THE UNIVERSALITY OF TEMPTATION
I. _The Common Lot_
"So long as we live in this world we cannot be without tribulation and
temptation. Whence it is written in Job,[1] 'The life of man upon
earth is a temptation.'"[2]
Man did not have to wait for the full revelation of God in His Son
before knowing this truth. Holy Job testifies to it out of his own
experience, and the Son of Sirach gives the warning, "My son, if thou
come to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation."[3] The
constant and definite warning and promise of our Lord and His Apostles
were to the same effect. In the only prayer He taught His disciples, a
prayer He commands us to use daily, they are taught to say, "Lead us
not into temptation";[4] and on the night in which He was betrayed,
full of tender solicitude for their souls, He warns them, "Pray that ye
enter not into temptation."[5]
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In all His teaching He takes it easily for granted that temptation is
an inevitable factor in the life of those who would follow Him. In the
parable of the Sower He assumes, without so much as making the
statement, that temptation must come to every heart in which the seed
of the Word is sown.[6]
Everywhere His Apostles give us the same teaching. St. Paul testifies
to the presence of temptation in his own life, and warns and comforts
his converts concerning it, telling them of the sweetness and loving
care of God in it all: "There hath no temptation taken you but such as
is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that ye are able."[7] And further, God reveals to us the
depth of our Lord's temptation as a source of comfort and
encouragement: "In that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is
able to succour them that are tempted";[8] and again, He "was in all
points tempted like as we are."[9]
So likewise is it through the writings of all the Apostles. St. James
assumes the universal fact, and points out the way of temptation as the
way of joy;[10] St. Peter shows how temptation {48} leads on to "praise
and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ";[11] and the
Epistles of the Beloved Disciple, tender and full of all gentleness as
they are, ring with the suggestion of the Satanic antagonism, the
warfare and the victory. What a trumpet call there is to the elect
lady and her children: "Look to yourselves, that we lose not those
things which we have wrought."[12] It is like an echo of the
revelation on Patmos, the message to the faithful Philadelphians, "Hold
that fast which thou hast, that no man take thy crown."[13]
II. _Enduring Hardship_
It is a part of the temptation itself that, as we contemplate the fact
of its universality, the question should arise in the soul, weary with
the battle, sore with long buffeting, "Is there no rest, no cessation
from the strain and stress of the warfare?"
The question comes from Satan. Assuming the role of a comforter, he
whispers to us of the hardness of the ceaseless struggle. It is a
temptation to induce us to forget our character as the followers of our
Lord. When we were baptized we were signed with the Sign of the Cross
in {49} token that we should "manfully fight under Christ's banner
against sin, the world, and the devil, and continue Christ's faithful
soldier and servant unto our life's end."[14]
In short, at our Baptism we were enlisted and sealed as soldiers, and a
soldier who never fights has no reason for existing. A soldier who
turns himself back in the day of battle is not only unworthy of his
name and character, but is by this act reversing the whole principle of
his life and vocation. We are members of the Church Militant,--the
fighting Church. The Son of God has gone forth to war, the
trumpet-call to His soldiers has sounded. It were shame upon the
soldier of an earthly army should he, at such a time, linger and repine
because of the battle, and surely those who contend for no earthly
laurel, but for the "crown of glory that fadeth not away,"[15] cannot
afford to do less.
Let us never forget that we are members of an army, that it is a time
of war; our Captain has gone forth with His host; "The ark and Israel,
and Judah, abide in tents; and my lord Joab and the servants of my lord
are encamped in the open fields; shall I then go into mine house to eat
and to drink?"[16]
We must not, however, leave the matter at {50} this point, lest some be
"swallowed up with overmuch sorrow,"[17] and find only despair where
they looked for consolation. In the spiritual combat, unceasing as it
is, there are many considerations which offer comfort. These we shall
not here meditate upon at length. They will find their place before we
close our study of this holy warfare. But it will help and encourage
us to remind ourselves that in this struggle the exercise of strength
does not exhaust the soul.
