BRING US NOT INTO TEMPTATION.

Taranaki Daily News, 22 December 1923, Page 11

BRING US NOT INTO TEMPTATION.

"And bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.”— St. Matthew vi., 13. This is the seventh and last clause of the Lord’s Prayer, the seventh and final step in the pathway of prayer Christ taught us to tread. The words, “For thine is the kingdom and the power and the glojy for ever and ever, amen,” were not used by our Lord. Neither do they .appear in Saint Matthew or Saint Luke. TThey form a graceful epilogue, but they are not found in the most ancient manuscripts. They were added by some early copyist, and gradually found their way into the usage of the church. The custom of ending liturgical prayer with a Doxology probably explains the presence of these words.

This is not only the last clause; it is the most difficult of interpretation. It raises critical questions not easy to decide. “Bring us not into temptation.” But need we ask that? Does God ever lead men into temptation? Tile answer depends on what you mean by temptation. If you mean to solicit, to lure, to goad to evil, there is only one possible answer. “God is not tempted of evil, neither tempteth He any man.” If you mean does God search and . test and prove, the answer is equally plain. The life of Jesus Christ was the battleground of terrific conflict. The Old and the New Testament make a clean-cut distinction between an enticement and a moral testing; between solicitation to sin and discipline of character. “It came to pass that God did tempt Abraham” —tested, proved, disciplined Abraham. “It came to pass that Satan tcrhpted David”—lured, goaded, urged David. “James, the brother of the Lord,” makes this distinction dear. “God tempteth no man,” solicits no man to sin. But hear this, “Blessed is the man who endureth temptation,” that is trial which issues in moral perfection. The prayer of the text is the natural human shrinking from trial and pain, lest we should fail and be betrayed into surrender to evil. When Christ prayed in the garden, “0. my Father, let this cup pass from me,” He offered the equivalent of this petition, “Bring us not into temptation.”

TEMPTATION. The idea that temptation can have any place in human life cuts across our conception of God and His ways, and seems to demand a revision of thought. We have conceived of temptation as an unhappy mischance, an experience to be dreaded and shunned. Whereas the life of our Sinless Lord suggests that so far from being a mischance, temptation forms part of a divine plan, a step on the road to a richer fuller life Dr. Parker put it picturesquely: “We have thought that we might step softly and get past the old serpent’s nest without his hearing our muffled footfall, that we might delude the Devil, play a trick on him, and then, when we had reached a safe distance, w? might look back and laugh at the enemy, who had overslept himself, and whose leaden ears did not catch the sound of our feet as we tripped lightly past.” The idea is neither true nor worthy. Life is a temptation. To be is to be almost lost. The form will vary with circumstance —temperament, physical and mental make up. What is temptation to one is not so to another. “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.” What is dangerous to the same person at one period may not be (dangerous at another time. Shafts that set my heart aflame may leave you unharmed.

MORAL TESTINGS NOT ACCIDENTAL. But moral testings in some form come to all, and they are not accidents, they are part of God’s- ordering of our lives. To use a figure of speech, temptation is the string of the kite, something that pulls downward and yet something without which the kite cannot rise. Two influences are at work on the soul. There is what Saint Paul 'describes as “the law of the spirit,” and what he calls “the law of sin.” The pull of the one is heavenward and the pull of the other is earthward. These two are joined by the string called “temptation.” and the wind is the breath of God. If you are wise you have a plan for the life of your lad, and your plan includes lessons rtt school, exercise in the gymnasium, and a business training, for without these his mind will be flabby, and his will undisciplined. In the same way a man must be tested, tried, proved, for without these you may have innocence but you cannot have virtue, for virtue means the presence of good and evil, and the free choice of good. I referred to the temptation of the Sinless One. and in that spiritual conflict you have an epitome of every good man’s life. The very idea of Jesus Christ becoming a man meant a real, thinking, suffering man. and not a phantom form. He passed under human limitation. He shared human infirmities—hunger, thirst, •weariness, pain, death. He felt the power of evil as we do. He might have yielded to sin if He had willed, and it was by His absolutely successful resistance to evil that Christ came to sovereignty over the conscience and hearts of men. When the forty days in the wilderness were ended He "came forth with the halo of victory on Hie brow, the light of conquest in His eye. and with the step and gesture of a spiritual hero. His every word and deed throbbed with spiritual power.

