n evil. Evil then becomes
our stairway--the servant of Good. By using the evil that we meet
with day by day, we mount daily the nearer to God by that exact
degree of evil which we have overcome by good--that is to say, by
practice of forgiveness, compassion, patience, humility, endurance,
held out over against the invitation of evil to do the exact opposite.
A negligent, thieving, lying servant that we have to deal with calls
forth forgiveness, and humility also, for are we a perfect servant to
our Lord? The evil of a drunken husband may be used by the wife as
a sure ladder to God, for because of this evil she may learn to
practise all the virtues of the saints. Truly if we have the will to use
it, Evil is friendly. If we misuse Evil--that is to say, if we do not use
it by mounting on it but, intoxicated with its glamour, consent to
it,--this is Sin, and immediately the stairway is not that of ascent
but of descent and death.

The Master says "Resist not evil." How are we to understand this but
by assuming that if we try our strength against Evil, Evil is likely to
overcome us? but on being confronted with Evil we should instantly
hold on to and join with the forces of Good and so have strength
quietly to continue side by side with Evil without being seduced by
it. When Evil cannot seduce--that is to say, make us consent to
it,--then for us it is conquered. When we give in or conform to this
seduction we generate Sin. Let us say that we are in temptation, that
Evil of some sort confronts and invites us; if we battle with this
presentment, this picture, this insinuating invitation held out before
us by Evil, the act of contending with the invitation will fix it all the
more firmly in our minds. We need to substitute another picture,
another invitation, another presentment, of that which pertains to the
good and the beautiful. He who has learnt so to substitute and
present before his own heart and mind Jesus and the pure and
beautiful invitations of this Divine Jesus can solve the difficulty.
This is not contending, this is substituting; this is transferring
allegiance from the glamour of Evil which is present with us, to the
glamour of God, which, because we are in temptation, is not present,
but is yet hoped and waited for.

To return again to the lying, dishonest, and negligent servant. If we
argue, contend, and battle morally with this evil servant we do not
alter him, but by this contention generate antagonism. The