous draught by mistake, how instant we should be\nthat we might be rid of it.  How much more insistent should we be that\nthe poison whose effects are eternal should not be given time for its\ndeadly work.\n\nIt is at this point that Satan's temptation comes in.  \"What is the\nuse?\" he whispers, \"you will sin again.\"  So does he try to discourage\nus, and the soul who thinks only of self is apt to stop and listen.\nNot so with him whose penitence has its root in love; not so with him\nwho feels keenly that his act has dishonoured a loving, tender Father\nand Friend.  He will not brood over his {190} fall, for he knows that\nevery hour of such weak repining is an hour of added sin.  He will\nsweep the temptation aside, and cry with strong resolution, \"I will\narise and go to my Father!\"  For he knows that if he waits, the numbing\ninfluence of the poison will creep into heart and will, and that after\na time he may have neither desire nor power to repent.\n\nWe must not leave this subject, however, without finding a reply to\nSatan's suggestion,--\"It is of no use; you will sin again.\"  Many a\nsoul has been entrapped by it.  Many a one, through fear of future\nfailure, has been held back from righting the present wrong.  But to\nyield to such a fear is to commit a special offence against the Holy\nGhost.  No promise is more constant in Holy Scripture than that if we\nrise in the strength He will give us, go forward again, and set no\nspecial task for ourselves beyond just doing the best we can, He will\nkeep and sustain us.  \"He shall give His angels charge over thee to\nkeep thee in all thy ways;\"[3] \"Fear not, little flock, for it is your\nFather's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.\"[4]  \"Let not your\nheart be troubled, neither let it be afraid;\"[5] \"I will never leave\nthee nor forsake thee.\"[6]\n\n{191}\n\nWhat completer assurance can we ask of the Holy Spirit than these\nrepeated promises that God will fight for us, defend us on every side,\nand give us the victory? and he who fears to rise and go forward in the\nface of such assurances, is assuming that the Spirit has spoken\nfalsely, or that God will not keep His word.\n\n\nII.  _A Tranquil Sorrow_\n\nOur penitence, though prompt and swift, must withal be tranquil.  True\npenitence allows no place for excitability.\n\n(1) Because it grasps the truth that our fall was not a matter for\nsurprise.  It was only what we are to expect when, failing to use the\ngrace God constantly offers, we venture upon our own strength.  The\nonly wonder and surprise should be that we do not fail a hundred times\nmore frequently.\n\n(2) Because surprise at falling indicates pride.  We imagined we were\nstrong.  In self-righteousness we prided ourselves on our security, and\nwe found that \"security is the suburbs of hell.\"  But true penitence\nknows no such pride, and therefore feels no surprise.  The broken and\ncontrite heart is, of necessity, the humble heart; it is the heart that\nthanks God with wondering gratitude for every hour of faithfulness to\nHim.\n\n(3) Again, true penitence is tranquil because {192} it is sure of\nacceptance at the Father's hands.  Perturbation in its approach to God\nwould indicate uncertainty of mind as to its reception; and this would\nmean a lack of trust in His promises.  Consider again what the promises\nare: \"Turn unto the Lord your God, for He is gracious and merciful,\nslow to anger, and of great kindness\";[7] \"To the Lord our God belong\nmercies and forgivenesses, though we have rebelled against Him; neither\nhave we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God;\"[8] \"Him that cometh to\nMe I will in no wise cast out\";[9] \"The Blood of Jesus Christ His Son\ncleanseth us from all sin.\"[10]\n\nCan the heart desiring to return to the allegiance of our God have any\nqualm of doubt in the face of such promises?  If there is true\npenitence, rather will it return in a confident peace, knowing with a\nmost assured certainty that \"the mercy of the Lord is from everlasting\nto everlasting upon them that fear Him.\"[11]\n\n(4) The penitent soul turns to the Father in tranquillity because it\nknows that, though there has been grievous fall, yet all is not lost.\nHe will give it another chance.  