The Warfare of the Soul Part 12

[1] S. Greg. Mag., _Regulae Pastoralis_, III, x.x.x. See also the opening paragraph of Dr. Pusey's sermon on "Victory over Besetting Sin," _Parochial Sermons_, Vol. II.

[2] _Imitation_, I, xiii.

[3] 1 Cor. x, 13.

[4] "Our trial, by G.o.d's appointment and mercy, lies mostly in some few things. We bring trials upon ourselves which G.o.d did not intend for us. We increase manifoldly our own trials by every consent to sin."--Pusey, _Parochial Sermons_, Vol. II, p. 121.

[5] "Past sin involves present trial, not present sin. When a man has once turned to G.o.d his past sin will not be imputed to him either in itself, _or in its effects_. One who has given way would by G.o.d's just appointment, visiting for sin, have trials. He need not, if he wills not by G.o.d's grace, have sin." _Ibid._, p. 335.

[6] _Ibid._, p. 334.

[7] _Ibid._, p. 338.

[8] 2 Thess. ii, 12.

[9] Rom. vii, 21-23.

[10] Scupoli, _The Spiritual Combat_ (Pusey's Trans.), chap. xii.

St. Francis de Sales, in a letter to the Mere de Chastel, has a delightfully characteristic pa.s.sage, full of paternal tenderness combined with playful and reverent humour, in which he sets forth the mode of action of the two wills. "Indeed, my dear daughter Marie," he writes, "you say truly that there are two beings in you. The one is a Marie who, like St. Peter, is tender, sensitive, ready to be irritated by a touch. This Marie is a daughter of Eve, and so her temper is frail. The other Marie wills to be wholly G.o.d's; and in order so to be, she wills in all simplicity to be humble and gentle towards everyone, and she would fain imitate St. Peter after he was converted.

This Marie is the child of the Blessed Virgin. These two diverse Maries come into collision, and the bad one is so bad that often the other scarce knows how to defend herself, and then perforce she fancies herself beaten, and believes the bad Marie to be stronger. But not so, my poor, dear child; the bad one is not stronger than you. She is more perverse, more enterprising, more obstinate, and when you lose heart and sit down to cry, she is pleased because it is so much time lost for you; and if she cannot make you lose eternity, at all events she will try to make you lose time. My dear daughter, rouse your courage ... be watchful of your enemy; tread cautiously for fear of the foe; if you are not on your guard against her she will be too much for you. Even if she should take you by surprise, and make you totter, or give you a slight wound, do not be put out.... Now do not be ashamed of all this, my daughter, any more than St. Paul was when he confessed that there were two beings in him, one rebellious against G.o.d, the other obedient to Him."--St. Francis de Sales, _Spiritual Letters_, lvii.

[11] "It is impossible," says the Abbot Moses, "for the mind not to be approached by thoughts, but it is in the power of every earnest man either to admit them or reject them. Their rising does not depend upon ourselves, but their admission or rejection is in our own power....

The movement of the mind may well be ill.u.s.trated by the comparison of a mill-wheel. The headlong rush of water whirls it round, and it can never stop its work so long as it is driven by the water. Yet it is in the power of the man who directs it to decide whether he will have wheat, or barley, or darnel ground by it. For it must certainly crush that which the man in charge of it puts in. So the mind is driven by the torrents of temptation which pour in on it from every side and cannot be free from the flow of thoughts, but we control the character of the thoughts by the efforts of our own earnestness."--Ca.s.sian, _Conferences_, I, 17, 18.

[12] "The power of divine grace, like that of the Adversary, is impulsive, not compulsive, that the free power of our will may be entirely preserved. Wherefore, for the evil things which a man does by the influence of Satan, it is not Satan that receives the punishment, but the man himself; forasmuch as he was not involuntarily forced into those things, but was consenting in his own will. In the same manner also with respect to what is good, Grace does not ascribe it to itself, but to the man, and it therefore a.s.signs to him glory, as the cause of good to himself. For grace does not so constrain by compulsive force as to render a man's will incapable of altering; but though it be present to him, it gives way to his free and arbitrary power, that his will may be manifested how it is disposed to good or to evil. For the law is not applied to our nature, but to our free-will, which is able to convert itself either to good or to evil."--Macarius, _Inst.i.tutes of Christian Perfection_, Bk. VII, chap. iii. (Penn's Trans., London, 1816.)