In the moment that we seem weakest, then are we strong, because
Christ's strength is made perfect in our weakness.[18] Then it is that
God teaches us our own insufficiency that we may look not to anything
that we have or do, but to Him that He may send us "help from the
sanctuary and strengthen us out of Sion."[19] Great strain upon bodily
strength depletes it, but the more unsparing the call upon our
spiritual energies, the more are they confirmed and increased. Then
again, the harder the battle, the more splendid the victory and the
reward. Every Satanic device and energy that is directed against us
does but swell the opportunity for a more glorious place in the
Kingdom. So a Kempis {51} says: "These help to virtue; these test the
young soldiers of Christ; these fashion the heavenly crown."[20]
Thus does evil react upon itself for its own destruction, and surely
none but a pusillanimous soul will desire to flee the honour of being
used as the sure occasion and instrument of the glory of our God, and
of the overthrow of Satan.
III. _The Sufferings of the Saints_
The holy author of the "Imitation of Christ" tells us, "No man is so
perfect and holy as not sometimes to have temptations."[21] The
universality of temptation is found not only in respect to outward
condition and circumstance, but also in respect to the character of
those against whom Satan directs his malice. Saintly souls longing for
a still greater saintliness, if they truly discern the things of the
Spirit, will not fall into the snare of thinking that perhaps some day
in this life they will become so like our Lord that temptation can
never more vex and torment them. To become like Him will be to invite
more desperate {52} attacks. The more we are conformed to His
likeness, the more must we expect to arouse the hatred and malice of
the Evil One. He who is the Holy of Holies was, just because of that
fact, tempted as never other man was tempted.
Not only is our greater conformity to Christ the signal for Satan's
attack, but we must expect the particular occasions of God's outpouring
of grace upon us to be also the occasions of special and perhaps
immediate assault.
It was so with our Lord. There are few words in the narrative of
stronger or more valuable significance than the adverb with which St.
Matthew begins the fourth chapter of his Gospel: "_Then_ was Jesus led
up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil."
Bishop Andrewes says: "When as Christ was but newly come out of the
water of Baptism, and immediately after the heavens had opened unto
Him, and the Holy Ghost descended upon Him in the likeness of a dove,
and while He was yet full of the Holy Ghost, did the devil set upon
Him";[22] and saintly old Leighton warns us: "Thou shalt be sure to be
assaulted when thou hast received the greatest enlargements from
heaven, either at the Sacrament or in prayer, or in any other way; then
look for an onset. {53} This arch-pirate lets the empty ships pass,
but lays wait for them when they return richest laden."[23]
Thus the soul that has received special blessings of God must expect
special attack, not only because it is natural for Satan to seek
promptly to offset and quench the divine grace, but because when God
gives us special spiritual strength He gives it in order that it may be
used, and He Himself will supply the opportunity by permitting Satan to
make his attack. "It is God's property to look for much at his hands
to whom He hath given much. When He gives a man a large measure of
grace, He gives the devil withal a larger patent."[24]
The like experience has ever been suffered by the Saints. We read of
their struggles with temptation, and of the methods the adversary
employs against them, and they sound often impossible and grotesque.
We are inclined to dismiss them as the product of the childish
imagination of some mediaeval chronicler; but how do we know the method
of the devil with the Saints? He never has occasion to deal with us in
any unusual way. He is able to overthrow us daily with the most
ordinary and commonplace {54} temptations; how then dare we say how he
might approach those against whom no common temptation can avail?
Thus are we taught not to look forward to growth in holiness as a means
of escape from temptation. Such expectation would in itself be sin,
because we should then be seeking God's gifts for our own selfish ease
and indulgence, and not for His honour. If He should vouchsafe us the
grace to attain to great achievement in the spiritual life, it would be
a base return for His goodness to shut those graces up in our hearts
(were such a thing possible), instead of using them in more extended
endeavour for the glory of His Kingdom; instead of arming ourselves by
their means for more complete and crushing conquests of His enemies.
The Saints are led along the path of sanctity that they may be more
effective soldiers; not that they may by such progress escape from the
presence of the foe, and find a pusillanimous peace in this life, while
all the powers of evil are storming at the gates of the Kingdom, and
making captives of the King's children.
