"LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION,"

Otago Witness, Volume 26, Issue 2419, 26 July 1900, Page 55

" LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION,"

The depth and dream of xny desire, The bitter paths in which I stray, Thou knowest who hast made the Fire, Thou knowest who hast made the Clay. — Eudyard Kipling. , It goes hardly with " the publican and sinner," hardly with the Socialist, harder still with the Humanitarian to listen — when its turn comes round — to the average pulpit discourse on Temptation. No man should preach of the temptation he does not know: know in his own weak flesh and tempest-tossed spirit. No woman should pass sentence on the temptation she has not felt : felt in every clamouring, human instinct, every traitorous, yielding impulse t Close as we go with clasped hands one way, No less we walk apart : Something in every' heart Must hold it from all other hearts away. j We go about our household . ways unknowing, undreaming, each wrapt in his owa interests — the human soul is a very lonely thing, and how should we, even the best of us, fathom the fires, cleansing or purgatorial — as Chance or the good. God

may de(v^ ce — through which our brother may be passuJJ* 3 I fc 1S an awesome thought, one to steep usS>^ Christ-like charity, this remembrance .of hbS^ eacu . one among us must fight his own temptation, face his own familiar dcvil — alone. Yon cannot help me, my sister, or I strengthen yoif, my bi other : each in his direst need stancib' alone, each over lier own soul draws the veil of silence. Nor wou'a N\iT i htv < £ it otherwise. Every really refined and delicate nature shrinks from the spectacle of a sovl laid bare as from some physical indecency,

We may admire and sympathise, with*! the work, of the Salvation Army &§ a gs eal I ministering organisation, but which of us does not shrink, dismayed, from the shrill Voices which shdut out their 'competitive " experiences " in sin, as an encouragement to the " unsaved " sinner on the pavement, and a proof of the marvellous salvation which tfiey themselves have "got"? Salvation, too, which has clothed them in uniform, provided them with military distinctions, and sent .them forth to make nigh£ ' Kldeous ! " " Listen to themj— on's - after another, men pnd women, digging up their temptations, dragging but their semis and flaunting them in the murky torchlight, as an auctioneer his wares ; while ait dramatic points of extraordinary -vileness or, marvellous grace a beat of the" drum, or a rolling burst* of "'hallelujahs !" points the narrative. All -perfectly sincere, no doubt; and' yet so offensive to the feelings* of many persons, that a thrill of- approval follows the audible comments of an ironical passer-by, who advances the suggestion that "the modern soul is a marketable commodity, and that these 'saved' ones have found their highest price!"

One shrinks from this spectacle with much tho same feeling that revolts one in so lmany fin-du-siecle novels, where the analysis of a soul and its temptations, though drawn with consummate skill, yet shocks one with the public revelation of those things which should be sacred to silence — a

confidence/ between God and the man ; or at most a self-revealment of the sorely tried and tortured soul . to one Joyal, chosen Mend. We take up books such as " I/ife's Litanies," and read page after page of the abandonment of the soul to passion or pain. "It ls clever — so human," you urge. Yes, but as revolting to true delicacy as the spectacle of some poor naked waif exposed on the glass slabs of the Paris Morgue would be to our physical sensibilities. Nor do such dissections of emotion and temptation aidd by one fraction to the world's store of courage, of nobility, or single-mindedness. Like Coulson Kernahan's " Book of .Strange Sins," they attract a crowd of morbid, neurotic, or emotional 'readers, and suggest" a train of enervating self-consciousness — of morbid self-absorption. New sins, new temptations, new crimes, an-1 tragedies to brood upon. Why, heart of mine, we do not need these " Crimson Crimes," " Strange Sins," " Soul's Tragedies " to teach us the truth of the prayer, " Lead us not into temptation."

A supplication from humanity to Divinity: there is no craven weakness in its impassioned humility — " Lead us not into Temptation " — -greater than we can bear, is understood. For the virtue that is virtue for lack of temptation, the strength that' is strong because it is untried — these are not things for any honest, loyal nature to pray forj all we ask far is not to be tried beyond our strength! Who knows its strength by trial will know

What strength must be set against a sin, And how temptation is overcome, He has learned' who has felt its power within.

