f all, then, "the bare thought,"--_simplex cogitatio_,--"comes
to the mind"; or more literally _runs upon_ (_occurit_), the mind. The
word {110} is full of action. The suggestion of evil does not drift
into the mind in any merely accidental way. It is propelled from
without by a strong, alert intelligence,--none other than the
Tempter,--and under just the conditions and circumstances that his
experience shows him are the most advantageous for his uses. A Kempis
doubtless had here in mind St. Paul's thought, expressed to the
Corinthians, "There hath no temptation _taken_ you, but such as is
common to man";[3] the idea being that of the temptation laying hold of
the soul as a warrior might take hold upon his adversary in battle.

He proposes the evil thing, not perhaps as a thing sinful in itself,
for, as we have already seen, his experience has taught him that few
souls, even of the most depraved, can be induced to accept evil for
evil's sake. He presents it sometimes under the guise of that which is
positively good; or perhaps, with an assumption of great virtue, he
acknowledges it to be wrong in itself, but seeks to persuade us that it
would be right for us to make an exception of ourselves under the
peculiar circumstances that are present.

It is necessary for us to study with care the subject of suggestion of
sin, lest either through Satan's wiles, or our own ignorance, we be
deceived, to our soul's hurt. It is at this point {111} that we must
understand the difference between temptation and sin. The failure to
grasp this difference has been the cause of great distress to many
faithful souls; it has been the root of fatal discouragement in
numberless cases, and, in not a few, of downfall and final wreck.

The suggestion may often be the result of our past unfaithfulness. It
is not always easy to trace the pedigree of a temptation, but in most
cases it is highly likely that it is to be traced back to some failure
of our own in the past. Men indulge themselves; they whet the
imagination with evil thought and conversation and reading. They
develop their passions by giving rein to them. By continued failure to
resist, they go on in the same sin under many varying conditions, until
a hundred commonplace, every-day happenings, entirely innocent in
themselves, become charged with sinful suggestions, recalling the old
sin whenever they occur. It is as though a commander should plant
powerful batteries about his