TEMPTATION AND HOW TO MEET IT By G. SHERWOOD EDDY Association Press New York: 124 East 28rH Srreet Lonpon: 47 Parernosrer Row, E. C. 1914 CopyrIGHT, 1914, By THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF YouncG MEN’s CHRISTIAN ASSOCIATIONS TEMPTATION AND HOW TO MEET IT OD means us to have victory over sin. It was the keynote of the Old Testament, repeated in the New: “Ye shall be holy, for I am holy.” It were surely but a half salvation if Christ could forgive our past sin, but were unable to keep us from the power of sin in the present. We could hardly be called “more than conquerors” if we were to have victory only in heaven when all temptation is removed, if God were not able to keep us in the full face of temptation here and now in this present world, where victory is so sorely needed. Nor is this victory over sin some mountain peak experi- ence for exceptional men only. “This is the will of God, even your sanctification.” “And the God of peace sanctify you wholly, and may your spirit, soul and body be preserved entire without blame.....He.... asi. do tte CL bhess.vyi 233.24). lt then itis God’s purpose, why do we not always have this victory? Let us examine in turn the causes of our defeat, and the conditions of victory over sin. THREE MeEtTHops oF ATTACK. 1. One chief cause of failure in all warfare is in the intelligence department underrating the strength of the 3 enemy, or being ignorant of his movements. From the Scriptures and our own experience we learn that sin has three favorite methods of attack—a sudden charge, a long-continued siege, or subtle strategy. In the first method, by a bold charge, the enemy tries to take us off our guard. He unexpectedly throws his whole power upon us at our weakest point. He tries to hurry us blindfold into sin. He finds some child of God who is not abiding in the citadel, who has neglected the means of communion with Christ, and has failed to put on the “whole armour of God.” By a sudden surprise the adversary succeeds in averting the believer’s gaze from the Saviour who alone is his source of power, and drawing attention to the moment’s pleasure, hurls him- self full force upon him. This is his usual method in sins of appetite and temper. There is an Esau with five hungry senses pampered with the uncontrolled habit of years. A mess of pottage is thrust upon him in his weakest moment. Surely he will not sell his whole inheritance for a mess of pottage! But for years he has given full rein to his appetites, and in a moment he has fallen. A single charge at Arcot and at Plassey turned the fate of India. Charge after charge with- stood at Waterloo saved Europe. How many a life has been wrecked by a single fall, because of an “advan- tage” gained previously by the enemy! 2. A long-continued seige to discourage us is the 4 second method of attack. The effort here is “to wear out the saints,’ to break down our patience. We are harassed by evil suggestions, and then made to believe that temptation is sin and that we have already fallen. We are told that it is no use to hold out, that we have been mastered before, and that we shall fall again. Discouragement is a chief cause of defeat. An Elijah is led away from glorious warfare and victory to a juniper-tree, for want of a little “patience of faith” in his God who has never failed him. Saul is persuaded that it is no use to wait for Samuel and obey God’s word. So today some tired, disheartened servant of God, pressed on every side, with no victory in sight, is told “It is no use; give up.” In the last Chitral war in India officers were found dead almost in sight of their own lines. They had fallen, exhausted and dis- couraged, when they would have gained freedom and victory if they had but known how near help was and had pressed on a little further over the next ridge. It was a message of hope heliographed from the beleaguered garrison of Ladysmith that did much to turn the tide of war in South Africa. It was the brave defense in the Siege of Lucknow and similar citadels that held India in the Mutiny. Let us also “hold the fort!” Victory is nearer than we know. Faith turns the tide of battle. Discouragement always implies that we are looking away from Christ to self or circum- 5 stances or results. “He shall not fail nor be discour- aged”; then why should we be? 3. But perhaps the most common method of attack is by subtle strategy. Sin is made to seem attractive and innocent and its consequences of small importance. Think how different sin looks before and after it is committed! How different as seen from the tempter’s point of view and from God’s. Temptation is suggested as “good for food,” as a “delight to the eyes,” and “to be desired to make one wise.” But after the fall the hideous lie stands out in its true colors as the “lust