POWER BY MASTERY. So it is with us. Purity and power come not by exemption, but by mastery. Temptation is not mischance; it is opportunity and challenge. The phrase “deliver us from the evil” demands a discriminating word. The authorised version omits the definite article and reads, “deliver us from evil.” The revised version of Saint Matthew reads, “deliver us from the evil one,” with the last word in italics. Saint Luke omits the clause altogether. But the definite article is emphatic. Our Lord did not say “deliver us from evil.” He said, “the evil.” ’Christ did not say “deliver us from the evil one.” He said “the evil.” It is a terrific phrase! “The evil!” What is that? Is it a principle or a person? It is neither—it is a practice ,a habit, a m’ood. The Greek word is neither masculine nor feminine; it is neuter. It is another word for sin. I am not going to raise the question of the personality of Satan, except to say this, that it seems neither scientific nor te tixe BQWibiliU.

a personal devil and speak of an impersonal principle of evil. If there are personal spirits who are free, intelligent, and good, is it an irrational thing to believe in spirits who are free, intelligent and bad? Men don’t believe in the devil now, So of course the devil is gone. But the question I want to ask as this — Who carries the business on J FAITH IN GOD. Without faith in God we have no hope of conquering evil, and without belief in the evil one we might well despair. For if all the evil suggestions that ply our hearts originate with ourselves alone, what hope have we? But if “a power not ourselves” is the source of diabolical suggestion, Christ, who foiled the Tempter in the desert, may give us the victory. Still, it has to be said that in this place our prayer is not against the evil one but against “the evil.” What is that? “Brethren,” said a learned divine to a company of divines. “Brethren, what made the devil a devil?” and, answering his own question, he said, “nothing but sin.” Yes, that is the evil that makes the evil one, and our prayer is for deliverance from that which makes Satan Satan, which is sin. Sanscrit is the oldest language in the world, and in Sanscrit the word for Satan and for sin is the same, and it means “to throttle.” Sin turns and twists and winds itself about the human heart, fastens with deadly clinch and strikes with poisoned thrust. One man is frivolous, another proud, another greedy, one is throttled by drink, one by temper, one by brag, one by “the narrowing lust of gold,” and “deliver us from the evil” is a cry for help against whatever holds us in its clinch.

THE SOCIAL ASPECT. Let me again remind you of the social aspect of the Lord's Prayer. The sin of the world is its unsocial spirit, the intrusion of self, the almost deification of self. Our maxims betray us —“Every man for himself,” “Mind the main chance,” “The greatest number is number one”—and we quote these maxims without a blush, yet what undiluted paganism it is! The teaching of the New Testament is not individualism and monopoly; it is mutualism, socialism if you will; and the crime of the social order is that it is organised on the basis of self-interest, instead of mutual help and service. But no one can offer this prayer and remain an individualist and you can commit no sin which is not traceable to selfishness. Selfishness is “the mother tincture” of sin.

One word more. Men plead the power of Satan as an excuse for evil doing. Poor devil!- We ought to be just even to him. We give him credit for greater power than he has. I know we are tempted. I know the evil one plys our heart with wicked thoughts and passions. I know some positions in life involve grave risk. But there not two Almighties, God and the devil. The powers of darkness are not illimitable. It is not Satan we have most to fear, is self. As George Eliot says in Felix Holt, “The devil tempts us not, ’tis we tempt him, beckoning him with opportunity.” iFor consider, is evil a live spark? Granted, it is. If a live spark fall on a slab of ice, what's the harm? Ah, but

If the spark fall on a keg of gunpowder! Now you provide ice or gunpowder for the devil’s spark, and if it be gunpowder you at least share the blame. Sin is a satanic suggestion, but it is always a human act. It may be a persuasion of the devil, but it is always the performance of a man. NOT COMPELLED. We are not compelled to do wrong, ft is never necessary to yield. If we are victims, we are willing victims. If I stress that it is because conscience needs a tonic. There is far too much maudling sentiment on the .subject of temptation. The tradesman pleads “the custom of trade,” "others do it, you know, you can’t obey the sermon on the mount in business.” People attempt to justify extravagance and display by aaying “one must keep up appearances,” “a man must live.” Fudge! Neither Btatement is true. Yon need not keep up appearance. You need not live. The one thing you must do is to be clean, straight, honest, pure, whether living or dying, and the plea of necessity isn’t brave or Christian. God will help any man who not only days. “Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil," but bravely bears and nobly strives.

“Deliver us from the evil.” We have often offered the prayer and never quite in vain. We have experienced many deliverances, and God will help us yet. In the time of the Parliamentary wars the town of Taunton was beset. Food was twenty times its market value. Half the houses were blown down. Many died of hunger. Through all the fearful time the people met for prayer in the parish church. “Deliver us from the evil.” was their daily prayer. One day a trusty messenger appeared at the church door and whispered the word “Delivered!” The word passed from lip to lip. “Delivered!” and the congregation rose and cried “Delivered!” LIFE A LONG FIGHT. Life is a long fight, and sometimes it seems as if it will never,end. Patience, brave heart! Pray on! One day a messenger will come and whisper "Delivered!” You will sleep, and when dawns the new day you will say “Is this heaven at last?” and the angel will answer, “You asked deliverance from the evil, and God granted your request.”