“The furnace for gold; but the Lord trieth the hearts” (Prov. xvii. 3.)
Remember that temptation is not sin unless it be accompanied with the
consent of your will. There may seem to be even the inclination, and yet
the real choice of your spirit is fixed immovably against it, and God
regards it simply as a solicitation and credits you with an obedience all
the more pleasing to Him, because the temptation was so strong.
We little know how evil can find access to a pure nature and seem to
incorporate itself with our thoughts and feelings, while at the same time
we resist and overcome it, and remain as pure as the sea-fowl that emerges
from the water without a single drop remaining upon its burnished wing, or
as the harp string, which may be struck by a rude or clumsy hand and gives
forth a discordant sound, not from any defect of the harp, but because of
the hand that touches it. But let the Master hand play upon it, and it is
a chord of melody and a note of exquisite delight.
“In nothing terrified by your adversaries which is to you an evident token
of salvation and that of God.”