+I. Consider the danger to which we are exposed.+--As in other cases
so it is in this: our greatest danger lies in not feeling our danger,
and so not being prepared to meet it.
1. _View the enemy we have to contend with._--He is one who bears an
inveterate hatred against us, and seeks nothing less than our
destruction or eternal overthrow. . . . He hates us as God's
creatures, but especially as those who have been rescued from his
power and taken up arms against him; nothing now will satisfy him but
our eternal ruin. . . . It is therefore a struggle of life for life;
if we do not overcome him, he will overcome us. It is in vain to
think of being neuter, or making peace with him.
2. _He is mightier than we are;_ and unless we have help from above,
we are no match for him. . . . We know but little of the power of
wicked spirits, abstractly considered; but viewed as the god of this
world, Satan has all its temptations in alliance with him.
3. _He is an artful enemy_. . . . We are told of the "wiles of the
devil," hiding his designs, and falling upon us when we least expect
it. We are in his net before we are aware, and when Providence seems
to smile upon us (Deut. viii. 11-14). . . . He studies our
propensities, and suits his temptations to them (Eph. iv. 14).
4. _He is invisible_. . . . If he were "flesh and blood," like
ourselves, we might beware; but his influence is like the mighty
pestilence, which walks in darkness. . . . When least suspected,
danger is nigh.
5. _He is near us,_ as it were, within our gates. The safety of a
nation menaced by an enemy often depends on his being kept at a
distance, by walls or seas, or fortresses of defence. But here it is
supposed that the enemy has entered into our borders, and that we
have no other resource left but to struggle as it were for life. . . .