Peace is to be had indeed, and in this life, "for the Kingdom of God is
righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost,"[25] but, says a
Kempis, {55} "he that knows how to suffer will possess the greatest
peace." Endurance of hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ is the
only passport to honourable peace in this life, the only pledge of the
"peace of God which passeth all understanding"[26] in the life to come.
IV. _Satan in the Sanctuary_
Thomas a Kempis tells us again, "There is no order so holy nor place so
secret where there be not temptations."[27]
It would seem that the energies of Satan against God would, from the
nature of things, find themselves paralysed under certain conditions.
Surely, one should think, the devil could introduce his temptations
more readily in a brothel than in a church, in ordinary secular
employment rather than when we are engaged in the service of the
sanctuary.
Such, however, is not the case. Amid the common employments of the
carpenter shop in Nazareth we should scarcely have wondered had He been
tempted; but that the enemy should have approached the Incarnate Son of
God while in the midst of His great retreat in preparation for His
ministry does fill us with astonishment. {56} Or if it seem not
unnatural that He should have been tempted in the desert solitudes, yet
we do marvel at the audacity that led the tempter to bear Him to the
holy precincts of the temple, and seize upon the circumstances there to
tempt Him to seek other than His Father's will. But so it was with the
Master, and so shall it be with the disciple.[28]
Who has not been tempted at the holiest times and in the most sacred
places? Is it not, furthermore, the common experience that Satan the
more eagerly and readily pursues us under such circumstances? There is
a principle in it, and a most natural one. It is a favourite device of
the enemy to assault us at such times for two reasons.
First, because he knows that could he induce us to sin under such
circumstances, his victory would be greater, the dishonour of God would
be deeper, the hurt to the soul more serious. Many a soul has been
startled while kneeling in the very act of receiving the Blessed
Sacrament by the swift, sudden onslaught of some strong temptation. To
yield at such a time would not only bring upon it the guilt of the sin
itself, but there would be added to it something of the nature of
sacrilege. Satan knows this, and is keen to gain every advantage from
it.
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Secondly, he seeks to lead us into sin under these conditions because
he fears especially what is going on in our souls. God is drawing near
to us, and we are drawing near to Him.[29] We are hearkening what the
Lord God will say concerning us,[30] and He is preparing to speak in
our souls with the Voice that is "mighty in operation,"[31] with the
Voice of which it is said, "He spake the word and they were made, He
commanded and they were created."[32]
Satan knows how that Voice in the attentive heart can speak into being
new creations of divine grace, and of strength unto the battle; and it
is to his utmost interest that our hearts be turned aside from hearing
the divine Voice within. It is a great blow to his power for a soul to
make a good Communion, to pray a holy prayer, or to be able to listen
piously and without distraction to a spiritual instruction or
exposition of God's holy word. Such acts are acts of offensive warfare
against him, and it is no wonder if he then rouses himself and his evil
agents to check this inroad into his kingdom.
So let us not be surprised if many distractions come in these times of
devotion, and if they endure long. Nor must we expect to be freed {58}
from them as long as we live, for they constitute one of Satan's
favourite modes of attack. St. Francis de Sales was once asked by a
Sister of the Visitation how she could be rid of distractions in
prayer. With that wise humour so characteristic of the Saint, he
replied, "Die and be saved."[33] He knew of nothing short of this,
that could free one from Satanic interruption. "To be clean delivered
from it," says Walter Hilton, "so that he shall feel no suggestion, nor
jangling of fleshly affections, or of vain thoughts at any time, that
can no man come to in this life."[34]
Let us remember, however, that involuntary distraction is not sin. If
as soon as we are conscious that the mind has wandered we bring it back
again, our souls are clear. We may wander again the next minute, but
as long as we {59} continue by acts of the will to bring the attention
back again, no sin is upon us.
The sin, at such times, lies in being disheartened, but a little
reflection on the principle involved will keep us safe. Satan seeks to
interrupt our prayers because he fears them; and God help the poor
blinded soul who is happy and satisfied because the Evil One does not
think his devotions are worth interrupting.
V. _The Sacrament of Temptation_
If temptation be so universal, and if, as is usually the case, it is a
condition which is attached more particularly to the lives of those who
are making the greatest effort of conformity to the divine will, we are
irresistibly drawn to the conclusion that there must be some signal
blessing to be gained from enduring it.
