Christian's Secret of a Happy Life - Chapter 12 Chapter 12
Certain very great mistakes are made concerning this matter of temptation, inthe practical working out of this life of faith.
CONCERNING TEMPTATION First of all, people seem to expect that,after the soul has entered into its rest in God, temptations will cease; and tothink that the promised deliverance is not only to be from yielding totemptation, but even also from being tempted. Consequently, when they find theCanaanite still in the land, and see the cities great and walled up to Heaven,they are utterly discouraged, and think they must have gone wrong in some way,and that this cannot be the true land after all.
Then, next they make the mistake of looking upontemptation as sin, and of blaming themselves for what in reality is the faultof the enemy only. This brings them into condemnation and discouragement; anddiscouragement, if continued in, always ends at last in actual sin. The enemymakes an easy prey of a discouraged soul; so that we fall often from the veryfear of having fallen.
To meet the first of these difficulties it isonly necessary to refer to the Scripture declarations, that the Christian lifeis to be throughout a warfare; and that, especially when seated in heavenlyplaces in Christ Jesus, we are to wrestle against spiritual enemies there,whose power and skill to tempt us must doubtless be far superior to any we haveever heretofore encountered. As a fact, temptations generally increase instrength tenfold after we have entered into the interior life, rather thandecrease; and no amount or sort of them must ever for a moment lead us tosuppose we have not really found the true abiding place. Strong temptations aregenerally a sign of great grace, rather than of little grace. When the childrenof Israel had first left Egypt, the Lord did not lead them through the countryof the Philistines, although that was the nearest way; for God said, "lestperadventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt."But afterwards, when they learned better how to trust Him, He permitted theirenemies to attack them. Then also in their wilderness journey they met with butfew enemies and fought but few battles, compared to those in the land, wherethey found seven great nations and thirty-one kings to be conquered, besideswalled cities to be taken, and giants to be overcome.
They could not have fought with the Canaanites,or the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and theJebusites, until they had gone into the land where these enemies were. And thevery power of your temptations, dear Christian, therefore, may perhaps be oneof the strongest proofs that you really are in the land you have been seekingto enter, because they are temptations peculiar to that land. You must neverallow your temptations to cause you to question the fact of your having enteredthe promised "heavenly places."
The second mistake is not quite so easy to dealwith. It seems hardly worth while to say that temptation is not sin, and yetmost of the distress about it arises from not understanding this fact. The verysuggestion of wrong seems to bring pollution with it, and the evil agency notbeing recognized, the poor tempted soul begins to feel as if it must be verybad indeed, and very far off from God to have had such thoughts andsuggestions. It is as though a burglar should break into a man's house tosteal, and, when the master of the house began to resist him and to drive himout, should turn round and accuse the owner of being himself the thief. It isthe enemy's grand ruse for entrapping us. He comes and whispers suggestions ofevil to us, doubts, blasphemies, jealousies, envyings, and pride; and thenturns round and says, "Oh, how wicked you must be to think of such things! Itis very plain that you are not trusting the Lord; for if you were, it wouldhave been impossible for these things to have entered your heart." Thisreasoning sounds so very plausible that the soul often accepts it as true, andat once comes under condemnation, and is filled with discouragement; then it iseasy for it to be led on into actual sin. One of the most fatal things in thelife of faith is discouragement. One of the most helpful is cheerfulness. Avery wise man once said that in overcoming temptations, cheerfulness was thefirst thing, cheerfulness the second, and cheerfulness the third. We mustexpect to conquer. That is why the Lord said so often to Joshua, "Be strong andof a good courage"; "Be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed"; "Only be thoustrong and very courageous." And it is also the reason He says to us, "Let notyour heart he troubled neither let it be afraid." The power of temptation is inthe fainting of our own hearts. The enemy knows this well, and always beginshis assaults by discouraging us, if it can in any way be accomplished.
Sometimes this discouragement arises from what wethink is a righteous grief and disgust at ourselves that such things could beany temptation to us; but which is really a mortification arising from the factthat we have been indulging in a secret self-congratulation that our tasteswere too pure, or our separation from the world was too complete for suchthings to tempt us. We have expected something from ourselves, and have beensorely disappointed not to find that something there, and are discouraged inconsequence. This mortification and discouragement are really a far worsecondition than the temptation itself, though they present an appearance of truehumility, for they are nothing but the results of wounded self-love. Truehumility can bear to see its own utter weakness and foolishness revealed,because it never expected anything from itself, and knows that its only hopeand expectation must be in God. Therefore, instead of discouraging the soulfrom trusting, it drives it to a deeper and more utter trust. But thecounterfeit humility which springs from self, plunges the soul into the depthsof a faithless discouragement, and drives it into the very sin at which it isso distressed.