In the Father's house are many\nmansions, and He is still preparing a place for us.  All the treasures\nof His {193} Kingdom may yet be ours if we come back in true sorrow.\nWe broke our resolution, we wounded Him again in the same old sin, but\nHe has not given us up.  Even while we are wondering how we can ever\nface Him again, He is starting out on His way to the wilderness to seek\nthe sheep that is lost.  The stones of the way cut His Sacred Feet; the\nthorns and briars of sin tear His Hands as He bends down to extricate\nthe entangled soul; but He cares naught for these if only He can fetch\nhome again His banished one.\n\nWe are told that \"The Saints are the sinners who kept on trying.\"  They\nreign in glory to-day not because they were pure from sin, but because\nwhen sin entered in they did not forget the Father's tender love, but\ncame back, calm and sure, to the peace of His pardoning embrace.\n\n\nIII.  _A Spirit of Reparation_\n\nA heart that loves, and that has offended the object of its love,\nnaturally longs for opportunity to make reparation.  If our return to\nthe divine allegiance after a fall is in the smallest measure sincere,\nwe shall not have to spur ourselves on to a desire for reparation.  It\nwill spring up unbidden, strong and dominant.  The heart will be\nrestless and disquieted until opportunity be found.\n\nThis desire is not a supernatural gift only.  It {194} belongs even to\nthe natural heart of man.  We see it showing itself in little children.\nMark the child who has offended a loving mother, who has wept out its\nheart-broken confession on her bosom, and been forgiven and soothed,\nand sent away restored to the mother's favour.  How quick is that\nlittle one all day long to watch for and grasp opportunities of\nresponding to her slightest wish.  The little heart instinctively longs\nto make good the wrong of its disobedience.  So with the heart that,\nhaving sinned against God, has repented.  This is one of the best tests\nof true and godly repentance.  If we long to repair the wrong, if we\nare quick to seize opportunities to honour Him whom our sin had\ndishonoured, there can be no question that we have sorrowed after a\ngodly sort.\n\nHow does God meet this spirit on the part of the penitent?\n\nHere enters the divine Love and says, \"My child, you have indeed\ndishonoured Me in your sin, and wounded and crucified Me afresh.  Your\nlove demands an opportunity for reparation and my answering love will\ngive it you.  Go forth to this renewed battle; show that you can be a\ngood soldier of the Cross.  Fight valiantly that you may win even\ngreater glory for My Name than that which was lost by your failure.\"\n\n{195}\n\nWhat more can the generous heart ask of God?  Suppose when we came to\nHim in deep sorrow for our fault, He should say to us, \"I will pardon\nyou, but never will I give you the opportunity of serving me again.  I\ntrusted you once and you failed me.  I will not trust you again.\"\n\nWould our hearts desire heaven on such a condition?  I think there is\nnot one of us who would not feel that to stand in His presence among\nthe redeemed on such terms would be the veriest hell.  But the love of\nGod deals not thus with sinners.  \"Though you have failed Me,\" He says,\n\"I will trust you again.  Go forth once more.  My grace will make you\nstrong; My love will hedge you round about.\"\n\n\nIV.  _The Work of Amendment_\n\nThe true test of penitence is amendment of life, but God does not\nrequire actual amendment before receiving us back into His service.\nWhat He demands is that we have a firm purpose of amendment.  No man\ncan say what he will do in the future.  The future belongs to God.  It\nmay never be ours at all.  It is ours at the present moment to make a\nresolution of amendment, and then to trust in God to fulfil in us this\nresolve.\n\nFrom the nature of things we can never arrive {196} at any mathematical\ndemonstration of having amended.  On the contrary, it is the invariable\nexperience of those who are striving most earnestly in God's service,\nthat the more they strive the less they think they are accomplishing.\n\nSt. Paul did not think when he was persecuting the Church that he was\nthe chief of sinners.  