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28 chapters
PREFACE
PREFACE
If we desired to describe our life here in one word, that word might be Temptation . From one point of view the purpose for which we are put into this world is to be tempted, that is, to be tried or tested, in order that the wheat among us may be separated from the chaff, and that the children of light may be manifested and divided from the children of darkness. This testing , however, is not only that the good may be separated from the bad, it is the means by which the good becomes good; for by
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TO THE READER
TO THE READER
You do not need to be told that the writer offers you here nothing of his own. He has sat at the feet of certain masters whom through the ages the Holy Ghost has employed to speak to the souls of men. He seeks only to bear you a message from them. May the same Blessed Spirit use these pages to enlighten the souls He loves. If the message makes you long to know God better, to love Him more truly, to serve Him more faithfully, it will not have been borne in vain, and he who brings it craves as his
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CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
1. A Personal Issue 2. Not Peace, but a Sword 3. The Terms of the Warfare 4. The Nature of Temptation 5. Precept and Counsel...
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
1. Satan's Fall and its Effects 2. The Hopelessness of his Warfare 3. The Limitations of the Tempter 4. The Restraint of the Divine Decrees...
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
1. Satan, The Deceiver 2. The Fact of his Personality 3. His Experience and Wisdom 4. The Methods of his Might 5. The Soul's Safety...
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
1. The Common Lot 2. Enduring Hardship 3. The Sufferings of the Saints 4. Satan in the Sanctuary 5. The Sacrament of Temptation...
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CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
1. True and False Anxiety 2. Worry Versus Faith 3. The Cure of a Doubting Spirit 4. God's Sympathy...
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CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
1. A Double Weapon 2. The Spirit of Vigilance 3. Prayer and Temptation...
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CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
1. Environment and Character 2. Educating the Memory 3. Guiding the Imagination 4. The Practice of Constancy 5. The Practice of Calmness 6. The Practice of Patience 7. The Practice of Diligence...
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CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
1. The Satanic Suggestion 2. The Response of the Natural Heart 3. The "Inferior" and "Superior" Wills 4. The Fatal Consent...
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CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
1. Realizing God's Friendship 2. The Divine Example of Humility 3. Instant in Prayer 4. A Holy Perversity 5. Scorning the Tempter 6. Staying not the Hand 7. The Final Phase of Victory...
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CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
1. The Test of Common Sense 2. The Test of Doubt 3. Signs of the Soul's Victory 4. Spiritual Safety, Spiritual Victory 5. The Truest Test...
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CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
1. The Teaching of Temptation 2. The Bulwark of Love 3. The Lesson of Humility 4. The Lessons of Consolation 5. How to Learn our Lessons...
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CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
1. Hastening to Repent 2. A Tranquil Sorrow 3. A Spirit of Reparation 4. The Work of Amendment 5. The Gainsaying of Satan...
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CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
1. Members One of Another 2. The Church's Treasury of Grace 3. God's Interest in our Victory...
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CHAPTER I
CHAPTER I
The spiritual warfare is intensely personal. Any consideration of it is a consideration of definite personalities, divine, angelic, human, Satanic,—God, the Angels, the Soul, and Satan. We speak commonly of great principles being at stake in this warfare, often forgetting that it is not possible for a moral or spiritual principle to exist apart from a person. As we shall try to learn in the following pages, God—the three Persons of the Ever-Blessed Trinity—is always to be the first thought of th
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CHAPTER II
CHAPTER II
We have already reminded ourselves that it is as important to understand somewhat of the enemy's force and resources as it is to have our own equipment and training complete. Let us therefore consider the adversary, for next to the unceasing recollection of the presence, power, and goodness of God, the most necessary thing for the Christian soldier is the recollection of the presence and character of the enemy. Vigilance in maintaining this recollection is what the Apostle solemnly commands.[ 1
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CHAPTER III
CHAPTER III
The foremost characteristic of Satan is that which marks him as a Deceiver. It was by deceit that he brought death into the world and all our woe. Our first mother was "beguiled through his subtilty,"[ 1 ] and "being deceived, was in the transgression."[ 2 ] Our Lord declares him to be the father of lies,[ 3 ] and the constant apostolic warning is against his falsehood and deceit. He secures the active allegiance of men by "blinding the minds of them which believe not";[ 4 ] he is able to lead a
