The Warfare of the Soul Part 17

(2) Temptation, by showing us the possibilities of degradation which, but for the grace of G.o.d, would become actualities, enables us to exercise the virtue of humility towards others. If we really understand the natural tendency towards what is evil, and that only through the divine mercy are we saved from the worst forms of sin and corruption, it will be impossible to maintain an "Holier than thou"

att.i.tude towards others.

"If thou shouldst see another openly sin, or commit some heinous offence, yet oughtest thou not to think the better of thyself, for thou knowest not how long thou shalt be able to stand fast in good. We are all frail, but thou shalt esteem none frailer than thyself."[11]

This humbling self-knowledge will also produce a train of virtues which will grow out of and at the same time, by their operation, further and deepen, a spirit of humility. Let us consider three of them.

(1) How quick we are to criticise the sin we see in others, but there could be no such {176} arrogance if through Satan's temptations we were daily made to realize what is possible in ourselves. On the contrary, we should be filled with the gentle sympathy that a man feels for one who is in the grip of some dread disease from which he himself has just recovered; and sympathy is always humble.

(2) The sight of the degradation of the world in its sin will fill us with a true grat.i.tude to G.o.d that we have so far escaped the peril into which Satan had succeeded in leading others, and true grat.i.tude is necessarily humble because even the smallest exercise of it is, as far as it goes, a recognition of our dependence on another, and pride would be unwilling to admit any such dependence.

(3) There will, in view of sin as it appears in life about us, be awakened a wholesome fear, such as that which seizes upon a man whose companion has been struck down at his side by the sting of a deadly serpent,--a fear that will drive him back in humble dependence on G.o.d, and make him realize how utterly powerless he is, of himself, to avoid a like fate.

IV. _The Lessons of Consolation_

The teaching of the Holy Ghost is not confined to warning us of danger.

He has also many lessons of encouragement and consolation for us {177} in the hour of temptation. Certain of these have already been considered, and those that we shall consider now, must be disposed of briefly. Perhaps some of us may take them up at another time as themes for further thought and meditation. Such an exercise would be of great profit, for Satan so constantly seeks to discourage us in the field, that we may be sure that it is the loving will of G.o.d to offset this by holding before us always that which will enhearten us, and fill us with somewhat of that "stern joy" of the battle which must ever thrill the true soldier in the discharge of his trust.

(1) Temptation is an advertis.e.m.e.nt to the soul that it is, at least in some degree, in the grace of G.o.d.

To forget this is always a cause of weakness. It is a common thing to hear the complaint, "Something must be wrong with me, or temptation would not come so persistently and in such manifold forms."

To see the fallacy that underlies this complaint, one has only to think of our Lord "in all points tempted like as we are."[12] No one was ever so beset with temptation as He was, and if constant temptation be a sign of something wrong within, then no one was ever quite so far {178} gone from righteousness as was our Lord Christ Himself.[13]

Something is indeed wrong, from Satan's point of view, with the soul whom he besets with many snares. He is not satisfied with us. There is altogether too much divine love and power in our hearts to please him, and so he sets the battle in array against us. Surely it is a thankworthy thing, one that must bring great joy, to have the evidence that Satan regards us as his enemy.

Suppose no temptation a.s.sailed us,--what a terrible significance this would have! When we went to prayer, or to Communion, or about the commonplace, G.o.d-sent duties of the day, what a fearful thing it would be if Satan, observing us, were to reflect that he had no reason to attack us because, do what we might, he was sure that no harm could come to his kingdom through us!

There are men in the world, many of them, indeed, who have no temptations, and who cite the absence of such experience as proof that the Christian teaching concerning the devil and his work is false.

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Alas, they know not their own misery, for "never art thou more strongly set upon than when thou believest thou art not at all a.s.saulted."[14]

Satan does not a.s.sail them, and in thus refraining he acts on the same principle as does a warring king who lays no siege to a fortress that is already in his possession, whose sometime defenders lie in his dungeons, chained hand and foot.