I remember once hearing an allegory thatillustrated this to me wonderfully. Satan called together a council of hisservants to consult how they might make a good man sin. One evil spirit startedup and said, "I will make him sin." "How will you do it?" asked Satan. "I willset before him the pleasures of sin," was the reply; "I will tell him of itsdelights and the rich rewards it brings." "Ah," said Satan, "that will not do;he has tried, it, and knows better than that." Then another spirit started upand said, "I will make him sin." "What will you do?" asked Satan. "I will tellhim of the pains and sorrows of virtue. I will show him that virtue has nodelights, and brings no rewards." "Ah, no!" exclaimed Satan, "that will not doat all; for he has tried it, and knows that `wisdom's ways are ways ofpleasantness and all her paths are peace.'" "Well," said another imp, startingup, "I will undertake to make him sin." "And what will you do?" asked Satan,again. "I will discourage his soul," was the short reply. "Ah, that will do,"cried Satan, -- "that will do! We shall conquer him now." And they did.
An old writer says, "All discouragement is fromthe devil"; and I wish every Christian would just take this as a pocket-piece,and never forget it. We must fly from discouragement as we would from sin.
But this is impossible if we fail to recognizethe true agency in temptation. For if the temptations are our own fault, wecannot help being discouraged. But they are not. The Bible says, "Blessed isthe man that endureth temptation"; and we are exhorted to "count it all joywhen we fall into divers temptations." Temptation, therefore, cannot be sin;and the truth is, it is no more a sin to hear these whispers and suggestions ofevil in our souls, than it is for us to hear the swearing or wicked talk of badmen as we pass along the street. The sin only comes in either case by ourstopping and joining in with them. If, when the wicked suggestions come, weturn from them at once, as we would from wicked talk, and pay no more attentionto them, we do not sin. But if we carry them on in our minds, and roll themunder our tongues, and dwell on them with a half-consent of our will to them astrue, then we sin. We may be enticed by evil a thousand times a day withoutsin, and we cannot help these enticings. But if the enemy can succeed in makingus think that his enticings are our sin, he has accomplished half the battle,and can hardly fail to gain a complete victory.
A dear lady once came to me under great darkness,simply from not understanding this. She had been living very happily in thelife of faith for some time, and had been so free from temptation as almost tobegin to think she would never be tempted any more. But suddenly a verypeculiar form of temptation had assailed her, which had horrified her. Shefound that the moment she began to pray, dreadful thoughts of all kinds wouldrush into her mind. She had lived a very sheltered, innocent life, and thesethoughts seemed so awful to her, that she felt she must be one of the mostwicked of sinners to be capable of having them. She began by thinking she couldnot possibly have entered into the rest of faith, and ended by concluding thatshe had never even been born again. Her soul was in an agony of distress. Itold her that these dreadful thoughts were altogether the suggestions of theenemy, who came to her the moment she kneeled in prayer, and poured them intoher mind, and that she herself was not to blame for them at all; that she couldnot help them any more than she could help hearing if a wicked man should pourout his blasphemies in her presence. And I urged her to recognize and treatthem as from the enemy; not to blame herself or be discouraged, but to turn atonce to Jesus and commit them to Him. I showed her how great an advantage theenemy had gained by making her think these thoughts were originated by herself,and plunging her into condemnation and discouragement on account of them. And Iassured her she would find a speedy victory if she would pay no attention tothem; but, ignoring their presence, would simply turn her back on them and lookto the Lord.
She grasped the truth, and the next time thesethoughts came she said to the enemy, "I have found you out now. It is you whoare suggesting these dreadful thoughts to me, and I hate them, and will havenothing to do with them. The Lord is my Saviour; take them to Him, and settlethem in His presence." Immediately the baffled enemy, finding himselfdiscovered, fled in confusion, and her soul was perfectly delivered.
Another thing also. The enemy knows that if aChristian recognizes a suggestion of evil as coming from him, he will recoilfrom it far more quickly than if it seems to be the suggestion of his own mind.If Satan prefaced each temptation with the words, "I am Satan, your relentlessenemy; I have come to make you sin," I suppose we would hardly feel any desireat all to yield to his suggestions. He has to hide himself in order to make hisbaits attractive. And our victory will be far more easily gained if we are notignorant of his devices, but recognize him at his very first approach.