But when he had seen the Lord in the way, after\nhe had been rapt to the third heaven, after he had suffered hunger and\nthirst, cold and nakedness, stripes and imprisonment, for His Name's\nsake, after he had given up everything that the world counted dear,\nafter men saw he had attained to such sanctity that his name was one of\npower in all the Churches, then came to him the deep sense that he had\naccomplished nothing.  He thought of himself as the chief of sinners,\nand counted that he had laid hold of nothing for God; that he must\nforget the things that were behind and reach forth unto the things that\nwere before if he was to attain the prize of the high calling of God in\nChrist Jesus.[12]  Men trembled at his words of burning rebuke, while\nhe trembled lest having preached to others he himself should be a\ncastaway.[13]\n\nThe experience of the great Apostle is shared by every soul who loves\nGod, and the reason is plain.\n\n{197}\n\nThe nearer we approach to our Lord, the more vivid is the contrast\nbetween our sin-stained souls and His perfect life.  In the\nillumination of His near presence every fault stands out in awful\nprominence, and though there may not be a tenth of the sin that once\nfilled our lives, our consciousness of it is a hundred-fold increased.\n\nThis must be the case if we are vigilant; and Satan finds in this\ncondition much occasion for temptation.  Let us illustrate.  A certain\nman has all his life been a slave to the sin of anger.  Every day he\nhas been guilty of it.  It becomes so common a thing in his life that\nhe sins habitually, forgetting it five minutes afterward.  He kept no\naccount with himself.  Had he been questioned about it, he could have\ngiven no idea of the frequency of the sin.  This man is converted.  He\nnow fights hard, and maintains a careful watch over himself.  Where sin\nformerly came and went without attracting notice, now every approach of\nit is keenly felt.  At the end of the day he can recall distinctly a\nhalf-dozen falls, and he is tempted to think the case is hopeless.  But\nlast week there was a score of falls, though he scarcely remembered two\nof them at the end of the day.  Now he remembers thrice that number\nwith terrible vividness.  But the increase of consciousness of sin is\nnot the increase of sin.  {198} He is amending his life, though quite\nthe contrary _seems_ the case.\n\nThese considerations show us how untrue, of necessity, must be all our\nestimates of our progress in amendment.  We have no outside point of\nview from the vantage-ground of which we can form a right judgment.\n\nTherefore God says to the sinner, \"Make your resolution in honesty of\npurpose; commit it to Me; do the best you can; above all things never\nviolate your own conscience; and under no circumstances try to estimate\nyour progress.  If you should see that you had advanced, pride and\npresumption would arise to imperil you; if you could see no progress,\nthe temptation to despair might unnerve you.  Commit your ways unto Me;\nthat will bring a man peace at the last.\"\n\n\nV.  _The Gainsaying of Satan_\n\nWe have said that the true test of penitence is amendment of life.  We\ncan hardly read this sentence without being conscious of temptation,\nfor it is here that Satan brings in one of his most subtle suggestions.\nWe can hear him taunting the soul: \"Is this all you have to depend on\nfor your hope of salvation?  Have you ever really amended your life?\"\n\nAnd then with that mysterious power that {199} God has given him for\nthe trial of the Saints, and which he uses so pitilessly, he flashes\nupon the mirror of the mind old sins, sins of long ago, of which we\nrepented in bitterness and tears, it may be; but which we took again to\nour hearts time after time.  We made our Confession, we said to God in\nthe presence of His priest (for he could not have absolved us without\nthis), \"I firmly purpose amendment.\"  Then we went away and sinned\nagain and yet again.  After a time we came back to Confession.  The\nsame acknowledgment, the same promise,--and then the same old sin again.\n\nThus has life gone on, year after year, and yet we dare to look to God\nto take us back to our old allegiance.  Satan tells us all this; and it\nloses nothing in the telling.  