of the flesh,” “the lust of the eyes,” and “the pride of life.” Instead of the promised “food” one finds the disgust of satiety; the “delight to the eyes” gives place to the shame of sin; and, instead of wisdom, man finds folly, suffering and misery. Human history has been one long disillusionment of a prodigal humanity feeding on husks. Once and for ever, every temptation, whether sudden or persistent or subtle, is at bottom a lie. The safeguard for a credulous humanity is to know the truth, and the truth shall make us free. “Whosoever sinneth hath not seen Him neither knoweth Him.” To know Christ as He is, and to know sin as sin, will rob it of all attractiveness, and will make it repulsive, hideous, impossible. THREE CAUSES OF DEFEAT. In visiting the ruins of an old Mohammedan fort in Western India, one may see three great walls of defence and three gates, one within the other. Knowing that these gates would be the most likely points of attack, the builder of this fort had constructed the fortifications so that his guns were trained and his greatest force massed at these three points. It suggests the three points at which sin attempts to force an entrance into the citadel of the heart. We might call these three gateways “Unbelief,” “Little sins,” and “Besetting sin.” 1. The outer gate, first to be attacked, yet, if held, guarding all the others from assault, is “Faith,” and its opening Unbelief. Entrance is given by the expectation that we are going to fall. It is the casting away of our confidence that we shall be more than conquerors through Christ. Fear opens the gate of unbelief. How often the deep-seated expectation of failure, born of discouragement, is itself the cause of defeat. The army that expects to be beaten usually is beaten; and the Christian who expects to fall does fall. How often we hurry into the day without our armor on, without communion, in careless self-confidence, or in the half expectation of failure, or distracted by the rush of work, only to fall an easy prey to temptation. If we stopped and asked ourselves the question, “Do I really 7 expect God to keep me from sin today?” would not our lack of expectation simply expose our lack of faith in God? And according to our faith so is our victory or defeat. A day thus begun must end with the cry of Rom. vii. “Oh, wretched man that I am!” But a day begun in the faith of Rom. viii. will end in its pean of victory, “We are more than conquerors, through Him.” The experience of these two chapters is different, be- cause the method of meeting temptation is different. In Rom. vii. “I” occurs more than thirty times, the Holy Spirit not once. In Rom. viii. the “I” is all gone: it only occurs twice—“I reckon” and “I am persuaded” (that nothing shall separate us from Him). But the Holy Spirit is mentioned sixteen times! In Rom. vii. it is “I struggle, I fight, I fail.’ In Rom. viii. it is “The Spirit of Life made me free,” “makes to die the deeds of the body,” “helpeth our infirmity’—‘“we are more than conquerors!” Am [I living in the experience of Rom. vii. or of Rom. viii? If in the former, it is probably because I am not guarding my outer gate of Unbelief. Remove the false sentinel, fear. Let faith stand guard, “and the peace of God shall guard your heart and your thoughts in Christ Jesus.” Have faith in God. 2. Little Sins, so called, open the second gate of the citadel of the heart. We may have massed all our forces of resolution and prayer against our besetting 8 sin, but a frontal attack is not made there at once. The first temptation has apparently no connection with this sin. But once our outer rampart of faith is surrendered, once our second wall of righteousness is broken down enough to admit a single enemy by a permitted “little sin,” then sin has access to the whole inner fortification, and it will not be long until, to our surprise and shame, we have fallen again at our weakest point. Another fort in India stands on an almost impreg- nable precipice. By a device known to the besiegers they passed a rope over the weakest point of the fortifi- cations, the chieftain climbed the wall, opened the great gate a few inches, passed the drowsy sentinel, and admitted his followers, armed to the teeth, who fell upon the sleeping garrison. How many a heart has fallen thus! One sin, permitted and unconfessed, gives sin standing room in our lives, and there will be con- stant conflict and frequent defeat until we regain our lost defence by returning to God with our whole heart. What we hate naturally is the shame and pain of the result of our besetting sin; what God hates is sin, any sin, all sin. Happy the man who has learned to hate sin as God hates it, and who has surrendered his whole heart to God, and trusts Him to keep it whole. A man of God once said: “Yesterday I found myself sinning by a single look and thought. Instantly I lifted my heart and said, ‘Lord Jesus, the blood!’ Had I 9 not done so, there would have settled on my heart a germ of sin which would have spread, until, days later, I would have found myself sinning in a totally differ- ent way, perhaps in a manner that would have sur- prised and disgusted me.” He had learned the secret of the wise man of old, “Keep thy heart above all that thou guardest, for out of it are the issues of life. Let thine eyes look right on, and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. Weigh carefully the path of thy feet, and let all thy ways be established.” It is only one weak link in the chain which loses the ship; it is only a little hole in the dyke that one day lets in the destructive flood. “It is the little rift within the lute, that one day makes the music mute.” At Waterloo, as man after man fell in the English squares, the order repeatedly came to “close up.” By keeping always a solid front, never allowing the enemy an entrance into their ranks, the day was won. It is the same order that comes to us from the Word of God. “Neither give place to the devil” (Eph. iv. 27). The way to get victory over great sins is to ask God to make us sensitive to so-called “little sins.’ May God show us the danger and sinfulness of all sin, and fill us with a passionate longing for a holy life. 3. A third source of danger and point of attack is that of our Besetting Sin, and one cause of our defeat is in regarding this as a necessary infirmity, a natural 10 weakness, an inherited tendency that perhaps must be yielded to to some extent. But it is possible, divinely possible, to become strongest through and through at our weakest point. When Doctor Hopkins was once provoked to a humiliating outburst of his besetting sin of temper, he returned to his home and spent the night in prayer. He once for all so appropriated the victory of Christ, counting himself henceforth dead to sin, and then so continuously depended upon Him, that thirty years afterwards he was able to state that no tempta- tion had ever betrayed him to anger and loss of temper. Asa Mahan, after a long and victorious life, at the age of seventy-five, forty years after he had claimed the full deliverance that Christ had won for him, said: “When the Son of God made me free, I first became conscious of absolute control over all promptings to anger. The same held true of my appetites. Faith in Christ set me free. Whenever I felt a restless cry for gratification I separated myself wholly from the objects, until, through prayer and the power of Christ, that cry was subdued, and I felt myself perfectly free.” Professor Bain’s chapter on the Moral Habits, and Professor James in his chapter on Habit suggest three psychological principles which we may well apply to our spiritual life. 1. “In the acquisition of a new habit, or the leaving 11 of an old one, we must take care to LAUNCH OURSELVES - WITH AS STRONG AND DECIDED AN INITIATIVE AS POSSIBLE.” 2. “NEVER SUFFER AN EXCEPTION TO oOccUR. Each lapse is like the letting fall of a ball of string which one is carefully winding up. It is necessary above all things never to lose a battle. It is surprising how soon a desire will die of inanition if it is never fed. Without unbroken advance there is no such thing as accumulation of ethical forces possible.” 3. SEIZE THE VERY FIRST POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITY TO ACT ON EVERY RESOLUTION YOU MAKE and on every emotional prompting you may experience in the direction of the habits you aspire to gain. Could the young but realize how soon they will become mere walk- ing bundles of habits, they would give more heed to their conduct while in the plastic state. We are spin- ning our own fates, good or evil. Every smallest stroke of virtue or vice leaves its never so little scar. Noth- ing we ever do is, in strict scientific literalness, “wiped out.” Such is the testimony of Psychology. The voice of desire may say, “Just once more. It will be for- given anyway.” Yes, you may be forgiven, but you are not the same man you would have been if you had conquered. Why is it that God does not dare to trust you with power? Where is the Christlike character, the joyous communion, the fruitful service that might have been yours today? There is no sin that Christ 12 cannot completely conquer in you, at any moment or continuously. He bore your besetting sin upon the cross that you, having died to sin, might live unto righteousness. Will you trust Him? THREE TYPICAL TEMPTATIONS. We shall find the types of all temptations, as well as the typical method of meeting them, in our Lord’s three temptations in the wilderness. Let us read St. Matt. iv. 1-11. Note in the first place that Jesus, who was