Your ShelfYour Projects

TEMPTATIONS

25%

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, Cal. · Nov 24, 1887

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 13, No. 45.

Read the full edition

TEMPTATIONS.

By A. W. Thorold

TEMPTATION is the condition of human life, and to try to flee from it in one shape is often only to provoke it in another. Every period of life, every class in society, every occupation and calling, duties as well as pleasures, work as well as rest, contain within them the elements of an incessant temptation, which it is at once our folly to ignore, our discipline to encounter, and our glory to overcome. It is no sin to be tempted, for Jesus, the sinless One, was tempted in all things like as we are, yet without sin. It is no weakness to feel the temptation grievous, for Jesus again “suffered being tempted.” Heb. 2:18.
The mistake is to run into temptation of our own accord. The sin is in listening to the voice of the charmer until our hearts go out after the forbidden sweetness, and it is all up with us. The weakness is in our great terror at the noise of the waves and the darkness of the sky, to gaze upon the danger till we are rapidly sinking into it and till it is almost too late to call out to him who rides upon the storm, “Lord, save us; we perish!” Matt. 8:25.
Yet if our enemies are here, our Saviour is here as well. “The name of the Lord is a strong tower; the righteous runneth into it, and is safe.” Prov. 18:10. If the assaults of the enemy all but exhaust us, and, like Christian with Apollyon, our sword flies out of our hand when we want it most, and the battle is all but decided against us, at the last moment the way to escape shall appear, that we may be able to bear it; for “when the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the Lord shall lift up a standard against him.” Isa. 59:19. The table in the wilderness is spread by the Lord’s own hand. He who provided a morning meal by the Sea of Galilee for his seven disciples, wearied by their night’s toil; he who fed the five thousand on their way to the passover because he pitied them as sheep having no shepherd, will be to his own tempted and wearied servants what the good Samaritan was to the wounded traveler, healing their wounds, supplying their needs, and comforting their hearts.—Dr. A. W. Thorold.