But as we saw in our first chapter when considering the terms of this warfare, the captivity that such untempted souls are enduring is no idle, pa.s.sive confinement in some spiritual prison. These worldly souls are the most effective soldiers of him whose very existence and power they deny. He has no reason to unmask himself to them. He "leaves them alone, they are doing his work. The blasphemer is not tempted to blaspheme. Why should he be? He blasphemes already. The unbeliever is not tempted to unbelief,--he has lost his faith. The scoffer is no longer tempted to scoffing,--he scoffs enough already to satisfy even the 'G.o.d of this world.'"[15]

(2) Temptation is also an advertis.e.m.e.nt to the soul that G.o.d has some special mark of His love to bestow at the particular time.

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Every occasion of temptation is pregnant with graces and heavenly favours which G.o.d has in store for the victor. Calling us forth to the battle is just His way of calling us to lay hold of some increase of strength He has prepared for us.

(3) Great comfort is laid hold of by the soul in contemplating that in temptation G.o.d is but furnis.h.i.+ng us the opportunity to carry out His commands,--"Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven";[16] and, "Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling."[17] Unless such commands are fulfilled there can be no redemption for us. G.o.d has done His part and done it perfectly. So far as His work is concerned, He could, when yielding up His soul on the Cross, most truly cry, "It is finished,"[18] for everything necessary for G.o.d to do in order that man might lay hold on salvation was accomplished. But man must have his part. Salvation can come to no soul that does not labour for it, and temptation is the opportunity definitely prepared and presented to us by a loving G.o.d that the work of the Cross may not for us have been wrought in vain. Therefore great consolation must come with every a.s.sault, and as we feel the weight and thrust of the awful conflict, let us joyfully cry, "Now is the accepted time; now is the day {181} of salvation! Why art thou so heavy, O my soul, and why art thou so disquieted within me! Look up and lift up your head, for your redemption draweth nigh!"[19]

(4) The greater and more prolonged the temptation, the greater should be our consolation. The fact that the a.s.sault is fierce and persistent gives the blessed a.s.surance that the soul has been faithful in the little temptations. The tempter realizes that if he is to have us at all, it must be at great cost and labour; that we are not going to sell ourselves cheap.

(5) We sometimes hear men complain against G.o.d's justice because He permits souls to be so beset by the Evil One; but as a matter of fact his antagonism rea.s.sures us on this very point. Temptation is Satan's tribute to the divine justice. He is the Accuser of the brethren, and in tempting us he is acknowledging that he must have something real wherewith to accuse us at the Judgment.

(6) When strange, terrible, and unaccustomed flashes of temptation come, we learn with great joy that the tempter is puzzled concerning us. Our steadfast service of G.o.d has baffled him, and he can only experiment with us, as it were, hoping a weak point may by some means be {182} discovered. Such temptations, in many cases, mean that the tempter is working in the dark.

(7) Great comfort must be found in the thought of the victory that awaits us if we are faithful. This should not arise merely from the sense of relief at escaping a fall, but from the happy thought that in every such victory, great or small, Satan is weaker in my life than he was before, and G.o.d and His love are stronger. True, great conflicts may be still in store for me, but I have greater strength than ever before for meeting them and overcoming. So while the warfare continues, the soul grows keener for the struggle, and finds greater joy in it, because it realizes its strength, and rejoices, as does every strong man, to use it.

Many other points of consolation may be found in the spiritual combat, but these will suffice to show us how much of joy there is in the active, militant life of the Christian, if we only try to find it.

Let us, then, thank G.o.d for temptation, and if it presses us hard, let us rejoice the more, for it is His way of sending us the pledge of our peace with Him, the guerdon of His love.

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V. _How to Learn our Lessons_

How are we going to recognize all these lessons as they are presented by the Spirit? There is hardly time in the thick of the battle to pause to think these things out, as we have done in the quiet hour we have given to the reading of this chapter. The soldier cannot stop to draw calm conclusions, and to study the purpose and effect of tactical movements, when the enemy is thundering at the gate, and all but making his way in.

