ONE of the features of a probationary state is the fact of temptation. It
may come directly from an evil spirit, or from a pleasing object. It maybe
felt as a brooding horror upon the soul, or approach with a promised
delight to the body. In its assault upon the citadel of a man’s life, the Will,
temptation travels upon various routes. Its form is seen moving upon the
emotions of the heart, along the sensations of the body, and endeavoring to
steal its way up the channels of all the senses, and every appetite known
to the race. It has been a wonder to many why God should permit
temptation to come to immortal creatures, who if they prove faithless and
fall under the attack, make shipwreck of happiness and character, and
finally if sin is continued in to the end, are ruined forever. The wonder
grows when in full recognition of the momentous consequences of yielding
to the evil suggestion and movement, the Bible says: “Count it all joy
when ye fall into divers temptations.” The Scripture does not say fall
under, but “into.” Just as it does not say, Blessed is the man who is
tempted, but who “endureth temptation.”
Moreover it is remarkable that the apostle was writing to Christians when
he said these things. The verse reads, “My brethren, count it all joy when
ye fall into diverse temptations.” Evidently there is a moral use of
temptation to the Christian. It is this fact we call attention to; not to the
necessity of temptation as a feature of moral probation on earth; but to the
use of these strange and perilous influences upon the soul of the child of
God.
God of course does not and can not tempt, but He allows us as His people
to be tempted. Why does He permit it? What is the advantage and good
which He expects to come out of it and which in many cases is
undoubtedly derived?
One is the knowledge of self.
Very many Christians do not know themselves, and never would but for
temptation. The Scripture says the children of Israel were led about in the
wilderness for forty years, that they might know what was in their heart.
In like manner through the probings, motions and assaults of temptation
we are made to see the barely suspected evil, and the vulnerable place in
our nature and character.
Peter never dreamed at first that he was capable of denying the Lord, but
under circumstances of testing in which we find involved man fear,
self-interest and self-protection, he went down. Saul, the king of Israel,
had a new heart and started out humble enough, but temptations to pride
and self-will soon came in sufficient number and force to show him he was
not really as lowly as one would have supposed when he was found
“hiding in the stuff.” David, in spite of his beautiful psalms and leaping
before the ark of God, had a weak place in his character and there was
most likely to fall. In due time the circumstance came which revealed the
vulnerable spot. He got to know himself under the sad power of
temptation.
In war a battery is often placed upon a hill and the guns trained upon the
surrounding woods. It is called “feeling for the enemy.” This is what
temptation does; it discovers for us the hidden foe of the heart.
In dental matters, when a man has an uneasy feeling in a tooth, the nerve
of which he thought had been killed, he places himself under treatment.
The dentist has a number of drills and very fine, sharp, needle-like
instruments which he uses to discover the little particle of nerve matter
which may have been left. When he finds it, the patient in the chair
instantly knows it without being told.
So we may honestly think we are sound and all right in the spiritual life. It
is the province of temptation under the overruling power of God to find
and touch the remains of the carnal nature, and the weak places of the
moral character. If the man is not thoroughly sound, by and by the drill
and probe of the Tempter will reach him.
This does not mean necessarily a fall into sin. Far from it. Many are thus
tempted, stand self-revealed in some unsuspected weakness and yet do
not fall into transgression. Nevertheless they get to know themselves,
which is a great gain and triumph in itself.
We recall the grave look of older Christians when they have sometimes to
listen to the swaggering, boastful talk of young Christians. These younger
followers of the Lord have mistaken the cannon-shooting of the Fourth of
July for the siege of Vicksburg. They have been in the battle of Lexington,
but know nothing of the fearful trials of Valley Forge. So they talk and so
the older Christians listen, grave, thoughtful and oftentimes silent
altogether. The young fledgling has the floor or rather the barnyard, and is
talking about the great upper air currents, when he has never been higher
than the hen-house in which he was born. He speaks indignantly about
certain things, and tells us what he would do under such and such
circumstances, and what should be done to parties who had said and done
certain things. Meanwhile older Christians listen silently and often
pityingly. Not that they tolerate sin, or would do wrong or have done
wrong; and they have been higher than the hen-house, and felt the blast
and rush o f spiritual wickedness in high places against them. They have
been far away from the barnyard with its simple history and relationships,
and met a bear in a cave, struggled with a lion in the woods, and had a
battle with a giant in the mountains. They killed them all, but they know
what the paw of a bear is, the strength of a lion’s jaw, and the awful
power of a giant. They have gone through experiences, and obtained
self-illuminations, and drank cups, and borne burdens, which add ten years
to one’s life in a single day. In other words they have got to know
themselves, and in this discovery of self are now better able to meet the
onsets of the world, the flesh and the devil.
A second benefit is compassion for others.
Those are very tender and beautiful passages in the Word which speak of
Christ having been tempted in every respect yet without sin, and of His
being touched with a feeling for our infirmities, and having compassion on
the ignorant and on them who are out of the way. He can feel for us,
because He has been assaulted by the power of Hell, and knows our
anguish in like conditions.
As we study men who have gone astray or lapsed in any way in the
spiritual life, we notice that nothing touches them more deeply and is more
potent as a human instrumentality in lifting them up and bringing them
back as genuine compassion.
Another fact that strikes me is that it is very hard to understand and feel
for people in certain mental and moral conditions when we have never
been there, or realized any temptation to be there.
If a person could be raised in a state of seclusion from the world and not
brought in contact with any of its forms of sin and sorrow, such an
individual would make a wretched comforter and adviser in this
heartbroken world. So not to feel certain forces of evil to beat upon the
heart for admittance, is to make certain classes of our fellow beings perfect
mysteries to us. We would not know how to counsel, cheer or otherwise
assist them.