[13] Scupoli, _The Spiritual Combat_, chap. xiv.

[14] "I shall fulfil Thy Will if, for Thy Love, I contradict my own, which Thou wilt not in any way constrain, but dost leave it perfectly free that I, _by voluntarily and constantly subjecting it to Thine_, may become dearer and more full in Thy sight."--St. Catherine of Siena, _Dialogue on Consummated Perfection_, in Drane's History of St.

Catherine, Vol. II, p. 348.

[15] Faber, _Growth in Holiness_, chap. xvi.

[16] St. Francis de Sales, _Spiritual Letters_, cxiv.

[17] Baker, _Sancta Sophia_, pp. 284-286. See also Hilton, _The Scale of Perfection_, Bk. 2, Sec. 1, chap. viii.

[18] Using anger as an ill.u.s.tration, Father Baker enters into a detailed description of what may happen, and yet the soul be free from sin. Perhaps there is not one of us who can read the following words without a sense of deep grat.i.tude and relief concerning not infrequent experiences of our own. He says: "A person being moved to anger, though he find an unquiet representation in the imagination, and a violent heat and motions about the heart, as likewise an aversion in sensitive nature against the person that hath given the provocation; yet if, notwithstanding, he refrains himself from breaking forth into words of impatience to which his pa.s.sion would urge him, and withal contradicts designs of revenge suggested by pa.s.sion, such an one, practicing internal prayer and mortification, is to esteem himself not to have consented to the motions of corrupt nature, although besides the inward motion of the appet.i.te [i.e., the inferior will], he could not hinder marks of his pa.s.sion from appearing in his eyes and the colour of his countenance."--_Sancta Sophia_, pp. 237-238.

[19] Pusey, _Lenten Sermons_, p. 264.

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CHAPTER IX

IN THE HOUR OF BATTLE

"Like as the children of Ephraim, who being harnessed and bearing bows, turned themselves back in the day of battle."[1] Thus does the Psalmist recall a day of shame and humiliation in the history of G.o.d's people. Well prepared for the battle, with every hope of victory before them, the children of Ephraim failed in the hour when they faced the enemy.

Thus has it been with many souls in the spiritual warfare. We may be forewarned, we may be armed with the manifold gifts of the Spirit, and yet fail, for the preparation is not everything. When in the actual presence of the foe, the soul must smite boldly and well. The weapons G.o.d supplies must be used. Not to use a grace is to lose a grace.

I. _Realizing G.o.d's Friendship_

It is easy to find theories of opposing temptation; but often hard to apply them in the actual {129} moment of the a.s.sault. The cause lies in the fact that we do not realize our relation to G.o.d. G.o.d is our friend; and we must think of Him in the ordinary terms of earthly friendship. The Eternal Son came to earth and was Incarnate, just in order that we might find in Him an earthly relation, by means of and through which we might be able to rise up to the heavenly friendship.

So far as mere intellectual knowledge is concerned, we know quite well what we are to Him, and yet so dull is our appreciation of it that it is only with painful care that we are able to keep from mortally offending this good G.o.d. We should have slight regard for an earthly friendship that rested on so precarious a foundation. When shall we come to that blessed time when our friendship with G.o.d will be as spontaneous in its action, and as free from peril of violation at our hands, as the friendships we enjoy with those fellow-mortals whose hearts are knit up with ours in loving earthly friendship!

Before we go on to consider definitely the methods we may profitably employ when the battle is actually upon us, let us use an ill.u.s.tration that may help us to grasp very practically just what our relationship is to G.o.d.

You know a man whom you look up to with profound regard and reverence.

Not only this, {130} but his unfailing goodness to you under many and various conditions has claimed and won your deepest love and grat.i.tude.

This man has an enemy, a despicable character, universally known to be devoid of every sentiment of common decency and honour, who has for years scrupled at no means, even the foulest and most contemptible, to injure the object of his hate. You know these facts to be true, and have yourself had the misfortune to have many dealings with him, and have always found that his actions justify the low opinion that all right-thinking men have of him. One day this creature has the audacity to approach you, and try deliberately to turn you against your benefactor, and to induce you to consent to something that would be to the dishonour and contempt of the one to whom you owe so much. How long would you listen to him? Do you think you would stop to weigh calmly the arguments for and against his proposition? Or would you not, without a moment's hesitation, turn upon him with indignation, and drive the contemptible creature from your presence, with a sense of loathing, almost of contamination, that you had been made to listen to such a suggestion?