It is very terrible, and the soul\nshrinks back appalled.\n\nThen swift as thought the voice of the tempter comes again: \"What is\nthe use?  You will sin again; why not give it all up?\"  Many a soul has\nfollowed his counsel to its eternal loss.  It sounded plausible.  It\nseemed to fit exactly into our own experience; and yet it was a lie.\n\nIt was a lie because in all that he said the tempter was deceiving us\nas to the true meaning of amendment.  Satan's knowledge of what\nperfection is, is a very strange and wonderful thing.  {200} An angel\nfrom heaven could not set up a higher standard than he is able to do\nwhen he is seeking to discourage a struggling soul.  _Amendment does\nnot mean perfection of life; it does not mean never committing some\nparticular sin again_.  This was not what we resolved; it was not what\nwe told God we purposed doing.  What amendment does mean is, \"_to\nchange for the better_.\"[14]  This is to be the spirit and resolution\nwith which we return from the captivity of sin.  It is all God asks.\n\nBut the tempter is not yet vanquished.  Quick comes the whisper in the\nsoul,--\"Have you done even this?  Has there been a change in your life\nfor the better?  Have you any assurance that your life is in the\nsmallest degree better than it was a year ago?\"\n\nStaggering questions these, to the soul that is ignorant; but the soul\nthat is wise, the soul that is really under the guidance of the Holy\nSpirit, has its answer ready.\n\n\"I do not know whether I have done this or not.  I know not if my life\nis changed for the better, or if I am living more as Christ would have\nme live than I did a year ago.  Moreover, I am not concerned to give\nyou, God's enemy and mine, any answer to these questions.  I have no\naccount to render to you.  But one thing I know; {201} when I sin I can\ncome back to Him.  I kneel at His feet, I put my hands in His, I look\nup into those eyes brimming with love, and I say, 'Dear Lord, here is\nmy poor heart all full of sin again; I lay it at Thy feet.  Wash it in\nThy Precious Blood, and make me strong to serve Thee better.  I am\nsorry and I purpose to amend, but I am weak.  Be Thou my strength;\nfight Thou against them that fight against me, and let me be the victor\nin the end.'  I speak thus to Him, and leave it all with Him.  I sin\nagain, and again I come and kneel at His feet; and though I have to\ncome daily to Him with the same burden, His embrace is never less\ntender, His words not less sweet, His eyes are ever full of the same\nold love.\n\n\"Am I amending my life?  I know not,--He knows.  Is my soul a saintlier\nthing than it was a year ago?  I know not,--He knows.  All I know is\nthat I love Him, and I want to love Him more; and that when I think on\nHim my heart is at peace.\"\n\n\n\n[1] 1 Tim. i, 15.\n\n[2] 1 St. John i, 8 and 10.\n\n[3] Ps. xci, 11.\n\n[4] St. Luke xii, 32.\n\n[5] St. John xiv, 27.\n\n[6] Heb. xiii, 5.\n\n[7] Joel ii, 13.\n\n[8] Dan. ix, 9, 10.\n\n[9] St. John vi, 37.\n\n[10] 1 St. John i, 7.\n\n[11] Ps. ciii, 17.\n\n[12] Phil. iii, 13-14.\n\n[13] 1 Cor. ix, 27.\n\n[14] _Vid._ Webster.\n\n\n\n\n{202}\n\nCHAPTER XIII\n\nTHE GROUND FOR CHRISTIAN COURAGE\n\nIn His instructions to His disciples, while not hiding from them what\nwere to be the hardships and, as the world counts it, loss, that must\naccompany His service, our Lord was ever full of words of\nencouragement.  He strove always to show them that while the following\nof Him was not what the natural heart would look for as a flowery path,\nyet, if understood aright, His yoke was easy and His burden light, and\nthat those who bore it would find rest for their souls.[1]\n\nParticularly in His last discourse to them He sets forth repeated words\nof encouragement.  Twice He used those words of tender assurance, \"Let\nnot your heart be troubled,\" adding, \"Neither let it be afraid.\"[2]\nFour times He declares in substance, \"Whatsoever ye shall ask in My\nname, that will I do.\"[3]  He assures them that He Himself will be\ndiligent in praying the Father for them that the Blessed Comforter may\n{203} abide with them forever.[4]  He declares that if they will but\nabide in Him, they will be able to bring forth eternal fruit of\nvictory.