CHAPTER 9
done and endured can be borne and accomplished again by man. This is the reasoning of men, and the very thought is inspiration and life itself.
This is the same principle of comfort embraced in the statement that the dark, sad temptations of life which try us so severely are not peculiar to us, but are common to man. Others have wrestled with and conquered these things of the spiritual life which are now dismaying us; others have trod these deserts; or plowed these seas, and found a San Salvador beyond.
In spite of long sailing there has been land, and landing, and coming forth, and victory for others, and the same can be for us.
The desolate state of the heart; the lonely, friendless feeling of the soul;
the wave of sickening doubt; the suggestion that friends have ceased to love you, that health will fail, and usefulness cease, and the poorhouse be at last your refuge — all these are influences and whispers which the accuser of God and of his brethren has injected into many a faithful heart that is now in rapture near the throne, striking a golden harp or waving a palm of eternal victory.
Under temptation, one’s rapturous feelings go down; so did those of the holy Madame Guyon. A great fear arises as to divine deliverance from trouble; the saintly Payson went through the same experience. The heart sinks for a while under a lonely trial; so did Paul, who, when he met friends at last at the Three Taverns, “thanked God and took courage.”
The most pious and influential preacher in one of our Southern States said that once for fully thirty minutes he was conscious of a violent inward urging to be profane. He said his soul recoiled in horror from it, that he recognized the dark influences as the work of the devil, but that the distressing movement was there, nevertheless.
The thought of suicide as an escape from sickness and trouble is purely Satanic, and yet it has come to the best of people, who have resisted it with proper promptness and disapproval, knowing full well it came from Satan, and that it stood for a sin which, from its very nature, was
unpardonable.
It is certainly a great mental relief in the midst of sore experiences, when Satan would have us believe they are peculiar to us, thereby making us feel we are the worst of all God’s creatures — I say it is blessed to the soul to
hear God’s Word affirming, “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.” Such a statement upon the part of heaven is bound to bring the sweetest consolation to the soul.
A second comfort in temptation is found in the words that, “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able.”
According to these words there is no excuse for men who fall under temptation. The temptation was not greater than they could have borne.
This is God’s own declaration, and we believe God.
Those who go down under the assault of the Evil One, invariably begin to whine and whimper about it, saying they could not help it; that the assault was of such a nature that they could not resist; that they were, so to speak, overpowered. But the Bible says they do not tell the truth, that they fell with a superior force in them. They went down before something weaker than themselves. A man has fallen under the blow of a boy’s hand!
Let us read the Word of God again, “God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able.” So, then, according to this, they could have endured the attack.
This same statement, which puts the fall of the Christian in a new light, also fills the tempted but as yet unfallen child of God with great comfort.
There is no need to fall. Greater is He that is in us, than the devil and the world outside of us. The powers of darkness will be held in check; they will not be allowed to do their worst upon us. The winds and waves of hell will be weighed and gauged by the Divine Hand before they are allowed to beat upon His servant. In a word, there is no necessity for spiritual foundering and shipwreck.
Under the light of this clear Bible statement down go the timeworn excuses for falling in “the smell of the wine at the Lord’s table,” “the odor of a saloon,” “the power of habit,” “the force of suggestion,” “the influence of a smile,” “the touch of a hand,” etc.
Under this jubilee blast of liberty we can go as free men past saloons, be delivered from habit, keep strong under look and touch of evil, and be more than conquerors through Him who loved us. A third comfort in temptation is declared in the words, “He will with the temptation also make a way to
escape.” Here is something more than strength to endure promised; it is actual deliverance and escape.
There are several ways in which God can deliver us from the hour and power of temptation.
One is by the removal of the object.
This we do not believe is frequently done, as our probation, from the nature of the case, demands that we be morally tested and tried. So to put us on trial, and then remove the very class and character of things which will declare and reveal us, would be to act contradictorily, and, indeed, absurdly. If we are not tempted and tried, there can be no Day of Rewards for us. Still there are times when God, who knows how much we can endure, will remove the object that under present conditions might be too powerful for us, and allow it to come later to the attack, when we are better prepared.