tempted in all points like as we are, was “led up of the Spirit to be tempted of the devil.” Here is an encouragement. Temptation is God’s appointment. There are two words for temptation both in the Old and New Testaments. The one means to test or try in a good sense, as to separate the gold from the dross in metals. The other means to allure, to seduce to evil by an enemy. The same temptation, as the Bishop of Durham points out, may be a call from God upwards to purify us from dross, and a call from Satan down- ward to debase us. Every temptation is a positive opportunity for character. We must fight something if we would grow strong. The corals that grow in the sheltered lagoon are weak; those that fight the surf, though broken in their own strength, are formed into solid rock. Temptation shows the weak point; it drives us to God, and thus is a means of blessing. And 13 hence, though we must pray to be delivered from the Evil One, we may nevertheless count it all joy to fall into manifold temptations, knowing that the proving of our faith leaves the pure gold of character. The time of discouragement and of fiercest conflict is, if we but turn the tide of temptation by prayer, the time of greatest opportunity. It is then that character is won. 1. The First Temptation of Christ was (1) to doubt God, and (2) to satisfy a bodily appetite wrongfully. It was almost an exact repetition of the temptation to the first Adam and to every son of Adam since. It was an attack upon humanity at its weakest point, and it was a type of our most common and most powerful temptations. Our one source of victory is our union with God by faith, and therefore it is Satan’s chief aim to destroy this union, to undermine this faith, to insinuate a doubt against the goodness of God. He insinuates a “Hath God said?” into the innocent ear of Eve. He whispers an “Jf Thou art the Son of God.” And so to us he suggests a doubt, he interposes an “if” between us and every precious promise of Scrip- ture. Against all this the Master cries, “Have faith in God.” It was His constant protest to His doubting dis- ciples and to a faithless generation. He did not reprove them because they did not work enough, but because they would not trust their God. Let us cease to doubt 14 God, and to drag down the promises to the level of our own experience. It is significant that our Lord’s first temptation, as Adam’s, was to the body. If He who was without sin was attacked here, at humanity’s weakest point, how much more shall we be who are in “the body of sin’? If even St. Paul had to buffet his body, to fight it as an antagonist in a life-and-death combat, lest he should become a castaway, is it not imperative for us to do likewise? Alas! how many who might be victors in the fight, who might be mightily used by God to others, are today castaways from the full power of God’s service, living weak and useless lives! If we do not get the victory here over temptation alone in the wilderness, we shall not be led up in the power of the Spirit to do any great work for Him in public. Will God entrust the pure water of life, if He is to offer it to a thirsty soul, to a vessel that is unclean? “If a man purge himself, he shall be a vessel unto honor, ready for the Master’s use.’ Am JI ready? The pure in heart see God. Do I? Does He dare to trust me with much power? When the call came in a recent war for British troops to go to the front, hundreds of men were pronounced “unfit for service,’ because their dishonored bodies were not strong enough to stand the strain of war. It was a stain upon the honor of the army. But think 18 of the shame, the bitter, bitter shame, upon the army of Christ that thousands are “unfit for service,” rejected by a holy God because they are not fit to be the temples of the Holy Spirit. “Know ye not that your bodies are members of Christ?” Think of it: your body is a member of Christ. Glorify God therefore in your body. Be not deceived. If you sow to your flesh, you cannot reap a spiritual harvest, nor have power in service. David falls in the moment of temptation, and though forgiven, is a heart-broken man, cast away for life from his former power and service. St. Paul stands in the storm, and is mightily used to the blessing of multitudes. What was the difference? It was not that David did not struggle hard enough in the moment of temptation. But we find that David, who had once met God’s enemies with the ruddy glow of joyous conflict upon his face, “tarried behind at Jerusalem. And at eventide he arose from off his bed” to the life of luxury and of pampered selfishness into which he had fallen. It was not the moment’s look merely, but months of fleshly living, that caused his fall. “Thou art the man!” Do you eat and drink to the glory of God? Do you exercise yourself unto godliness, and bring every thought into captivity to Christ? Do you buffet your body and bring it under, as the apostle Paul did, or do you pamper it, as David did? Will you not today fall at His feet, confess your sin and 16 your utter inability to save yourself, and present your body a living sacrifice, holy, well pleasing to Him, henceforth to be His dwelling-place and temple, that He may mightily use you for His glory? 