By J.R. Miller
The experience of temptation is universal. Every life must grow up amid unfriendly and opposing influences. Some of them are subtle and insidious, like a pestilence in the air. Some of them fierce and wild, like the blast of storm, or the rush of battle.
Much is said in sermons about the solemn nature of death; yet really it is not half so perilous a thing to die as it is to live. No child of God was ever lost, or even harmed, in the experience of dying. But life is full of peril. To live truly--we must battle day by day. Satan is no medieval myth--but an actual foe--powerful, cunning, treacherous, and dreadful! Danger lurks in every shadow!
The question in life is not how to escape temptation--but how to pass through it so as not to be harmed by it. Christ's way of helping us is not by keeping us out of the conflicts. This would leave us forever weak, untried, and undisciplined. The price of spiritual attainment and culture is struggle. Jesus himself was made perfect through suffering.
All the best things in life--the only things worth obtaining--lie beyond fields of battle, and we can get them only by overcoming. It would be no kindness to us--were God to withdraw us into some sheltered spot whenever there is danger, or if he were to fight our battles for us, thus freeing us from all necessity to struggle.
"He who has never a conflict has never a victor's palm,
And only the toilers know the sweetness of rest and calm."
We must meet temptation, and we must fight. Not to fight is to lose all. Nor is there really any need for yielding. The weakest child may move unharmed through the sorest strifes. It is possible to meet the strongest temptations, and not be hurt by them. It has been done. Men have met the fiercest enemies, the most unrelenting oppositions, passing through the hottest flames--and have come out, like the three Hebrew children from the king's fiery furnace, without even the smell of fire on their garments!
Whatever may be said of the weakness of human nature unhelped and unsustained, there still is no need for any trembling soul to faint or to fail in the strife.
There is a divine Helper who himself went into the thickest of the struggle, and passed through it unharmed. He was "in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin." That is, he met all life victoriously; and because he was thus victorious he is able, not only to understand human struggles and to sympathize with everyone who is tempted--but also to give "grace to help in time of need." We have the assurance that the faithful God will not allow us to be tempted above that which we are able; but will with the temptation make the way of escape, that we may be able to endure it.
There is, therefore, a way of so living in this world--as not to suffer harm in even the fiercest temptations--to pass through them and not be damaged by them. There is even a way of so meeting temptations as to get benefit and blessing from them. An apostle said, "Count it all joy when you fall into manifold temptations; knowing that he proof of your faith works patience." "Blessed is the man who endures temptation--for when he has been approved, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord promised to those who love him."
Rightly meeting and victoriously resisting temptation, puts new fiber into the soul. The Indians say that when a warrior kills a foe--the spirit of the vanquished enemy enters the victor's heart and adds to his own strength. This is true in spiritual warfare. We grow stronger through our struggles and victories! Each lust conquered, each evil subdued, adds to the strength of our soul.
The question, then--is how to meet temptation so as to overcome it, and thus win the blessing there is in it. We must remember, first of all, that we are not able in ourselves successfully to fight our battles. If we think we are, and go forth in our own name and strength, we shall utterly fail. Life is too large, and its struggles and conflicts are too great--for the strongest human, unaided by divine power.
We must settle it once for all--that we can conquer only in the name and by the help of the strong Son of God. We may come off the field more than conquerors--but only through him who loved us. We can pass safely through all the fierce dangers of this world and be kept unspotted amid its sin and foulness--but only if we have with us him who is able to keep us from stumbling, and set us before the presence of his glory without blemish in exceeding joy. Self-confidence in our own ability to overcome temptation--is fatal folly!
Also, we must be sure that the temptation we are meeting, really lies in the path of our duty--that God calls us to meet it. Some temptations must be overcome by avoidance, by not meeting them. We pray each morning, "Lead us not into temptation;" we must, then, be sure that we are following our Father's leading when we enter any way of temptation. Only when the temptation comes in the path over which the divine Guide takes us--have we the assurance of divine protection in it.
Macaulay tells us that at the siege of Naumur, while the conflict was raging, William, prince of Orange, who was giving his orders under a shower of bullets, saw with surprise and anger among his staff officers, Michael Godfrey, the chairman of the Bank of England. He was curious to see real war.
"Mr. Godfrey," said Prince William, "you ought not to run these hazards. You are not a soldier; you can be of no use to us here."
"Sir," answered Godfrey, "I run no more risk than Your Majesty."
"Not so," said William. "I am where it is my duty to be, and I may without presumption commit my life to God's keeping; but you . . ."
Before the sentence was finished--a cannonball laid Godfrey dead at the king's feet!
The Prince's words were true, and the truth is just as applicable to temptations and spiritual dangers as to the perils of war. When duty calls us into any place, we are safe--God will protect us; but otherwise we venture without any promise of divine protection. We must face danger--only when God and duty unmistakably lead.
Also, when we find ourselves in the presence of temptation, we must not forget that we have something to do ourselves in getting the victory. Men and devils may tempt us--but men and devils cannot force us to yield! We are sovereigns in our choices, while the right and the wrong stand before us. Other wills than ours may seek to influence us--they may plead, entreat and persuade--but they cannot compel us.
We cannot avoid being tempted--but we ought to avoid yielding to temptation. Luther used to say, "We cannot keep the birds from flying over our heads--but we can prevent them building their nests in our hair!" We cannot keep temptations away from our ears, nor prevent them whispering their seductive words close by us--but we can hinder them making their nests in our hearts!
We are not to be passive in this matter. We must not expect God to fasten the door, and hold his hand upon the lock. The shutting and opening of the door is our part of the responsibility. Even God himself will never come into our heart unless we voluntarily open it to him. Christ stands outside and knocks, waiting with all his wealth of love and all his power to bless until we bid him welcome. We with our frail weakness can keep even Omnipotence outside. So, as divine grace cannot enter to do us good unless we open, neither can satanic evil enter to work ruin in our own heart. Thus the final responsibility is with ourselves. Hence our duty in temptation is unwavering resistance--an irreversible "No!" to every solicitation to sin. If we settle this point, we have learned one of the greatest lessons in spiritual warfare--"having done all, to stand."
Besides this, nothing more is needed but faith and prayer. When the temptation comes in the path of duty, and when we resist it with unflinching determination, we may with simple confidence commit the keeping of our life to God. No evil can ever harm us if we cleave unfalteringly to Christ--"He shall give his angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways." Still better--"The Lord is your keeper."
There come times in every life, when all we can do is to shut our eyes and let God lead us. Indeed, in all hours of darkness and danger, this is both our privilege and our duty; and if we thus commit our way to God, he will bring us safely through the last peril and the last struggle--into the light and joy of victory on the heavenly plains.
Then it will be seen that it has been no misfortune that we have had to fight sore battles on the earth. Old war-veterans are not ashamed of their scars--they are marks of honor; they tell of wounds received in battling for their country. In heaven the soldier of Christ will not be ashamed of the scars he has gotten in his warfare for his Lord on the earth; his crown will be all the brighter for them. They will shine as the King's medals, decorations of honor--"the marks of the Lord Jesus."
When an army marches home from a victorious field, it is not the bright, clean, untorn flag that is most wildly cheered--but the flag that is pierced, riddled and torn by the shot and shells of many a battle. So in the homecoming in glory it will not be the man who bears fewest marks of suffering and struggle and fewest scars of wounds received in Christ's service, who will be welcomed with the greatest joy--but the man who bears the marks of the sorest conflicts and the greatest sufferings for the honor of his Lord and for his kingdom.