Again He delivers us by urging His tempted follower to a precipitate flight.
Time was when we regarded a man’s avoidance of a place of moral danger, and withdrawal from certain social surroundings as a confession of
weakness and an indication of cowardice. But with the flight of years we became convinced that such a course was proof, not only of the wisdom, but of moral courage as well.
Flight in some instances is the best, truest, and safest thing we can do.
Joseph achieved an immortal victory when he fled from his temptress.
There are places and circumstances where we can not tarry or dally. To do so is to fail. The impulse or impression to fly is from God himself, who would thereby save us. The divine whisper has been unmistakable at times in the life when there was peril, and when God saw the danger was greater than the man dreamed. The inward voice was to “fly!” And many have obeyed, and fled, and so have been delivered, where others, under a mistaken idea of Christian hardihood and courage, have gone down.
We read in First Samuel that David asked the Lord, “Will the men of Keilah deliver me into the hands of Saul?” and God answered, “They will deliver thee up.” This is a wonderfully impressive sentence, and shows
God’s knowledge of men embraces all that they are capable of doing, and what they will or would do under certain circumstances. This same Lord has lost none of his love for his people, and none of his knowledge of the sinful heart. So His whispers come to the soul as suddenly and clearly as ever warning was given to David, “If such and such a thing takes place, you will fall into sin.”
No one can read certain warnings given by Wesley and others of the old writers on the line of discreteness and circumspectness of life, without realizing that they had come into strange experiences and had gathered wisdom as the years went by.
There is an instrument lately invented by which it is said the capacity of children for the strain and drain of school hours is tested. God needs no machine of any kind to know how much we can bear in the hour of moral trial. He knows us altogether. He is aware that a protracted assault upon the soul would cause some Christians to go down under certain
circumstances, and so, as it does not agree with His plans to remove the cause, His method of deliverance to his child is the whisper to fly.
The third way God saves us in and from temptation, is by a mighty pouring of divine grace and power into the soul.
The effect of this is to so lift the Christian up above the influence of the tempting thing or being, that he marvels how he could ever have been so shaken and stirred. Under increased divine love and strength the whole matter looks so little and contemptible that he wonders how he could ever have been moved by such an ambition, pursuit, pleasure, or object.
This deliverance, considered in the light of reason, is like a man struggling to lift a two-hundred-pound rock, when suddenly the power of two other men is added to him, and lo! off he walks with the boulder with the
greatest ease. Or it is like a regiment sorely beset in battle, just able to hold its ground, when, with a great shout, a new regiment dashes to their aid, and now with a still greater cry the two bodies of troops charge and sweep the field before them.
In like manner there are “evil days,” as Paul calls them, when we simply
“stand” and “having done all to stand.” God permits this for various reasons. The very ability to stand, however, is victory in itself, and a
divine rescue; but God has a greater deliverance still, and a much more marvelous victory. After that we have suffered awhile, he will pour down reinforcements from the skies in the shape of brigades and divisions of spiritual joy and power, and with a shout of triumph we will charge over everything and plant our triumphant banners upon the loftiest forts and strongest citadels of our spiritual enemies.
It is as though the strength of three men had been given to one. It is the arrival of the second regiment to help the first. It is the bringing up of the reserve corps, which had been held in watchful observation of us, and at the critical moment was sent rushing and dashing into the heart and life, and lo! the hour, field, battle was ours, through Jesus Christ our Lord.
The victory is so great that the Bible says we are “more than conquerors.”
We not only have a rock to kill Goliath, but several other stones are placed in the wallet, or scrip, in case that if more giants should come along we could slay, not only one monster, but, under the mighty grace of God, destroy the whole breed. It is a superabundant victory.
This is like God. This is the way He deals with His people who are faithful to Him. He not only will not give us over to the will of our
enemies, but will, according to David, lift our heads up above our enemies.
He has not only saved us in the past; but we can say with Paul concerning the future, “The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom.”