DISPUTING WITH SATAN

Publishing Committee · Battle Creek, Mich. · Jan 31, 1856

DISPUTING WITH SATAN.

An old and excellent writer gives the following valuable advice: "If you would not be foiled by temptation, do not enter into a dispute with Satan. When Eve began to argue the case with the serpent, the serpent was too hard for her; the devil, with his logic, disputed her out of paradise. Satan can mince sin, make it small, and varnish it over, and make it look like virtue. Satan is too subtle a sophister to hold an argument with him. Dispute not, but fight. If you enter into a parley with Satan, you give him half the victory." The reason is obvious; for we cannot parley with Satan without giving up principle; and whenever we allow ourselves to debate the question, whether we will do wrong, it is almost certain that we shall yield. Principle being abandoned, there is little else to guide, but evil passions, which strongly prompt to sin.