'Nothing shall offend them.' 'There shall be no stumbling-block to
them.' The higher love casts out the lower. It is well, when, by
reinforcing conscience by considerations of duty, or even sometimes by
the lower thoughts of consequences, a man is able to pass by a
temptation which appeals to him, and conquers the inclination to go
wrong. But it is far better--and it is possible--to be lifted up into
such a region as that the temptation does not appeal to him any more.
To take a very homely illustration, whether is it better for a man to
steel himself, and walk past the door of a public-house, though the
fumes appeal to his sense, and stir his inclinations; or to go past, and
never know any attraction to enter? Which is best, to overcome our
temptations, or to live away up in the high regions to which the malaria
of the swamps never climbs, and where no disease-germs can ever reach?
That elevation is possible for us, if only we keep in close touch with
God, and love the law because our hearts are knit to the Law-giver.
'There shall be no occasion of stumbling in him,' as the Apostle John
varies the expression of my text. Within, there will be no traitors to
surrender the camp to the enemy without. So Paul in the letter to the
Philippians attributes to 'the peace of God which passeth understanding'
a military function, and says that it will 'garrison the heart and
mind,' and keep them 'in Christ Jesus,' which is but the Christian way
of saying, 'Great peace have they which love Thy law; and there is no
occasion of stumbling in them.'