_The Testing of Friendship_
Of course, friendship with God must be tried. Not only can true
friendship stand any strain to which it may be put, but it even needs to
be thus tested in order to be solidly set. It is like the knot that
becomes more fixed and firm at each new pull of the cord. The faith and
affection which will cling to a friend when all the forces of disunion
seem combined to bring about a separation, are so tempered by the
experience involved as to defy every conceivable enemy, and to discover
new depths of love and service in the fellowship that has been thus put
to the test. To enter upon just why this should be, is not to the
purpose. It is a fact and law of the life of fellowship between man and
man, and man and God. The force that threatens to break up the
connection between God and man, but by means of which that union may be
consummated, is temptation.
Sec. 1. _Temptation is always an opportunity._--There are two kinds of
testing--that which proves a thing to discover whether it is what it
professes to be, and that which aims to bring out latent possibilities
in the thing tested. With the former there goes a sort of lurking
suspicion that all may not be right, as when a bit of metal is tried by
acid, or a big gun is proved by an excessive charge. When a test of this
kind is over the thing that is tried is just what it was before, neither
more nor less. No new quality is in the gift of the test. With the
latter, on the other hand, the result is different, as when the silver
"from the earth is tried, and purified seven times in the fire." The
quartz goes into the furnace and a stream of unalloyed metal flows out;
or to seek still another illustration,--the process by which steel is
tempered. Here new qualities are given by means of the testing; to the
silver, purity, and to the steel, hardness and elasticity. To this
second form of testing belongs the element of trust rather than that of
suspicion. The material is so good, that the workman has no doubt about
its coming through the fire purer and more valuable than ever.
It is this kind of testing which the friends of God must undergo, the
kind of testing which affords friends the very opportunity they need to
become better friends. It is not too much to say that man being what he
is, there is no conceivable means excepting temptation, which would give
to him just those elements which are necessary for his progress toward
God. Jesus was "in all points tempted like as we are," primarily that
His manhood might reach its full measure, and this entailed such
sympathy with the race as ensues upon a common experience. Atonement
means a unity with God which has been achieved, not by a divine fiat,
but by a choice of the human will that has repelled the last attack of
God's greatest enemy.
It is always so that in scanning the harsh features of a refining
process, the happy result of the process is blurred and forgotten.
Temptation is surely an assault to be withstood, but at the same time it
is an opportunity to be seized. Viewed in this light life becomes
inspiring, not in spite but because of its struggles, and we are able to
greet the unseen with a cheer, counting it unmixed joy when we fall into
the many temptations which, varied in form, dog our steps from the
cradle to the grave. The soldier who is called to the front is
stimulated, not depressed; the officer who is bidden by his general to a
post of great responsibility, and so of hardship and peril, is thrilled
with the joy of his task. An opportunity has been given him to prove
himself worthy of great trust, which can be done only at the cost of
great trouble.
This is a true picture of temptation. And the result of it all is a
nature invigorated and refined, a character made capable of close
friendship with God, to say nothing of the unmeasured joy that is the
attendant of nobility of soul and stalwart Christian manhood.
Sec. 2. _The majesty of conflict with temptation._--One is often depressed
by the seemingly inglorious character of our temptations. They are so
mean, petty and commonplace. If they had in them something to rouse in
the heart that love of romance, that is a saving element in human
nature, one could fight better. Now temptation has this very element.
But spiritual eyes are needed to discern the glory of the commonplace,
the romance of the inglorious. God has been trying with divine patience
to convince men of this from the very beginning. The story of the first
temptation of the first human beings, in its poetic dress points to the
romance of life's struggle. Jacob's wrestling bout with the mysterious
being by the river's brink, is a view of the underside of any struggle
against temptation, as God sees it, when the tempted one fights to win.
Above all in the narrative of the temptation of Jesus in the wilderness,
is the majesty of conflict with evil made plain. It is a record which
exceeds in dramatic splendour the story of "Faust," or the realism of
"Pilgrim's Progress." And in it we arrive at the paradoxical truth that
the temptations of Jesus were just as commonplace as ours, and that ours
are just as glorious as His,--His, of course, having a completeness
which none others could have, for the most complete temptation is the
temptation of the most complete.
Looking beneath the surface of the story, we find ourselves face to face
with the well-known temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil.
Wrapped in contemplation upon what His Divine sonship involved, He was
driven into solitude, and tempted, as He worked out His life's plan, to
substitute evil independence for good dependence, then to flee to the
opposite extreme and substitute evil dependence for good independence,
and finally to disregard the means in His zeal for a righteous end.
These temptations are as common as humanity and as uninspiring as night.
Could one have stood by when Jesus was struggling with them, doubtless
nothing more would have been seen than is visible to-day when some man
in loneliness, with his eyes lifted toward the hills, wins the mastery
over himself and his unseen tempters. Yes, the Master's temptations were
just as commonplace as ours. Why, then, this fine dressing up of the
commonplace? Because, when in after days Jesus told His companions of
His conflict and victory, He saw with the illumination of retrospect
what at the moment of the struggle He could not see, the glory of it
all. The story is not a fiction of the imagination. It is a true picture
of what occurred, a revelation of the splendour that lies at the
foundation of every spiritual contest, a record of literal truth not
perceived at the time, but clear to the vision after all was over.