2. The Second Temptation was to cast Himself down from the temple. The temptation was in essence (1) to tempt God and (2) to gain the favor of man. The first temptation had been to doubt God, to hold back in unbelief. The second was to go beyond the will of God in rash presumption. It is typical of Chris- tian experience. At first we are held back by gross temptations to sin, but if we break away from these our next temptation is to go too far, to go off at a tangent from the circle of God’s truth, to be side- tracked from the main-line of God’s purpose. How sad it is that of those who leave the lower level of defeat in their own personal lives, so many are taken captive in some peculiar doctrine. They can always prove their doctrine by the letter of Scripture: but we need to grasp the principle underlying Christ’s words—‘“Again it is written.’ We must take the whole of Scripture and get the full orb of truth, and not go to the Bible for proof-texts of some preconceived doctrine. Prob- ably no other one thing, save sin, has led so many people astray from the central path of truth, as taking the surface letter of God’s Word, instead of its spirit, in the full sweep of its whole teaching. The letter 17 killeth. It always will; and nothing can more destroy your usefulness than to make you the prophet of some petty half-truth or outword form, and divert you from the great essentials of Christian unity, usefulness and service. Could you fairly be called a “crank,” revolving about some peculiar doctrine or extreme view always emphasizing some one side of truth? Beware lest we cast ourselves down from the temple in apparent faith, upon the letter of Scripture, only to bring reproach upon our Master’s cause, instead of waiting in secret for God to reveal His “Again it is written.” 3. The Third Temptation was (1) to be independent of God, and (2) to use wrong means and worldly power, and thus to gain the world without losing His life at the cross. But the end does not justify the means. To accomplish God’s end we must use His means, in His time and by His power. In the energy of the flesh we may build up an imposing structure of wood, hay, and stubble. We may gather statistics, we may keep a vast machine running, we may do an immense amount of work. But only the will of God, and he that doeth it abides; and every plant which He planteth not shall be rooted up. We do not need the favor of men but the power of God; Christ’s kingdom is advanced, not by human influence, but by Divine power. If we note the characteristics of the three temptations, 18 we find that the first was to depend on the means only, instead of on God; the second was to depend on God and despise the means; the third was to be independent of God and to use wrong means. Again, let us note that Jesus was tempted when He was alone. It was also when He was filled with the Spirit. And it was before a great spiritual opportunity. Again, each temptation was at bottom a lie. Each was an appeal to sight to undermine faith. Each was a suggestion to hurry, to take some short cut instead of God’s way of the cross, and of patient waiting. Each began with an if of doubt and was aimed to break His dependence upon God. And let us notice how our Lord met them. He fell back each time upon God, instead of fighting in His own strength. Each time He did not argue, or linger, or look, or listen. He turned at once to God, and trusted Him for instant and decisive victory. Each time He used “the Sword of the Spirit,’ and thrice repulsed the adversary with the “It is written” of God’s Word. And He conquered there for us. Shall we not tarry with Him in the wilderness until we can return in the power of the spirit to the work that awaits us? THREE PROVISIONS FOR Our VICTORY. 