_THE SUBTLETY OF TEMPTATION_
JAMES i. 12-20.
Evil enticements always come to us in borrowed attire. In the Boer War
ammunition was carried out in piano cases, and military advices were
transmitted in the skins of melons. And that is the way of the enemy of
our souls. He makes us think we are receiving music when he is sending
explosives; he promises life, but his gift is laden with the seeds of
death. He offers us liberty, and he hides his chains in dazzling flowers.
"Things are not what they seem."
And so our enemy uses mirages, and will-o'-the-wisps and tinselled crowns.
He lights friendly fires on perilous coasts to snare us to our ruin. And
therefore we need clear, sure eyes. We need a refined moral sense which
can discriminate between the true and the false, and which can discern the
enemy even when he comes as "an angel of light." And we may have this
wisdom from "the God of all wisdom." By His grace we may be kept morally
sensitive, and we shall know our foe even when he is a long way off.