Temptation by S. S. Times

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 30, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 29.

Temptation.

By S. S. Times

THE serpent has found its way into all the Edens of this world. Never, until this mortal puts on immortality, do we put off finally the possibility of sinning. Nowhere can a man go that temptation will not find him. Temptation possesses a free pass on all the railroads, a free berth on all the boats, a free entrance to school-rooms, and business offices, and play-grounds—and even to the churches. Little escape, for example, does the reforming drunkard find in boarding the express train that, with every moment, puts another mile between himself and his old saloon haunts. Old evil associations he indeed leaves behind, but not the old evil thirst, the old fierce temptation. That shares his seat in the train, his state-room on the boat, and halts only when he halts. Temptation finds the hermit in his ascetic retirement as readily as though he mingled with the crowd. Temptation climbs the high and bare and guarded wall of the convent as well as the latticed arbor of the pleasure-seeker. Temptation pays no heed to warnings of "no admittance," be such warnings moral, legal, or ecclesiastical. Temptation's very power for evil is in this constant presence, which leaves not an unguarded moment or movement of the soul unnoticed. Then what? Then we must be vigilant. If temptation insists, we must resist, and must persist in resisting. If the evil is watchful in attack, we must be watchful in defense. And, above all, if temptation tempts us with that subtlest of temptations,—discouragement in the struggle,—let us lean hard on the divine promise that our temptations will never be beyond what we are able to bear. God's help would have made Canaan the land of rest to the Israelites if they had had faith, even while they found it a land of many conflicts. God's love will give us rest amidst our inevitable struggles—if we will rest upon that love.