The Warfare of the Soul: Practical Studies in the Life of Temptation. Shirley Carter Hughson

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СКАЧАТЬ he may be in his warfare against the weakness of man, is daily drawing nearer to the time when he will lie in hell, an impotent and inert slave of the evil he has chosen as his portion.

      Even now, when so much of his ancient might remains, we can see the signs of his growing weakness.

      One illustration of the effect of his fall upon him is found in the stupidity which marks his work. It is almost incredible that, after all the long millenniums of his warfare, and especially his experience since the Incarnation, he should be so incapable of realizing the inevitable consequence of his warfare against God.

In innumerable cases he has seen the Saints strengthened by his antagonism; he has seen the weak becoming strong through the right use of the opportunities his temptations afford them; he has stood at the Judgment of souls as their accuser, and been covered with confusion as he saw his accusations rejected, and crowns given them, all the more glorious because of the occasion for battle and victory his hate had afforded them. All this he has seen, and yet its real significance has never dawned upon him.[5]

More astonishing still, in spite of his experience, he has never been able to see that when he joins the struggle with us he is only seeking to renew the old warfare which was brought to a final issue on Calvary to his eternal discomfiture; that it is not the weak human soul he is fighting, but the omnipotent God Who in human flesh, and by the exercise of human powers and faculties, bruised him under His feet, invaded his infernal kingdom, broke the gates of brass, and smote the bars of iron in sunder.[6]

Are we wiser than Satan? Have we caught the true significance of the battle, the vision of its final issue? Do we realize, when the conflict comes, that our heart is but the arena of a struggle between the omnipotence of God and the weakness of Satan, and that we are called to fight along with Him "Who is the Author of unconquerable might, the King of the Empire that cannot be overthrown?" If so, then there can be no fear or repining because of the battle, but with the glad war-cry, "Emmanuel,—God with us!" can we plunge into the glorious strife, knowing that with His own right hand and with His holy arm will He get Himself the victory.[7]

      II. The Hopelessness of his Warfare

The hopelessness of Satan's warfare is shown in its final issue. Sin entered into the world through Satan, and by sin came death.[8] Death seems, when we first consider it, Satan's triumph; but in reality it is his destruction. He pursues a soul through life, but the hour of death marks the absolute cessation of his power and influence. The faithful departed in the Church Expectant are in the hand of God, and nevermore can the torment of temptation touch them. The very act of wreaking the utmost of his power is the act which places them forever beyond even the possibility of communication with him. So both prophet and apostle cry out in an ecstasy of triumph, as the Holy Spirit leads them to this conclusion,—"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?"[9]

So also is it with "the spirits of just men made perfect,"[10] who, having been purged of all stain of sin, stand in the glory of the Beatific Vision in Paradise. Satan thought by means of death to make eternal life with God impossible; but by the divine overruling death is made the gateway of everlasting life. He watches the progress of the effect of sin; he sees the bodily weakness which he introduced into the race when he induced our first parents to sin, increasing, only to realize that the supreme result of evil in the world is to remove the soul he has been pursuing with malignant hate, forever from the sphere of his action.

      Even with the lost the same holds good. With infernal glee he watches by the deathbed of a reprobate soul, of one that has yielded himself to his rule. He sees the last hour approaching; the dread coma of death settles down on the mind and heart where Satan's seat is; and he watches for the rending of soul and body asunder which will seal for eternity his claim to his possession of the sinner. The hour strikes; the horrible spasm of death seizes the frame and passes; the Evil One clutches with hellish eagerness the liberated spirit that is now his forever. The lost soul with the swiftness of thought is judged, Satan's claim is granted, and the lost wretch flees into outer darkness, the eternal slave of hell. But what a difference now transpires! for such a soul can no longer be used as the active instrument of the divine dishonour, and Satan finds satisfaction in possessing a soul only when he can use it as a co-worker with himself in his warfare with God.

      III. The Limitations of the Tempter

      Our consideration of Satan's strength has shown us something of the awful and malignant character of his office. We see that he is not a foe to be despised, and the soul that thinks lightly of his antagonism is marked by him as a sure victim. Yet despite all this, to fear Satan is to dishonour God. What would be thought of a soldier in the armies of an earthly kingdom who was afraid of the enemy? He may be far from despising him; he may recognize his power and skill, but to be afraid of him would be the mark of the caitiff. How much more dishonourable is it in the soldiers of Jesus Christ, our Captain, to stand in fear when He is fighting for us, and has promised us certain victory if only we be faithful.

      This is the first consideration that should nerve and enhearten us; but there is a second and most important one to which God would direct our attention, namely, the natural limitations of the adversary himself.

      The popular notion of Satan is an extraordinarily erroneous one, and the reaction from it has driven many to a complete denial of his existence. Many make a god of him, endow him with attributes of deity, regarding him as both omnipresent and omniscient. But we are ever to remember that Satan is a creature, finite and limited.

(1) He is in no sense omnipresent. "No angel nor devil has any gift of ubiquity. If any created spirit be in one place, he is not in another. If he is busy protecting, or endangering, the soul of one, he is not with another."[11] Satan has no more power than we have to be in more than one place at the same time, although, through the faithful agency of his many evil angels, fellow-devils with himself, he is able to deal with every soul. We speak in popular language of Satan tempting us, but it is probable that most of our temptations, though inspired by him, are not brought to us by him directly and in his own proper person, but through spiritual or other agencies under his control.

      (2) Again, Satan is not omniscient. This attribute, like that of omnipresence, belongs to God alone. Doubtless, in common with other purely spiritual beings, and in spite of his fall, he has, in virtue of his nature, vaster knowledge of things than we can now grasp, but his knowledge is necessarily limited and finite, and any attainment, or increase of it, must be through finite processes.

(3) Another truth that brings us the greatest comfort and courage is that which is revealed in Holy Scripture, namely, that he has no power of reading our minds and hearts. It must ever be a consolation to us to know that in times of temptation neither he nor the fallen spirits he employs can know what effect their evil suggestions are producing in our hearts, except in so far as we give outward evidence of it.[12] Could he at times see how troubled and afraid we are, how near to yielding, he would redouble his assault with such fury as might sweep us wholly away; but God in His merciful kindness withholds this knowledge from him.

      This should teach us the necessity of a calm and untroubled front in times of temptation; giving no outward sign of perturbation that might encourage him; remembering how Satan's experience has given him skill beyond our thought in reading such signs. To give such СКАЧАТЬ