[5]  Sorrow indeed shall be theirs, but \"Your sorrow shall be\nturned into joy,\" a joy that \"may be full,\" a joy that \"no man taketh\nfrom you.\"[6]  And the great discourse concludes with a pledge of their\nfinal victory,--words of lofty encouragement that should ever be in the\nhearts of His soldiers, sustaining in them the spirit of a divine\nvalour: \"These things I have spoken unto you that in Me ye might have\npeace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation, but be of good cheer; I\nhave overcome the world.\"[7]\n\nLet us therefore, as the final study we are to make of the conditions\nand progress of our spiritual warfare, consider the grounds we have for\nencouragement at every stage of the battle.\n\n\nI.  _Members One of Another_\n\nThe Church of God, \"the Body of Christ,\"[8] as St. Paul repeatedly\ncalls it, which is \"the blessed company of all faithful people,\" is a\nliving {204} organism.  When the Apostle says it is \"the Body of\nChrist,\" and speaks of us as members of that Body, he means that the\nmembers bear the same relation to every other member as, for example,\nmy hands and my feet, members of my physical body, bear to each other;\nand that all are partakers of the one life which flows through the\nwhole Body and which constitutes it what it is.  The effect of all this\nhe sets forth in a brief saying: \"Whether one member suffer, all the\nmembers suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members\nrejoice with it.\"[9]  When my hand is diseased my whole body is sick;\nand when health and strength return to it again, my whole body rejoices\nin that healing.\n\nIf we keep this principle in mind, the tempter will be powerless to\ndiscourage us in the conflict.  Rather will our hearts be ever full of\nhigh hope, which will carry us rejoicing through the darkest hour of\nthe conflict.\n\nThink of our share in every prayer and good work that is being offered\nto God anywhere to-day in all the world.  Think of the Eucharists in\nwhich we share.  As the sun follows its course, and looks with each\nrevolving day upon a million altars whose fires ring the world, it\nlooks upon nothing in which I have not my part.  Think {205} how many\ntimes this day the cry has sounded forth, \"Let us pray for the whole\nstate of Christ's Church Militant!\"  With each exhortation there\nascended to God a prayer for me, that my soul might be strong, that I\nmight be victor in the end.  The great Sacrifice of the Altar is lifted\nup, and it is for me; and whatever grace comes to those far-off souls\nof priest and people through their faithful performance of that duty,\ncomes also to me.  No grace can enter their souls without flowing on to\nmine; they could not be lifted up to a higher and godlier plane of life\nwithout drawing me up with them.\n\nLittle do we dream of the power of the unknown prayers of God's people.\nThis very day Satan may have planned some deadly snare in which to\nentrap my feet; and the snare, it may be, was broken and swept from my\npath through the power of a simple prayer for tempted souls, offered\nthis morning by a little child half-way round the world.\n\nPicture a man walking on a dark night along a lonely mountain trail.  A\ndeadly viper lies across his path.  He steps across the venomous thing;\nit coils and strikes,--just a moment too late!  The traveller passes\non, never to know the danger he was in.  So with us in our journey\nthrough life.  We may never know the hidden {206} dangers; we may never\nknow the grace that came through the prayer or good works of some\nfar-off soul, that saved us.  But what courage does the thought infuse!\nI had thought myself alone on this far outpost of temptation.  I knew\nnot how my soul could be reinforced by my comrades in the strife.  But\nthe help came.  I was made strong; and that which might have been a\ngrievous and hurtful battle was to me an easy victory.\n\nSuch is the power of intercession,--here a heart lifted up to God,\nyonder a soul made strong; here a spirit wrestling with Him, yonder a\ncrown of victory won.\n\n  \"The weary ones had rest, the sick had joy that day\n        And wondered how.\n  The ploughman, singing at his work, had prayed,\n        'God help them now.'\n\n  \"Alone in foreign lands, they wondered how\n        Their feeble word had power.