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CHAPTER IV
CHAPTER IV
"So long as we live in this world we cannot be without tribulation and temptation. Whence it is written in Job,[ 1 ] 'The life of man upon earth is a temptation.'"[ 2 ] Man did not have to wait for the full revelation of God in His Son before knowing this truth. Holy Job testifies to it out of his own experience, and the Son of Sirach gives the warning, "My son, if thou come to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation."[ 3 ] The constant and definite warning and promise of our Lord and Hi
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CHAPTER V
CHAPTER V
Thomas à Kempis tells us that since the life of man upon earth is a temptation, "Everyone ought therefore to be anxious about his temptations and to watch in prayer."[ 1 ] The anxiety to which we are exhorted is not, however, that attitude of mind and heart which would follow upon any uncertainty, or want of assurance, in regard to the result. The word à Kempis uses gives, in its original significance, no such suggestion. It is sollicitus , which has the force of being wholly aroused . That is t
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CHAPTER VI
CHAPTER VI
If we have the right spirit of solicitude about our temptations, it will arm us with a double weapon against Satan which he will have no power to break. We are told that we are to watch in prayer,— vigilare in orationibus .[ 1 ] It is the command given by our Lord to his disciples in the Garden in the hour of the power of darkness: "Watch ye and pray lest ye enter into temptation."[ 2 ] St. Paul, also, in his exhortation to the Ephesian Christians to "put on the whole armour of God,"[ 3 ] does n
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CHAPTER VII
CHAPTER VII
A psychological principle we should never lose sight of is that the attitude of mind and heart towards all moral questions is just what we choose to make it. Surround a man with debasing associations, and let him yield to the resulting influences, and he becomes debased. On the other hand, the influence of a pure and noble environment makes for purity and nobility of character. Every man in his inner character, and in that outward expression of character that we call life, is the product of the
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CHAPTER VIII
CHAPTER VIII
The spiritual masters in every age are at agreement concerning the process by which the soul passes from a state of grace into a state of sin. They express it in various ways, and in varying degrees of elaboration, but when analysed it can be brought down to three steps given us by St. Gregory, Suggestion, Pleasure, Consent .[ 1 ] Thomas à Kempis presents it somewhat more fully, and it is with his statement of the process that we purpose engaging ourselves. "First," he says, "a bare thought come
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CHAPTER IX
CHAPTER IX
"Like as the children of Ephraim, who being harnessed and bearing bows, turned themselves back in the day of battle."[ 1 ] Thus does the Psalmist recall a day of shame and humiliation in the history of God's people. Well prepared for the battle, with every hope of victory before them, the children of Ephraim failed in the hour when they faced the enemy. Thus has it been with many souls in the spiritual warfare. We may be forewarned, we may be armed with the manifold gifts of the Spirit, and yet
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CHAPTER X
CHAPTER X
It is all very well to sit down calmly, and consider, as we have done, the stages of temptation, and to draw definite conclusions as to the point at which the temptation passes over into sin. Such principles as these are not hard to discover. In fact, as a general rule it is comparatively easy in any matter to arrive at moral principles. If we cannot think them out for ourselves, any handbook of Christian ethics will give them to us, cut and dried. The real stress and strain in life arises from
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CHAPTER XI
CHAPTER XI
One of the most precious promises in Holy Scripture which is repeatedly made to the faithful is that they shall be taught of God. "Them that are meek shall He guide in judgment, and such as are gentle them shall He learn His way."[ 1 ] "I will inform thee, and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt go; and I will guide thee with Mine eye."[ 2 ] "All thy children shall be taught of the Lord";[ 3 ] "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you
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CHAPTER XII
CHAPTER XII
We may set before ourselves the methods of warfare that lead to spiritual victory; we may study them with all care and prayer; but the weakness of our nature being what it is, we must not expect to go through life without meeting defeat at the hands of the enemy. Even the Saints have not been immune from sin. When St. Paul spoke of sinners, he added, "Of whom I am chief."[ 1 ] St. John not only said, "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves," but he added those terrible words, "If we
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CHAPTER XIII
CHAPTER XIII
In His instructions to His disciples, while not hiding from them what were to be the hardships and, as the world counts it, loss, that must accompany His service, our Lord was ever full of words of encouragement. He strove always to show them that while the following of Him was not what the natural heart would look for as a flowery path, yet, if understood aright, His yoke was easy and His burden light, and that those who bore it would find rest for their souls.[ 1 ] Particularly in His last dis
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