For each one of us temperament and heredity hold certain inevitable temptations; for each one of us the power of environment, companionship, and circumstance builds either (a- fortress of defence against those tenvfttaiions ox f i jprison-house

where we- are shut in, with them for ouff grisly gaolers. If temptation came to us, a Dragon in/ the path, tragic and terrible, to, be fought' and conquered with- clang of steel, to clash of martial music, it would be different, bub4 Satan sent out the sins -one summer's day, With ribbons gay, _ And scarlet suits; It was tli* smallest sin upon the strength *** Mai£W b?,ck at length •*>, - _ With most Remits: We 6i honest blood and healthy temperament, what do we know of the strange im» ijulf.es of the kleptomaniac, whose thievish def-tres Sre~only'*frhet{;es"by tlie knowledge, of another's rights?— or the horrible cravings of the drunkard, whose horizon is bounded by a brandy bottle, and whose tortured appetite oscillates^ between the oblivion of satisfaction and the misery of desire? — oi of the mad excitement of the gambler, whose every sentiment and principle melts like wax in the furnace of his master passion? Bub on commonplace, everyday temptations , — t»he everyday sins -■ With ribVoiiS gay; And scarlet suit?. which assail the everyday man and woman",I doubt not each one of us could contribute a' monologue. " ' ■ The temptation of the inborn coquette to extort the love and admiration of men, to feed her vanity and love of -admiration at the cost of -their trust.' faith,- honour, all that makes a man's life noble," to warm her coldly-cruel sSnseg^at the iires of desire, in which their very souls aie consumed. "I have no patience * with such we men," sfiy.% the girl whose temperament snd gifts lie in intellect rather than sense: " a coquette is a modern Circe, turning men into swine! Temptation? No, it is sheer downright badners." The • temptation . of the brilliant and witty woman to sacrifice friends and. enemies, alike ' for the sake of a clever epi-. giam, 'a sparkling retort. *,' I see no, temptation here," says the good, dull house- , wife. "It is just as easy to' say nice things . as nasty ones, and " natch wiser." The temptation of the successful man ..to worship success and despise the unsuccess- . ful ; the temptation of the idle woman . , who has no especial duties or interests to . ' become a gossip or a busybodj — she means - no harm, her sympathies are quick, she - enjoys having her emotions touched; her household duties do not absorb her whole . active nature, and she drifts round from hcuse to house, the soul of sympathy and ■indiscretion ! She hears a little there, she tells a little there; her naturally good impulses deteriorate under . the temptationof showing how intimate a* friend she is of the Smiths*, and how entirely in the confidence of the Joneses. She might hove been a ministering angel, but Temptation leaves - her a commonplace busybody ! - . . The temptation _of the very clever man^' or -Vwinan to intellectual pride and tlife-* egotism born of undue .appreciation'" of , mental, over moral^ qualities is at a totally different kind, yeiTjust as common* as thetemptation'of the commonplace woman tointo mischief-making and gossip, .'* the temptation of the social leader to become snobbish, or the rich man to become purse-proud. Which temptation among these lesser ones - is our own particular weakness each heartalone knows, for "Who knows its strength by trial will know What strength must be set against a 'sin. But of such grave matters as hereditary" or constitutional temptations I have a "word to say, and it is this — forewarned is forearmed. Boy and girl, .man and woman may surely tread more confidently life's tortuous paths if they already are familiar with • the danger-posts. No false pride, no mistaken loyalty to. family traditions should prevent the wise and timely warning by - which parents may indicate to their chil-. dren those weaknesses through which temp- - -, tation is most, likely to assail them in tha after yea-rs. Let training and environment all do their utmost to combat hereditary faults and weaknesses; plain speaking andtimely warning point out the danger sig--nals, and then, in no craven spirit, but • with wisdom and courage, we may pray' " Lead us not into Temptation '"" — too great > for us. Whether we stand or fall, what warmth of comfort and kinship for eveE-' liesjui tlie conviction: — The depth and dream of my desire, The bitter paths wherein, I . stray, {" Thou knowest who hast niade the Fire, Thou knowest who hast made the Clay. ' J • ' >