\n  At home the Christians, two or three, had met\n        To pray an hour.\n\n  \"So we are always wondering, wondering long\n        Because we do not see\n  Some one, unknown perhaps, and far away,\n        On bended knee.\"\n\n\n{207}\n\nII.  _The Church's Treasury of Grace_\n\nSince, then, no soul in the Church of God, whether in this world or\nbeyond, can increase in grace without that same grace flowing also into\nmy soul and helping me, the recollection of the Communion of Saints and\nthe vast treasury of spiritual power upon which I can continually draw\nmust be a never-failing source of hope and courage.\n\nI may be far from the state of spiritual perfection that constitutes\nwhat the Church calls a Saint, but no gift of grace is ever laid hold\nupon by a Saint in which I do not have a share.  The gifts of God, in\nwhatever form they may come, and upon whomsoever they may be directly\nbestowed, are \"for the edifying of the Body of Christ,\"[10] for the\nenriching of every member thereof.\n\nNor do these graces operate but for a little time, and then lose their\nactivity.  Once the grace of God is set in operation, it goes on\nforever.  The sanctity of the Saints moves on through the ages.  The\nChurch to-day is strong with the strength which long labour and\nfaithfulness won for the Apostles and Prophets, the Confessors, the\nMartyrs, the Virgins.  The grace {208} bestowed upon St. John in his\nearthly life still holds its place in the Body of Christ, and so long\nas I am in that Body that very grace which was given to him helps me,\nand is a part of the defence of my soul in the hour of battle, if I\nwill only rise up to use what God is offering me.\n\nMore wonderful than this, however, is the relation of the Saints in\nglory to my soul.  Not only am I helped by the grace they received in\ntheir earthly pilgrimage, but every access of glory given them in their\nheavenly life is a like increase of grace to every member of the same\nBody of which I am a part, and so an added help to me.\n\nThus wondrously does the law of divine grace work.  When the Saints on\nearth go on from strength to strength, their strength flows into me;\nwhen the Saints in heaven pass, in their unceasing progress, from glory\nto glory, I again am made the beneficiary of what is given them.\n\nAll this, however, operates on one condition.  Am I keeping the\nchannels open through which the life and strength of the Body flow into\nthe members?  If I bind fast a member of my body with a cord the\ncirculation ceases, and strength and life begin to ebb in that member.\nIf I permit myself, a member of the Body of Christ, to be bound with a\ncord of sin, the circulation of {209} the divine life and grace is cut\noff from me, and grace begins to fail, strength is reduced, and\nspiritual death will ensue, unless by penitence I cut the cord and let\nthe life-blood flow freely once again.\n\nPrayer and faithfulness in the use of what I already have will keep the\nchannels open.  Every cry of my soul to God, every effort to do His\nwill, every resistance of the Evil One, produces a stronger, more\nvigorous circulation in the Body, that makes my strength greater, my\nlife richer, with the communication of all that the Body of Christ\npossesses for the edifying of its members.\n\n\nIII.  _God's Interest in Our Victory_\n\nThere is among men to-day a wide-spread notion of Christianity that\nbases everything upon a spirit of utter selfishness.  It tells me to\nthink always of my own soul; that if I find a reasonable assurance that\nthis soul of mine will in the end \"be saved,\" I need give no thought to\nfurther service of God.  In short it is a strange and monstrous belief\nthat teaches me to look out for myself, to serve God for just what I\ncan get out of Him, to drive as shrewd a bargain with Him as I can, and\nwin heaven on as cheap terms as is in any way possible.  It is a\nChristianity, falsely so called, that leaves out of consideration the\n{210} most important fact of all, namely, that God has an infinite\ninterest in me and my victory, because His first relation to me is that\nof a tender, loving Father whose heart yearns over me, who loves me\nwith an everlasting love.