1. The Purpose of the Father—We have traced the method of the approach of temptation, the causes of 19 our failure, and the secret of Christ’s victory. If we are to overcome, we must be convinced of the possibility and sufficient provision for our victory; we must know the truth if it is to make us free: we must apprehend clearly the Divine provision and the human condition of victory over sin, or what is God’s part and what is man’s part in the conflict. Nothing can give us greater confidence and courage than the deep convic- tion that it is the purpose and plan of the Father that we should have full victory. “For this is the will of God, even your sanctification. . . . . Therefore he that rejecteth rejecteth not man, but God, who giveth His Holy Spirit unto you” (to carry out His purpose in us). And what God has purposed “He is able to per- form.” “He is able to make all grace abound unto you, that ye, having always all sufficiency in everything,” may have victory over every temptation. “He is able to save to the uttermost” every tempted man. “He is able to keep you from falling, to guard you from stumbling.” “He is able to make the weak brother stand.” And God asks of you, “Believe ye that I am able to do this” for you? If God is for us, who is against us? Ah! thanks be to God, here is our ground of confidence and victory. It is the will of God. “He is able.” “He will do it.” (See Eph. i. 4; 1 Thess. iv. 4; iii. 8; v. 23; 2 Cor. ix. 8; Heb. vii. 25; Jude 24.) 2. The Provision of the Son.—Jesus came to earth 20 not merely to offer forgiveness for sins, but to “save His people from their sins.” Speaking of sin, He said: “Tf the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed.” Does “free indeed” mean slavery, defeat and shame? St. Paul is able to re-echo the shout of triumph, “Being, therefore, made free from sin.” For the Apostle Peter also the cross stood between him and sin. As he saw its purpose, he counted him- self dead to sin. He had probably stood beneath the cross, and had seen His Master die in patient agony for him. It broke his heart. From that day forward between him and every sin there rose the vision of the cross, with his Master upon it, hanging, as it were, in eternal protest against sin. To sin against’ Him seemed like betraying Him afresh; it was like driving again the nails into His pierced hand, as he had seen them driven at the cross, when every blow seemed to fall upon his own heart. Did he try to curry favor with the Pharisees who had crucified his Lord, on the way back from the cross? Did he go back to deny his Master and live on in sin? He seemed to have died with Christ in that long agony, and in the ever-present memory and meaning of that cross he wrote: “Who His own self bare our sins in His own body upon the tree, that we having died to sins, might live unto right- eousness.” Henceforth he was dead to sin. St. Paul did not witness Christ’s death, yet he entered into its 21 purpose and power by faith. He realized after years of fruitless effort and failure that Christ had died for him; that he, as it were, had died with Him and in Him; that the purpose of Christ’s death was that he should henceforth count himself dead to sin, and by faith he cried: “I have been crucified with Christ; Christ liveth in me. I live by faith.’ Here was the whole secret of his victory—and of ours. If by faith I grasp the meaning of the cross, I will count myself dead to sin, separated from its power by a great gulf, hell deep, heaven high. Does the world allure? I am dead to it. Does the “flesh” cry out for gratification? It was conquered and crucified at the cross, and reckon- ing it dead will render it dead so long as I abide in Christ (Rom. vi. 6, 11; Gal. v. 21; vi. 14). Do I fear sin as its slave? Nay, I am free; I am dead to it—as dead to it, though fiercely tempted, as the dead body of Christ, so long, and only so long, as I abide in Him. You are a free man! Whether you believe it or not, whether you appropriate it or not, if you only knew it, you are free. In the Civil War in America many slaves set free at awful cost lived on and died as slaves—slaves who might have been free if they had only known or cared. But oh, the shame and sorrow that we, redeemed by Christ’s precious blood, in spite of the purpose and provision of the Father and the finished work of the Son, live on as slaves! All that 22 God has purposed, Christ has provided. Will you accept it? We died to sin. Reckon on the fact (St. Matt. i. 20--ote ohn vill, S071 Pet. 11/124 +) Gals 11.20): 3. The Power of the Spirit—‘If by the Spirit ye make to die the deeds of the body, ye shall live.” “The law of the Spirit made me free from the law of sin.” (Rom. viii. 13; Gal. v. 15, 23.) The Spirit lives in us to give us victory over sin. All that God has purposed, all that Christ has provided, the Spirit empowers us to appropriate. All that God planned concerning us, and all that Christ did for us on the cross, the Spirit does in us here and now. God declared us free; the Son made us free; the Spirit keeps us free. The Father commands us to be holy; the Son died that we might be holy; the Spirit lives in us to make us holy. The whole Trinity is in league with us! The Spirit helpeth our infirmity. Here is the missing link of our experi- ence. Have we reckoned on this mighty Helper? It is possible to so overemphasize the human condi- tions and magnify our