St. James tells us, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for
when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord
hath promised to them that love Him."[35] This apostolic beatitude can
hardly be said to refer only to the blessedness that comes from so
meeting temptation as merely to escape sin. This would make the
beatitude a poor thing that might {60} be supposed to belong as truly
to the man who is never tempted at all. The Apostle is, we can be
sure, speaking of a special blessing that comes from bearing a part in
the spiritual warfare; and he goes on to say that the crown which
constitutes the reward is not one that is promised to those who succeed
in the negative work of merely avoiding sin, but to those who excel in
the positive service of God, and exercise love,--"the crown of life
which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him." So we see that
the crowning blessing derived from being tempted is that it affords us
the best possible opportunity of exercising that divine love which must
be the motive underlying all our spiritual life and action.
So it may be said that the temptation of the present moment is the
sacrament of the present moment. A sacrament is the outward and
visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace; and temptation, if met
with the right disposition, is a sign of a special grace with which God
desires to adorn our souls, a grace which we make our own whenever we
fight valiantly, and by the power of God gain the mastery over the
temptation.
Satan seems never to have realized this truth, or else for the
maintenance of his own kingdom he would refrain from his assaults on
God's {61} people. So has sin blinded the very Prince of Sin. He
assaults the Saints of God. In a strength not their own they drive him
back baffled and defeated, and the turrets of the infernal citadel
topple and crash. In the age-long conflict with God, he has never
learned how the divine purpose is using him and his malice, nay, giving
direct permission for its exercise against Himself, in order that the
eternal Kingdom may be the more surely built up among men.
[1] Job vii, 1. (Septuagint Version.)
[2] _Imitation_, I, xiii.
[3] Ecclus. ii, 1.
[4] St. Matt. vi, 13.
[5] St. Matt. xxvi, 41.
[6] St. Matt. xiii.
[7] 1 Cor. x, 13.
[8] Heb. ii, 18.
[9] Heb. iv, 15.
[10] St. James i, 2.
[11] 1 St. Peter i, 7.
[12] 2 St. John 8.
[13] Rev. iii, 11.
[14] Office of Holy Baptism.
[15] 1 Pet. v, 4.
[16] 2 Sam. xi, 11.
[17] 2 Cor. ii, 7.
[18] 2 Cor. xii, 9. "Weakness is the guardian of our
strength."--Pusey, _Parochial Sermons_, II, 337, quoting St. Greg. Mag.
[19] Ps. xx, 2.
[20] _Imitation_, III, xxxv. "It happens sometimes that men's souls
are shipwrecked through evil thoughts, but also it is by the entering
in of such thoughts that we become worthy of being crowned."--_Verba
Seniarum_, x, 86. Quoted by Hannay in _The Wisdom of the Desert_, p.
221.
[21] _Imitation_, I, xiii.
[22] Andrewes, _Sermons_, Vol. V, p. 501.
[23] Archbishop Leighton, _Commentary_, in loc.
[24] Andrewes, _Sermons_, Vol. V, p. 501-502.
[25] Rom. xiv, 17.
[26] Phil. iv, 7.
[27] _Imitation_, I, xiii.
[28] St. Matt. x, 24.
[29] St. James iv, 8.
[30] Ps. lxxxv, 8.
[31] Ps. xxix, 4.
[32] Ps. cxlviii, 5.
[33] St. Francis de Sales, _Spiritual Conferences_, p. 138.
[34] Hilton, _The Scale of Perfection_, Bk. II, Pt. I, ch. viii.
"A certain brother came to the Abbot Pastor, and said, 'Many evil
thoughts come into my mind, and I am in danger through them.' The old
man led him out into the air, and said to him, 'Stretch yourself out,
and stop the wind from blowing.' The brother, wondering at his words,
replied, 'I cannot do that.' Then the old man said to him, 'If you
cannot stop the wind from blowing, neither can you prevent evil
thoughts from entering your mind. That is beyond your power; but one
thing you can do,--conquer them.'"--_Verba Seniorum_, xi, 50. Quoted
by Hannay, p. 217.
[35] St. James i, 12.
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