[11]\n\nWhen I think of this, I can understand how strong an encouragement I\ncan draw from the consideration of His interest in the issue of the\nbattle to which He calls me.  My victory involves the destiny of my\nsoul, but the destiny of my soul involves the eternal honour of God.\n\n(1) Our Lord has gone to prepare a place for me.  This place is\nawaiting me, a place in the heavenly choirs among those whose eternal\noccupation is to serve God day and night in His temple.  What that\nservice is in its nature and detail I know not.  But one thing I know;\nthat so deeply is it bound up with the divine interest and honour, that\nGod counted it worth while to sacrifice the life of His eternal Son,\namid the torments of the Cross, in order to win me for that service.\nThere is the place awaiting me; the heavenly ranks are not full; the\nheavenly task is not yet done: a rift is in the heavenly praises, a\nhand wanting in the work, until I come thither to have my part among\nthose who are counted worthy of the eternal rest of Paradise, {211} but\nwho nevertheless rest not day nor night from His perfect service.\n\nWhen I think of all this, I see that my relation to God cannot be a\nselfish one.  God has infinitely more at stake than I have; my victory\nis infinitely more to His interest than it is to mine, just because He\nis so infinitely greater than His creature.  Seeing that this is so, we\ncan understand how mightily He will strive to give us the victory.  No\nmatter what undreamed of gifts of grace are needed, He stands ready to\nbestow them.  Having given such infinite hostages already to make sure\nof us, nothing can be too great with which to equip us if it be\nnecessary to our victory; for the victory is bound up in the bundle of\nlife with the everlasting honour of the Godhead.  \"He that spared not\nHis own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him\nalso freely give us all things.\"[12]\n\n(2) Time and again in Holy Scripture does the Holy Ghost lead the\ninspired authors to call upon God for help and deliverance \"for His\nName's sake.\"  The expression is so common that we pass it over too\noften, as though it were a mere adjuration which, like many that find\ntheir way into human speech, has no real significance.  But the Holy\nSpirit never uses {212} language in this meaningless fashion, and a few\nmoments' consideration will show us how definite and deep a meaning\nthere is in this expression used so constantly in Holy Writ.\n\nIt means nothing less than that our pardon, our deliverance, or\nwhatever it is that is being asked \"for His Name's sake,\" involves the\nhonour of the Divine Name.  God's Name is dishonoured among men\nwhenever a Christian sins.  A simple illustration will show us how this\nis.  A son leaves the paternal roof; he goes out into the world and\ndisgraces himself.  How quickly do men say, \"This man did not have the\nproper, honest training; his parents must have been indeed careless of\nhis bringing-up, since he has turned out so badly.\"  Here we find the\nfather's good name being spoken against because of the sins of the son.\nIs not the like thing being constantly said of our Heavenly Father\nbecause of the sins of His children?  A Christian is guilty of some\ndishonest, or mean, or selfish act.  He is known to the world as a\nChristian man, and how often have we heard it said, \"Well, if he is\nwhat you call a Christian, I do not care to be one.\"  Thus is God's\nName dishonoured and blasphemed among men, through the sins of His\nchildren.  He and the power of His Gospel are held to be of small\naccount because those who confess Him {213} fail to be faithful to Him.\nWell did the Spirit inspire the holy men of old to pray for deliverance\nfor the sake of His Holy Name, that it might not, through their\nfailure, be brought into disrepute.\n\nSo in the time of temptation the Psalmist cries, \"Save me, O God, for\nThy Name's sake;\"[13] and when he fails, his prayer is \"For Thy Name's\nsake, O Lord, pardon mine iniquity.\"[14]  Realizing his sins, he asks\nfor forgiveness, but with no selfish motive.  He thought not of his own\nsalvation alone.  It was the honour of his Father's Name that he had at\nheart, and so he asked for pardon lest his sins should give the enemy\noccasion to blaspheme.