"After all was over"--the mean and commonplace incidents of to-day, form
the raw material out of which is woven the romance of to-morrow. The
ugliest facts make the choicest romance after they have been tempered in
the crucible of time. Ask a soldier how much romance there was when the
fight was hot. The sublime in battle is visible only from the vantage
ground of victory. Often when the life of some humble and afflicted
child of God comes to a close, we see what was hidden from our eyes
during his days on earth--the heroism of his career. At first we esteem
him "stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." Afterward we admire the
grandeur and largeness of the life that once seemed so narrow and lame.
Before death the character of the affliction claims our attention;
afterward the character of the afflicted; now the ugly fact and then the
glory; "first that which is natural and afterward that which is
spiritual." Consequently there are two methods of recording human
history--bare fact, concrete, grim, commonplace; its romance, abstract,
majestic and just as real. We need both kinds of description--Gethsemane
with its agony and gouts of blood, and the wilderness with its dramatic
imagery. Neither one is more real than the other. If the wilderness had
its grim side, Gethsemane had its romantic side. The ideal is realized,
when the real is idealized.
Grant the truth of this--and who will gainsay it?--and it follows that
while the temptations of Jesus were as commonplace as ours, ours are as
glorious as His. S. Paul saw it all quite plainly, when in radiant
language he rolled out to his Ephesian friends that superb call to
battle. "Be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on
the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles
of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but
against the principalities, against the powers, against the
world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness
in the heavenly places." There is nothing in the whole of Scripture that
makes life seem more splendid and glowing, and yet the occasion is one
of extreme peril and hardship--the moment of temptation. It is not so
that the scientific character of our age, with its darting electricity
and whirring wheels, forbids romance to lift its head. Glory of the
highest type will live as long as dauntless human souls aspire to God,
let the world be as matter of fact or as evil as it chooses. The only
thing that can dim glory is the domination of sin in man.
Sec. 3. So much for the splendid opportunity which temptation affords. How
to meet it is what the story of the life of the Son of Man makes
manifest.
(_a_) It is noticeable that neither by precept nor example are we
encouraged to pray for the removal of temptation. Once, it is true,
Jesus expressed it as His desire that a cup of pain might pass from Him,
but He conditioned His prayer--"not My will, but Thine, be done." God
did not remove the cup, but what was better still He gave Him strength
to drink it. A prayer of S. Paul's was treated in like manner. The
thorn in the flesh was not withdrawn, but it was transformed into a
means of imparting spiritual vigour--"My grace is sufficient for thee."
It is said of Pascal, whose last years were full of agony, that his
malady became a new quality of his genius and helped to perfect it.
Christian character as well as great genius "has the power of elevating,
transmuting, serving itself by the accidental conditions about it,
however unpromising."[11]
This being so, even Gethsemane is an encouragement to the man who is
sore tried, to pray for power to transcend his trial rather than that it
may be swept out of his life by the hand of God.
_'Tis life whereof our nerves are scant,
More life and fuller that I want,_
and not exemption from trial.
The lingering on in life of a temptation, which, if not born of past
sin, at any rate has been intensified by self-indulgence, affords us our
only chance of expressing penitence to God for failure in loyalty to Him
in this respect or that. How can the man, in whom the fires of passion
are dead, express before God his sorrow for sins against purity in days
that are gone? It is easy to conceive of such a person entreating God to
give him back his temptation, that, by a reversal of former decisions,
he may prove the reality of his penitence. So far as we can see, the one
chance a man has of regaining a lost virtue, is through the very
temptation by means of which he was robbed of it. Excessive resistance
wins back, slowly but surely, what was lost by excessive indulgence.
What is needed is not freedom _from_ but freedom _in_ temptation. This
latter is possible for every Christian.
(_b_) Freedom in the life of temptation is achieved by meeting every
enticement to sin with an upward rise toward virtue. It is quite
inadequate to beat off temptation. We must spoil the strong man and
possess ourselves of his goods. One sad feature of life is that we
always undershoot the mark, and for the most part perfection in purpose
results in nothing better than mediocrity in achievement. It is the sure
fate of the man that is contented to view temptation merely as an
invitation to hell which must be declined, that he will yield at least
occasionally to the sin to which he is tempted. Only he who flings
himself upward when the pull comes to drag him down, can hope to break
the force of temptation. Temptation may be an invitation to hell, but
much more is it an opportunity to reach heaven. At the moment of
temptation sin and righteousness are both very near the Christian; but
of the two the latter is the nearer.
Walk in the spirit and you put yourself in such a position as to be
unable to fulfil the lusts of the flesh. Meet the negation of sin with
the affirmation of righteousness. When Satan challenges you to wrestle
with him, turn about and wrestle with God for a blessing.
(_c_) There is no reason to be afraid of temptation, that is to say if
it is not a temptation into which we have entered unnecessarily, but one
that is consequent upon the fulfilment of duty. God does not allow us to
be tempted beyond our powers. But this is not all. Our fearlessness
should show itself in our attitude. We must meet our temptations face to
the foe. The temptations of Jesus never struck Him from behind but
always smote Him in the face. There is only one kind of temptation which
we are advised to run from, and that is the temptation to fleshly lust.
Evasion is for the most part a sign of defeat, not of victory. The man
who would gain freedom in temptation must be
_One who never turned his back, but marched breast forward._
With this thought we leave the subject of temptation, that strange
mystery which proves man and makes him less unworthy of friendship with
God, which is at once an opportunity and a snare, glorious and
commonplace.
FOOTNOTES:
[11] _Walter Pater._