SUNDAY READING

Taranaki Daily News, 18 August 1934, Page 14 (Supplement)

SUNDAY READING

By the

Bev. J. D. McL. WILSON

THE WAY OF TEMPTATION

REFINING AND STRENGTHENING. ALWAYS A WAY OF ESCAPE. "There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way of es^P e ’ that ye may be able to bear it. 1 Cor., 10-13. In the middle of the preceding chapter (the 9th) there is one of those digressions of Paul’s, so intimate in their revelation and so burning in their eloquence. At the word Gospel, his thought is arrested by the grandeur of the Divine mission which he shared witn them, and he pauses to remind them of his own perils, labours and sacrifices, and how he, though their teacner, had to be constantly and anxiously alert in self-discipline, lest he should be a castaway. He tells them that if they themselves would ever win heaven’s crown of amaranth, a far more prolonged and rigorous training was necessary than any endured by the victorious Olympian athlete. Then to bring home his lesson he calls up the vivid witness of the past. By glorious privilege, their fathers had been glided by the fiery pillar, had quenched their thirst from the smitten rock, and had eaten heavens bread. But in spite of the goodness of God, they had given way to- murmurings, and to gross arid open rebellion. . Take heqa, he says, lest ye, with all your safety, privilege, assurance and pride, likewise fall and be cast out. But as so often happens, after one or his stem and solemn passages, the heart of the Apostle softens, and he. would comfort his children, and into his mind there flashes the thought, “Need they fail or fall?” And so he wrote down the blessed words of the text. . What beautiful and heartening words they are. How they picture for us the watchful and tender solicitude of life, so that they may temper and not destroy us. As 6ne of the poets puts it:—

High throned on heaven’s eternal hill, In number, weight and measure still, Thou sweetly orderest all that is. We should likO you to notice further that Paul uses the word “temptation in its strictest sense of trial, and let us say it is not wrong to be tempted. Temptation is not sin. It is simply testing or proving. Only when we are overcome by temptation, when we fall under temptation, does temptation become sin. Temptation Or trial comes to every one of us. It challenged the very noblest characters in the Scriptures. It assails the recluse as well as the busy I p er " chant. It confronted not only the hotblooded David but the gentle Nathaniel, and not only the traitor Judas but the loving Jesus too. Trials are of a thousand forms. They arise from the vicissitudes of life,, the accidents and ills of circumstance. They come, from compulsions without and tendencies within; and all, from the youngest child to the oldest grey head, are subject to them. Temptation is common to all, king and beggar, saint and sinner, and temptation comes, not as a punishment from God or man, but as a test. It is not a rod to scourge us tor wrongdoing, but a proving of our faith and patience. Its purpose is not to break down or destroy but to discipline, to purify, to perfect. Thus its ideal action is that of the fire-melting, but also refining. The heat and the hammek are for tempering and shaping the iron to useful and perfect forms, not to torture it needlessly. Its purpose is something like that suggested by the father at the battle of Crecy. When word was brought that his son, the Black Prince, was sore bestead, in danger and evidently in need of help and succour, the father, with a fine confidence in the lad that was abundantly justified, said, “Let the boy win his spurs, and let the day be his. He will not try us beyond what we

are able to bear, and that leads us to the second point: God knoweth oui frame. He rememberOth that we are dust. The fragile reed He will not break, nor the flickering wick quench. He will not suffer us to be tried beyond our strength. Put away the idea that we are helpless and impotent under the bludgeonings of chance. There is wisdom, judgment, purpose behind the strokes of the hammer; the blows do not fall wantonly, nor are they meant foi destruction. God Himself is at the forg of life. He is no callous Vulcan or vindictive Jove. And we are His creation. He is the Author and Perfecter of our being, and all things work together for good to them that love Him. In nature around us we find it everywhere taught that where the conditions of heat and cold are too severe plant, animal and human life wilt and die. Certain flora and fauna cannot exist m the tropics or within the Arctic circle, and other species which do appear are stunted and withered. The Eskimo can never rival the Greek because he is physically and intellectually hampered by his bitter climate. There are social conditions and oppressive states which are fatal to civilisation, and we know that, overborne by unmitigated pressure, man may lose all faith, and hope. And yet all realise that a fair, share of hardship develops heroic qualities, and is necessary for high character and wise development. . In the text the Apostle gives to us a divine assurance that God will not try us beyond our strength and our good. He will not suffer us to be tempted beyond what we are able to bear. y We often think our ills and trials and misfortunes are beyond our “Never was sorrow and loss so bitter as ours ” we say. “Never was darkness so ta«iy id plotamd.” But it is not »! Sd's eye is upon us; He m tempermg the wind; He is controlling the storm. He is restraining the blow; and He will not Lffer us to be tried beyond what we me able to bear. With every temptation He will send a way of escape, or rather, the way of escape, the one best suited for the particular circumstance. What it is is not specified, for it depends entirely upon the nature of thq temptation, and temptations are infinite in then- variety. This way of escape is not usually by some miraculous intervention. It most often appears in simple and familiar forms. We sometimes find it through the sympathy and understanding of others. We sometimes gain it in. the quietness of God’s .house. It sometimes comes to us meditating upon God’s word. We often gain the victory through unsuspected powers within ourselves which have been called forth by our misfortune. Perhaps most of all, a way of escape is made known to us when we, with open and trustful heart, wait upon God in prayer. Nothing so clears the spiritual vision, and reveals the path of life, and the resources of God above and about and within us as prayer. The prayer of the righteous man availeth much.

Let us remember, then, that temptation is not sin; it is common to all mankind; it is the testing of character for the perfecting of life, and with every temptation—if we have the single eye and the faithful heart—comes the Way of escape and mastery. Temptation is a light affliction which endures but for a moment and works a far more exceeding weight of glqry. Says Browning:— Was the trial sore?

Temptation sharp? Thank God a second time! Why comes temptation, but for man to 'meet ' And master, and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestaled in triumph! ■ Pray lead us not into such temptation Lord? Yea, but, 0 Thou whose servants are the bold, Lead such temptations by the head and hair, Reluctant dragons up to who dares fight, That so may he do battle and have praise.