\n\nNor is it only for deliverance that the Psalmist prays.  His sins being\nforgiven, he knows that he cannot walk in the paths of righteousness\nsave through the divine guiding, and that if his feet wander from the\nway, again will that Name be dishonoured.  And so he cries, \"For Thy\nName's sake, lead me and guide me\";[15] and again desiring more and\nmore of the divine life of the Spirit, he cries, \"Quicken me, O Lord,\nfor Thy Name's sake.\"[16]\n\nThe lesson for our encouragement is clear.  So {214} jealous is God of\nHis own Name, so deeply dishonoured is that Name whenever we sin, that\nthe Spirit again and again, in teaching us to pray against the devil,\ntells us to plead with God on this very basis.  When His Name is\ninvolved God will rise in His might, and come to our help with a mighty\nhand and a stretched-out arm.  Even if His mighty love were not a\nmotive force, we can trust Him to care for His own good Name, to do His\nutmost to save us, since the fall of one who is called by His Name will\nlay His honour in the dust.\n\n(3) Again, consider what is the meaning of each particular defeat to\nGod.  Every baptized soul is a point on the far-flung battle line of\nthe Church Militant; every baptized soul is His soldier, made in His\nimage and sealed with His Sign of adoption, and set to defend a\ndefinite point in the front of God's army.  Is it nothing to Him that\nsuch a soul be beaten down by the foe?  Is it nothing to Him that His\ndivine image be marred and denied with the marks of the Fiend, and that\nhe who bears it be dragged away a captive of hell?\n\nUnless all revelation concerning His love be false, even the smallest\ndefeat in the battle is to God something at which the imagination\nstaggers when it seeks to grasp it.  What would a loving {215} earthly\nfather think to see his beloved child torn from his bosom, and carried\naway into the power of a savage enemy, consigned to untold and eternal\nwoe?  Would he take it philosophically, dismissing the whole affair\nfrom his mind after a time, justifying himself that this dread calamity\ncame by the child's fault, and was the result of its own disobedience?\nAnd is our heavenly Father less loving, less tender, of His children,\nthan an earthly father?  True, suffering in any human sense, cannot\ntouch the Godhead, but there must be some awful and mysterious thing\nwhich human thought can never fathom, and which we dare not seek to\nunderstand, that enters, as it were, into the Godhead when souls fail\nand are lost; or else the Holy Spirit could never have inspired the\nApostle to reveal concerning the risen, ascended, and glorified\nGod-Incarnate, that in our surrender to Satan there is a crucifying of\nHim afresh.[17]\n\nWhere then have we warrant for discouragement?  When Satan sets the\nbattle in array against my soul, I am not alone.  The call to arms\nrings through all heaven.  The Lord Christ Himself goes forth to war in\nthe unconquerable might of His Sacred Humanity.  Angels and archangels,\nand all the glorious company of heaven, spring {216} forward to action.\nThe great multitude which no man can number, of all nations and\nkindreds, and people, and tongues, that stand before the throne and\nbefore the Lamb, war for me in the might of their ceaseless\nintercession; and as the vast and splendid front of the armies of the\nliving God sweep on to the conflict, my soul is caught up in the mighty\nmovement and advance, and their spirit becomes my spirit, as we go\nforth, conquering and to conquer, in God's behalf and mine.\n\n\n\n[1] St. Matt. xi, 29-30.\n\n[2] St. John xiv, 1 and 27.\n\n[3] St. John xiv, 13; xv, 7 and 16; xvi, 23 and 24.\n\n[4] St. John xiv, 16.\n\n[5] St. John xv, 16.\n\n[6] St. John xvi, 20, 22, and 24.\n\n[7] St. John xvi, 33.\n\n[8] \"Now ye are the Body of Christ, and members in particular.\"--1 Cor.\nxii, 27.  See also Rom. xii, 5; Eph. i, 23; iv, 12; and v, 23 and 30;\nCol. i, 24.\n\n[9] 1 Cor. xii, 26.\n\n[10] Eph. iv, 12.\n\n[11] Jer. xxxi, 3.\n\n[12] Rom. viii, 32.\n\n[13] Ps. liv, 1.\n\n[14] Ps. xxv, 11.\n\n[15] Ps. xxxi, 3.\n\n[16] Ps. cxliii, 11.\n\n[17] Heb. vi, 6.","title":"The Warfare of the Soul: Practical Studies in the Life of Temptation","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":49876}