We do not have to go far to find a key to the parable. The benefactor whom we regard with {131} so deep a reverence is our loving heavenly Father, who has claimed and won our love through the goodness and mercy with which He has followed us all the days of our life. The enemy whose age-long efforts have ever been for His dishonour is the devil, who seeks to make us the instrument by which he would dishonour G.o.d.

When ill.u.s.trated thus, the audacity of the tempter, and the insulting character of every temptation, are made plain.

This simple parable will surely enable us to grasp the relations between G.o.d and ourselves and Satan, and with this realization fresh upon us, we can go on to consider some of the special methods we may use to overcome G.o.d's enemy and ours.

II. _The Divine Example of Humility_

It is interesting to note that when our Lord was a.s.sailed in the wilderness by the Tempter, His method of resistance was to turn immediately to the consideration of His Father's word. He did not address Himself to the pros and cons of the Satanic suggestion. He inflicts instant and crushing defeat upon His adversary by turning His attention, not to the character of the temptation, but straight to the will of the Father.

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In this our Lord showed by His action what He afterward taught concerning Himself when He said, "I can of Mine own self do nothing."[2] His first act in His temptation was to declare His entire dependence on His Father. So, if in our temptations, we would share His victory, our method of battle must follow His. The tempted soul must fling itself instantly upon G.o.d in the humblest acknowledgment of dependence. Much of our failure in the conflict arises from a forgetfulness of this. How often does the very dread of the sin so agitate the soul that instead of turning to G.o.d, we stand, as it were, fascinated by the horror of the suggestion, losing precious moments that should be devoted to flinging open all the channels of communication with G.o.d, that His own strength may flow into us for the battle. This course of defence is effective in two ways.

(1) First, as regards G.o.d. Nothing can so completely open the channels of communication with Him as an utter abandon of humility in His presence. Scripture is full of the divine teaching on this point. The Holy Spirit declares by the great Prophet of the Incarnation, "Thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy, I dwell in the high {133} and lofty place with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit to revive the spirit of the humble."[3]

St. James declares, "G.o.d resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble;"[4] and St. Peter, repeating the same teaching, adds this exhortation, "Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of G.o.d that He may exalt you in due time."[5]

(2) But not only does this self-abas.e.m.e.nt in the first moment of temptation bring down new power from G.o.d for the struggle, but it has a direct and disastrous effect on Satan. Nothing so completely bewilders him as self-humiliation. He, the very personification of pride, cannot understand how a soul can for a moment so humble itself. He is puzzled, nonplussed. He knows not how to proceed. He thought he understood us; he had studied our lines of defence, and thought he knew just how to approach and break through them; but this unexpected manoeuvre shatters his plan of battle. Many a soul that, in the approach of temptation, has thus flung itself at the feet of G.o.d has, while lying there awaiting the divine word, felt the awful sense of the Satanic presence pa.s.s, and the sickening tug of temptation cease. The enemy in the face of a situation so far beyond his power of {134} understanding had made haste to withdraw his attack, lest while thus fighting in the dark he should meet still more humiliating defeat.

III. _Instant in Prayer_

The humble soul is always the praying soul. The soul that realizes its dependence will lose no time in calling upon Him on Whom it leans, and this earnest prayer is the weapon in the warfare, without which certain overthrow must ensue.

As in the case of humbling ourselves, the use of this weapon is to be considered in its relation both to G.o.d and to Satan.

(1) Its relation to G.o.d. We know that prayer for help must of necessity bring help, because the divine promise is given and repeated a hundred times in Holy Scripture, that the Lord will hear us in the day of trouble.[6] It is needless to multiply texts. One word of G.o.d the Eternal Son suffices, "And shall not G.o.d avenge His own elect which cry day and night unto Him, though He bear long with them? I tell you He will avenge them speedily."[7]

Impossible as it may seem, the prayer of the humble heart can command the very G.o.dhead. {135} Ascending to the throne of grace in union with the intercession of Christ, the cry of the hard-pressed child of G.o.d has power to liberate the divine Omnipotence, and set in motion all the infinite energies of the kingdom which come forth in their unconquerable might to wage war on our behalf.