TEMPTATION

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 74, Issue 138, 13 June 1931, Page 13 (Supplement)

TEMPTATION

MORE QUESTIONS ANSWERED

(By H.G.G ) “There is temptation in business, in tho home, at work, at play. Where is it temptation does not lurk? It penc trates everywhere. It found its way into Paradise of old, and Adam yielded to its power. Who is free from it? Not one. Wherever man is, there tempt a lion is. There is no escape from it.” Anthony of Thebes resorted tu a cave in the mountains, there to give himself to pious contemplation and to the conquest of the evil propensities of his nature. The very desires which he wished to crucify, grew strong ami multiplied in his morbid fancies. Evil spirits wrestled with him and left t him fainting and wounded. To the many who sought him he warned against the errors of his own experience, telling them to occupy their minds with good thoughts and healthful work, and thus rid themselves of evil imaginations. Temptation and Sin. But is there not moral disgrace in temptation? No. What, then, constitutes guilt? Yielding. We must always distinguish two very different things — temptation and sin. Henry Drummond deals trenchantly with the distinction between the two in “Baxter’s Second Innings,” a book all parents would do well to put into the nauds of their young folk. It only costs ninepence but leaches invaluable lessons. The captaiu speaks of the bowler alternating. “He’ll send in one ball slow, the next swift, and the third perhaps a wide, to throw you off your guard—dodgy Baxter, isn’t it?” “It’s downright low,” he cried. . . . “Whv do they let him play?” “They let him play,” replied the captain, “to make a good game. Every boy who is worth his salt likes to play in a great match, and there cannot be a great match without him.” “I thought it a disgrace to have anything to do with him.” “No. It is an honour.” “An honour!” “Yes, the greatest honour of a boy ’s life. You have heard of the wise man who ‘counted it joy.’ ” “Joy! I count it uncommon hard lines. It ’s bad enough to call<it an honour, but to call it joy— I. find it most disgustingly miserable.” “Stop,” said the captain, “we aro at cross purposes. You are talking about Siu. I was not.” “About what then?” “About temptation.” “But they’re the same thing.” “They’re as different as night and day- Temptation is not sin.” “I don’t see how

that can be,” said Baxter; “I never dreamt it was anything else. Arc you quite sure?” “Positive. You can see for yourself. Did Christ ever sin?” “No.” “Was He ever tempted?’ “Well, sometimes.” “No, not sometimes, always. A boy can be tempted every hour of the day, yet he need not sin. Keep that distinction in mind, Baxter; it will save you a lot of trouble. Don’t think it’s all up because you are tempted. Temptation is only an invitation; it does not become sin until you accept it. . . The guilt of dbing wrong, when one does do it, is quite enough to stagger under without feeling that the temptation is criminal.” Later in the conversation the captain speaks of “Temptation as the greatest bowler in the world.” “All the same, I wish 1 had not to play him,” said Baxter. “Then you would never come to anything. You would be a poor weak noodle to the end of the chapter. A boy ’s only chance of coming to anything is when ho is tempted. That’s what makes a boy play up. How could you score if there were no bowling?’’’ Have you, my friend, confused sin and temptation in your mind, as Baxter did? Would you rejoice to have temptation banished from your life? Then you must cease to really live at all. Untried faith is of little value. Gold left in the quartz cannot be used. Hammering and refining are essential. When your character—your moral purpose and spiritual ideal —is tried ami tested in the furnace of temptation, rejoice, for only therein can you become malleable in the hands of the great

Al as ter. The process of temptation merging into actual sin is given by James in his powerful Epistle. First, there is the appeal; then, when the man listens to it, temptation ami his will arc married, and the result is sin; and then, when sin has done its full work, the result is death. Deliverance. If we cannot escape temptation, how can we best overcome it? As our Alas ter triumphed through complete loyalty to the will of God, so we safeguard ourselves by the surrender of our nature to the Spirit of Christ. R. L. Stevenson tells a story of a young man travelling in Spain, and in a lonely part, finding lodgement’ in an old castle. In a room he occupied there hung on the wall tho picture of a beautiful but. sen suous woman. Gradually the woman’s face inflamed his imagination. It. bo came an obsession which he could not. break off. Even in sleep the face haunt ed him. awaking him with evil thoughts and poisoning his heart and mind. Vain ly he struggled against it. but without success; the image pursued him wher ever he went. In this castle in which ho lived he had only seen the senor and his wife, both of noble origin but pool One day, passing up the staircase, he met face to face their daughter, ol whose existence even he was ignorant Young and beautiful, their eyes met, and in that momentary glance love, fresh and pure, awoke in his heart. Fill ed with its strange glow ami amaze meat he entered his room and looked up at the picture. Then he found its spoil was gone. Instead of holding him he felt hatri'il ami shame. T'he pure affection had done what no mental struggle could do. Such is the expulsive power of a pure affection. Victory over sin is not gained by self-effort, but by opening tho heart to the love of Christ. His love rushing in sweeps all foul affections out, and raises the whole being into the heights of peace and victory.