One simple suggestion may help us. Let us make a practice of studying our past temptations, as soldiers are wont to study the great military campaigns of history in order to learn methods of warfare. Go to some War College and see the eager young officers as they follow a skilled instructor, all poring intently over a diagram of some battle fought and won a century ago. "Here Napoleon made his mistake; there was the movement by which the field was won; that splendid manoeuvre turned the enemy's flank." They study every move, the effect it wrought, whether it failed or succeeded, and why. And thus, combined with their own practice, men learn the art of war.

In some such way let it be with us in the spiritual conflict. The School of the Holy Ghost is a {184} War College in which the campaigns of the armies of G.o.d and Satan are to be studied under the guidance of our divine Instructor. How constantly has the Church studied the great campaign prosecuted against Satan by our own great Captain in the wilderness! How much has been learned by the study of His methods of resistance and attack! The lives of the Saints, too, are but studies of military campaigns waged for G.o.d.

But perhaps most profitable of all will be the study of our own battles. Under the guidance of the Spirit, go back to some recent temptation, (always excepting scrupulously temptations against faith and purity); study its circ.u.mstance, how it arose, if it came through any fault of ours. Did we presumptuously run into occasion of perilous temptation? If not, what occasion did the enemy seize upon for his attack? Was there parleying with him? Did we meet it in the first moment with prayer and acts of faith, hope, love, contrition, and humility, or were these powerful weapons not brought to bear? Through it all, did we strive to keep our lines of communication with our headquarters and our base of supplies open by prayer? Or did we forget who our Leader was and grow panic-stricken? Can we recall the particular point at which downfall {185} began? Or, if there was victory, what prayer, what thought, was it that imparted a sudden strength to the heart, and drove home the thrust that put the enemy to flight? Or what painful pressing on, inch by inch, forced him at last to fly the field? And when we beheld him fleeing, did we secure ourselves, and spike his guns, as it were, by fervent acts of grat.i.tude to G.o.d who had given us the victory?

We may not be able to find answers to all these questions, but if in the beginning of such a study, we find only a few, well and good. We shall profit by them, and in the next temptation use the knowledge gained; and so shall we go on, gaining more and more knowledge out of the study of our own experience, and more and more faithfully putting that knowledge to use, until we become skilled and practised campaigners in the wars of the Lord; until, indeed, we become worthy to be enrolled among those of whom the Apostle speaks, "Who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil."[20]

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All this while, however, we are not to neglect our study of the spiritual campaigns of others. In the pages of the Bible, in the lives of the Saints and holy men, in their own experiences that they have recorded for us in their spiritual writings, we can find innumerable things with which we can compare, and by which correct, the conclusions of our study of the principles of the warfare.

These are especially valuable when found in the biographies of the great servants of G.o.d, for in such records we find the theory actually worked out in the lives of men of like pa.s.sions with ourselves.

A beautiful ill.u.s.tration of this is recalled from the life of that great champion of the Faith, Bishop Gray of Capetown. When in the midst of his contest with the heretic Colenso, when the Church and the world seemed combined against him, from one of his long wagon-journeys across the lonely African veldt, he writes, "I find great comfort in repeating the first three pet.i.tions of the Lord's Prayer." What a mighty weapon was that! Have we used it as did this servant of G.o.d?

[1] Ps. xxv, 8.

[2] Ps. x.x.xii, 9.

[3] Isa. liv, 13.

[4] St. John xiv, 26.

[5] St. John xvi, 13.

[6] "One does not arrive at virtue except through knowledge of self and knowledge of Me, which knowledge is more perfectly acquired in time of temptation, because then man knows himself to be nothing, being unable to lift off himself the pains and vexations which he would flee."--St.

Catherine of Siena, _Dialogue_, p. 119. (Thorold Trans., London, 1907.)

[7] _Imitation_, I, xiii.

[8] Rom. vii, 15 and 19.