We also make another great mistake abouttemptations in thinking that all time spent in combating them is lost. Hourspass, and we seem to have made no progress, because we have been so beset withtemptations. But it often happens that we have been serving God far more trulyduring these hours, than in our times of comparative freedom from temptation.Temptation is really more the devil's wrath against God, than against us. Hecannot touch our Saviour, but he can wound our Saviour by conquering us, andour ruin is important to him only as it accomplishes this. We are, therefore,really fighting our Lord's battles when we are fighting temptation, and hoursare often worth days to us under these circumstances. We read, "Blessed is theman that endureth temptation"; and I am sure this means enduring thecontinuance of it and its frequent recurrence. Nothing so cultivates the graceof patience as the endurance of temptation, and nothing so drives the soul toan utter dependence upon the Lord Jesus as its continuance. And finally,nothing brings more praise and honor and glory to our dearest Lord Himself,than the trial of our faith which comes through manifold temptations. We aretold that it is more precious than gold, though it be tried with fire, and thatwe, who patiently endure the trial, shall receive for our reward "the crown oflife which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him."
We cannot wonder, therefore, any longer at theexhortation with which the Holy Ghost opens the Book of James: "Count it alljoy when ye fall into divers temptations, knowing this, that the trying of yourfaith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may beperfect and entire, wanting nothing."
Temptation is plainly to be the blessedinstrument used by God to complete our perfection, and thus the enemy's ownweapons are turned against himself, and we see how it is that all things, eventemptations, can work together for good to them that love God.
As to the way of victory over temptations, itseems hardly necessary to say to those whom I am at this time especiallyaddressing, that it is to be by faith. For this is, of course, the foundationupon which the whole interior life rests. Our one great motto is throughout,"We are nothing, Christ is all." And always and everywhere we have started outto stand, and walk, and overcome, and live by faith. We have discovered our ownutter helplessness, and know that we cannot do anything for ourselves. Our onlyway, therefore, is to hand the temptation over to our Lord, and trust Him toconquer it for us. But when we put it into His hands we must leave it there. Itmust be as real a committing of ourselves to Him for victory, as it was atfirst a committing of ourselves to Him for salvation. He must do all for us inthe one case, as completely as in the other. It was faith only then, and itmust be faith only now.
And the victories which the Lord works inconquering the temptations of those who thus trust Him are nothing short ofmiracles, as thousands can testify.
But into this part of the subject I cannot go atpresent, as my object has been rather to present temptation in its true light,than to develop the way of victory over it. I want to deliver conscientious,faithful souls from the bondage into which they are sure to be brought, if theyfail to understand the true nature and use of temptation, and confound it withsin. I want that they should not be ignorant of the fact that temptations are,after all, an invaluable part of our soul's development; and that, whatever maybe their original source, they are used by God to work out in us many blessedgraces of character which would otherwise be lacking. Wherever temptation is,there is God also, superintending and controlling its power. "Where wert thou,Lord I while I was being tempted?" cried the saint of the desert. "Close besidethee, my son, all the while," was the tender reply.
Temptations try us; and we are worth nothing ifwe are not tried. They develop our spiritual strength and courage andknowledge; and our development is the one thing God cries for. How shallowwould all our spirituality be if it were not for temptations. "Blessed is theman that endureth temptation: for when he is tried he shall receive the crownof life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him." This "crown oflife" will be worth all that it has cost of trial and endurance to obtain it;and without these it could not be attained.
An invalid lady procured once the cocoon of avery beautiful butterfly with unusually magnificent wings hoping to have thepleasure of seeing it emerge from its cocoon in her sick-chamber. She watchedit eagerly as spring drew on, and finally was delighted to see the butterflybeginning to emerge. But it seemed to have great difficulty. It pushed, andstrained, and struggled, and seemed to make so little headway, that sheconcluded it must need some help, and with a pair of delicate scissors shefinally clipped the tight cord that seemed to bind in the opening of thecocoon. Immediately the cocoon opened wide, and the butterfly escaped withoutany further struggle. She congratulated herself on the success of herexperiment, but found in a moment that something was the matter with thebutterfly. It was all out of the cocoon it is true, but its great wings werelifeless and colorless, and dragged after it as a useless burden. For a fewdays it lived a miserable sickly life, and then died, without having oncelifted its powerless wings. The lady was sorely disappointed and could notunderstand it. But when she related the circumstance to a naturalist, he toldher that it had all been her own fault. That it required just that pushing andstruggling to send the life fluid into the veins of the wings, and that hermistaken kindness in shortening the struggle, had left the wings lifeless andcolorless.
Just so do our spiritual wings need the struggleand effort of our conflict with temptation and trial; and to grant us an escapefrom it would be to weaken the power of our soul to "mount up with wings aseagles," and would deprive us of the "crown of life" which is promised to thosewho endure.