A woman who never lost a child makes a poor comforter to the bereaved
mother next door. It is the woman who has seen the life go out of first one
and then another of her little ones, whose voice moves and very touch
brings comfort and strength.
An unconverted preacher knows not what to say to the weeping penitent
at the altar. So in the matter of temptation, ignorance of its changes,
phases and forces would make one a failure as a sympathizer and helper of
men in this world.
A number of times in life, the writer has felt in his breast a perfect surge of
what he recognized to be Satanic influence, to do something desperate. He
never dreamed for an instant of yielding, but the dark, awful pressure of
those moments has been the means of creating a very tender, pitiful feeling
in his soul for Christians who have been similarly assailed.
Again we recall a time in our early ministry when we were on our way to
speak with an eminent preacher on the subject of a peculiar and distressing
trial in the life, when we were distinctly and profoundly impressed by the
Holy Spirit not to go to him, but to another person altogether. The last
one, it is needless to say, understood the case and gave the help needed.
The first one we see today would have frozen and discouraged the soul
from lack of sympathy and appreciation of the case. A man not tempted
in certain lines would stare with cold wonder at the confessions of a visitor
who came to get instruction and direction about a matter of which he knew
nothing. But if he has been tempted himself, there would not only an
understanding attention be given to the confession, but a most pitiful and
compassionate attention. He himself has not sinned, but he can see why
and how the other man did. He remembers the tug and pull at his own
heart, an hour when he wrestled not with flesh and blood but with
principals ties and powers in high places, and when Satan with a troop of
dark spirits tried to beat down the door of the will and get possession of
the life. Hence it is that he listens with patience and pity, and is able to
give helpful counsel to those who have been bewildered, saddened and hurt
by the devil.
A third benefit accruing from temptation is humility.
To go down under the Tempter brings condemnation, self-abasement and
gloom. To be tempted without yielding brings to the mind and heart a
much better state of things. Humility is a beautiful plant to flourish in the
soul, and God is pleased to allow temptation to be one of the means for its
development. The conviction after many and varied temptations is certain
to be wrought in the mind, that but for the grace of God we would have
been overwhelmed a thousand times. If this does not make the soul feel
lowly, then what effect is produced?
The emotion of grateful, humble joy which swept through the heart of a
preacher in England, when he saw a drunkard staggering before him, and
said, “There goes John Newton,” but for the grace of God, is the feeling of
a man who has come successfully out of heavy temptations, under which
many of his fellow creatures have fallen. He is glad but also humble,
remembering who saved him, and how he was saved.
A fourth result of temptation is increased prayer and watchfulness.
A truly saved man learns to distrust himself. The strongest in the kingdom
becomes more and more cautious, and realizes the need of supplicating as
not all do, “Lead us not into temptation.” How full of significance in its
very position in the prayer is the next sentence, “But deliver us from evil.”
So truly is it the case with many that temptation ends in evil, and so
properly self-distrustful becomes the very saintliest in the kingdom of
Christ, that while recognizing the good which can and does come from
temptation, yet the child of God very naturally and properly dreads each new
and powerful temptation, and thinks with thankful joy of the life and
world where no such things exist forever.
Hence the discovered weakness of human nature, and the power of Satanic
influence drives the Christian to renewed and redoubled watchfulness and
prayer.
It is said that a man is no stronger than his weakest point. If this is so,
then truly all of us have need to watch and pray. Not to do so is to invite
the world and the devil to take possession of us.
A fifth result is increased ability to help others.
It is a blessed thing to be able to assist immortal beings as they struggle
through a thousand difficulties, discouragements, and besetments along the
path of duty to heaven and eternal life. Happy indeed is the man who can
speak the word which will put hope again in the sickened heart, and
strength in the faltering feet. There are such people, and we have
invariably observed that they are individuals who have been tossed about
in many a spiritual storm, and walked in furnaces of fiercest moral trial.
If the reader will turn to the biographies of the most devout men he will be
struck with their description of sore temptations, and dreadful personal
attacks of Satan upon their souls, which would have swept them from
their feet, but for their steadfast looking to Christ and calling on God.
Concerning the preeminent usefulness of these men, history leaves not a
shadow of doubt. To such Christian characters we would rather go for
help in time of great spiritual trial than to any other class of God’s people.
When the writer felt the call to preach over twenty years ago, and with the
call came all those bewilderments of mind, heart and conscience which
Satan brings to confuse a man, he did a very foolish thing when he went
for advice to a friend who was an unconverted man. How could a natural
mind understand the things of God? The counsel he gave was of course
absurd and could not be followed.
Equally great will be the failure to obtain information, comfort and
strength in times of deep spiritual gloom from some converted people.
They have not been where you have been. They have not prayed, suffered
and achieved enough in the Christian life to bring the devils in great awful
rushes of darkness down upon them. The words Gethsemane, Gabbatha
and Golgotha only refer to historic sites to them. So they do not know
what you mean when you speak of soul travail and spirit desolation.
Some temptations told to one of these rocking-chair, or hothouse plant
kind of Christians would fairly take the breath from him or her, and he
would think you had never been regenerated.
Who of us have not heard the following expressions from the
canton-flannel and catnip-tea kind of religious character, as he or she
speaks to a faithful and successful worker in the gospel:
“What! You tempted!”
Just as well might one say to a captain or colonel who led the charge in a
great battle:
“What! You shot at!”
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