ality of Satan and his innumerable fallen angels,
who, though finite and created, possess a scope and power which are,
perhaps, so great that our human thought cannot compass them. But
immeasurably below any of these as it is, our own personality must not
be forgotten, for let it ever be kept in mind that _the issue of our
individual battle depends on ourselves_. The laws of this war are such
that on the one hand the powerful personal will even of the arch-fiend
himself has no power to control us, except in so far as our personal
will, acting with complete freedom, permits it; and on the other hand,
the infinite personal will of God never operates so as to compel us,
unless again our will yield freely to His call. Satan cannot control
or influence us against our wills, and God, reverencing His image in
man, refrains His power {3} and never forces man's love or service.
The will of man is free, and this makes him the central factor in the
spiritual warfare.

II. _Not Peace, but a Sword_

In sending them forth on their first mission, the Prince of Peace
declared to His awe-struck disciples, "I came not to send peace but a
sword."[1] The world being what it was, the Kingdom of Peace was to be
founded only by conflict. Those whom He sent forth to found His Church
understood this principle, and everywhere in the accounts of their
journeys and labours, as well as in the words of counsel they give
their converts, there is the sound of warfare, "the voice of them that
shout for mastery."[2]

Everything indicates that the battle is fierce and desperate. Our Lord
sends His message to the Seven Churches, and to each the reward is only
"to him that overcometh."[3] We are warned of foes without and of
traitors in the inmost citadel of our souls; of the "lusts which war
against the soul";[4] "the law in our members warring against the law
of our mind."[5]

{4}

St. Paul exhorts us repeatedly to "put on the whole armour of God."[6]
He sends his counsel to his son in the faith in order that he "war a
good warfare";[7] he pleads with him "to fight the good fight of
faith,"[8] and to "endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ";[9] and in his last days he bases his own hope of the crown of
life upon the assurance of his conscience that he himself had "fought a
good fight."[10]

So everywhere the New Testament rings with the sound of warfare, the
shock and onset of battle. Everywhere we hear of foes and fighting,