inability or the improbability of our fulfilling them, that we virtually make provision for the flesh, and deliberately expect to sin. We say with the ten spies, “We are not able.” “But the ten spies looked at God through the difficulties, while the two looked at the difficulties through God.” Oh, that the Holy Spirit would so convict us that we could see sin as God sees it! Think of the enormity of 23 sin! Every time I sin, I sin against the plan and pur- pose of God for my life; I sin afresh against my Saviour, who died to save me from sin; I grieve the Holy Spirit, who dwells within my heart to keep me from sin; I stain and mar and weaken my own charac- ter; I break my communion with God, and put a cloud between me and my Father’s face; I lose power in service, and destroy, so far, my ability to help my fellow-men. I may be forgiven, but I reap what I sow, and I am not the man I might have been if I had not sinned. If I really knew the deadly nature of sin, I would rather die than sin. THREE CONDITIONS OF VICTORY. 1. Surrender.—It has been said that if there is any failure in the Christian life, it will lie at one of three points—imperfect surrender, inadequate faith, or broken communion. Come to God with the prayer, “Search me, O God, and know my heart,” and ask Him to show you . the cause of failure in the past. Then get right with God. Make a complete consecration of your life to Him—body, mind, and spirit. Yield to God not only every known sin, but every doubtful thing, every weight and hindrance, for whatever is not of faith is sin. Blessing came to one man, and a new life of power and peace, through the giving up of two doubtful things in his life. One permitted sin, one doubtful practice, 24 one thing in the life unsurrendered, may keep us in constant turmoil and defeat. Is there anything you are unwilling to yield to Him? Before the great building of the Young Men’s Chris- tian Association was built in Madras, when land had been purchased, the plans prepared, and the means provided for the entire structure, two native shopkeepers owning tiny houses in the middle of the site refused to sell, and demanded an exorbitant sum. Finally, a cyclone levelled the shops to the ground; and believing it was God’s judgment, they at last gave a deed— “signed, sealed, and delivered to give quiet and undis- turbed possession” of the property. Then the great building rose according to the architect’s plan. In how many a life the plan of God is delayed and thwarted because of dark hovels in the heart, places of traffic with sin, which will not surrender! Oh, yield today, and let the sunlight in; let the mighty plan be carried out as you give quiet and undis- turbed possession to Him who has redeemed you unto God. The grandest church in India stands on the site of a former idol temple: but not until the last idol- worshipper had surrendered himself to God, not until they had destroyed every idol, and razed the building to the ground, could the great temple of God be built. “My little children, guard yourselves from idols.” Once we have yielded to God we must maintain the 25 attitude of surrender.» We must bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. It is here that most fail. Sin is born in thought, and it is here that the victory must be won. “As a man thinketh in his heart so is he.’ Modern psychology tells us that “all thought tends to action,” and “all character origi- nates in thought.” But it is not only that evil thought leads to sin in action, but the thought itself is sin; and until we recognize it and hate it, and get the victory here there is no victory for us. Whoso looketh with thought of sin, whoever harbors pride, or envy or hate in the heart, though in act he is as faultless as a Pharisee, may yet be a whited sepulchre. Make it the fixed rule of your life to bring the first thought of sin at once to Christ, and the peace of God shall garrison your heart and your thoughts in Christ Jesus (Phil. iv. 7). “What gets your attention gets you.” On the human side “victory over temptation depends on the ability to hold the attention firmly fixed on the higher considerations”; it is looking unto Jesus that is victory. 2. Faith—“This is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.’ Faith is the victory; for faith is an attitude of dependence, a living relationship with God which excludes sin. Faith is reckoning on the faithfulness of God. It is believing that God tells the truth. The eye of faith is never fixed upon itself, for faith’s power is in its object, not in itself. It is 26 the feeble hand of the child placed within the mighty grasp of the Father. Sarah’s faith “counted Him faith- ful who had promised,” and Abraham was “assured that what He had promised He was able also to per- form.” Do you trust God for victory? Whatsoever is not of faith is sin. The attitude of unbelief itself is sin. Have faith in God. Can you not trust Him? Can He not keep you? _A color-sergeant who had advanced ahead of his company was deserted by his retreating comrades. He refused to retreat, and stood firm on the ground which the general had commanded them to hold. He refused to bring the colors back to the regiment, but waited for the regiment to come up to the colors. Do not let your faith retreat to the low level of your experience. Stand upon the promises by faith, and hold your ground till your experience comes up to your faith. When a young man, whose life was strong in victory and who has since laid down his life in Africa, was asked the secret of his success and how he met temptation, he said: “When I am tempted I just say, ‘Dead! I am dead to sin.’ This was settled at the cross. I will not look nor argue, nor open the question. Christ’s cross has made an absolute break between me and sin. And when I reckon on the fact it works, and I am free.” Ah, yes, it works. Faith makes it a fact. Reckon, therefore, on the fact of the cross and the faithfulness of God. Say 27 with St. Paul, in the» darkness of tempest and ship- wreck, “I believe God.” “Oh, for faith that brings the triumph, When defeat seems strangely near, Oh, for faith that changes fighting Into victory’s ringing cheer; Faith triumphant, knowing not defeat or fear.” 3. Communion.—‘He that abideth in Him sinneth not.” This is the whole secret. If you fall, it is not usually because you do not struggle hard enough at the moment of temptation, but because the moment before and perhaps for days before, you were not abiding in Him. Here, again, it is not the act only that is sin. Not abiding is sin, and from it springs all sin. Com- munion with God alone furnishes the motive for vic- tory, reveals sin in its loathsome repulsiveness, and is a channel for the power of God to conquer sin. If we fight in our own strength we shall fail, if we walk alone we shall fall. Christ’s presence is the expulsive power of a new affection. Sin is caused by a narrowing of conscious- ness to that which is evil. To overcome it we need to widen our consciousness to take in the good, or else to concentrate it upon that which has the greatest expulsive force in our life. Make every temptation an occasion for victory. In advance, connect every special temptation with that which is most likely to drive it 28 out. We are already bundles of habits or reflexes; then let us add one more. Just as you set your mind to wake at a certain hour or to do something at a cer- tain time, settle it in your heart beforehand that with your besetting temptation you will connect that thought, or better, that act which has the greatest dynamic, ex- pulsive power over evil. It may be by prayer or the reading of certain passages of God’s Word, or a certain thought of Christ—whatever it is, beforehand rivet this connection in thought, so that each temptation may be an opportunity to be more than conqueror. Thus you may overcome evil with good. Greater is the expulsive power of Christ than that of heredity or habit or sin. There is a psychology of sin and a psychology of vic- tory. Face: your temptation and find just where and when and why you have fallen. Then in advance find the way of escape which is always yours in Christ. Communion is the secret of victory. A half hour of communion in the morning will save an hour of con- fession at night. Perhaps the surest safeguard against sin is the time for communion at the beginning of each day. To meet Christ over His word, to read the Bible, not as an irksome habit, nor from a sense of duty, but to really feed upon it, to drink from it as a very foun- tain of living water, is the surest preventive of sin. It is like being inoculated or vaccinated beforehand to destroy the contagion or infection of sin throughout 29 the day. “Thy word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against Thee.’ Have you the regular habit of meeting Him each morning in real communion, as He speaks to you through His word, and you speak to Him in prayer? If not, this alone is a sufficient cause of all your failure. Henceforth, this one thing I do: I will give to God the first place in each day and in all my life. I will begin each day in communion with Him, and then by that constant faith-touch, which reckons upon His mighty, restful presence, even when I am occupied with my daily task, I will trust Him to keep what I have committed unto Him, for “He that abideth in Him sinneth not.” 30 . i yi matey Sf hy hy Nh 3 / ey Wy WR i. ‘ { ‘¥ Newel MPP) Ow A) ce aa Aor eA on Gh ‘ae oie : CT a ty he ' é VY Lier ‘ ' , 4 ‘ L ' AL i bay : De i f nA \ ’ 4 \3 a é or. ' i , , ; ene | "iy Vi vs it ¢ a eS \ ¢ i : A} t . , i i ‘ ; *