eeks to force our consent. Often the hardest temptations to
endure are those in which he comes very gently, and with long continued
pressure seeks to weary, and discourage, and break down the will.

It is a fatal error into which scrupulous souls are not infrequently
led, to think that the long continuance of the suggestion, or even of
the delight with which our lower nature responds, constitutes consent.
The devils have a mysterious power, allowed them by God, of holding a
temptation before the soul continuously or repeatedly, and we are often
as powerless to put it away as we are to refuse to see an object which
is actually reflected on the retina of the eye.

How many times have loving hearts that would choose death a thousand
times rather than dishonour our Lord become sick with terror when in
the midst of such prolonged temptation there {127} comes a dread
whisper within, "You have consented, though you knew it not." It is
the voice of the tempter, and the ruse is a favourite one in his
warfare against the soul, for he knows that for us to think we have
sinned is almost as fatal in its effects on the _morale_ of the soul as
to have actually yielded consent.

So when the lying whisper comes, let us cry out against him, charge him
with his lie; and then turning swiftly to our Lord, renew our
allegiance to Him with such strong, passionate acts of love, that the
evil spirit, filled with despair, will take his flight, departing from
us "for a season."

[1] S. Greg. Mag., _Regulae Pastoralis_, III, xxx. See also the
opening paragraph of Dr. Pusey's sermon on "Victory over Besetting
Sin," _Parochial Sermons_, Vol. II.

[2] _Imitation_, I, xiii.

[3] 1 Cor. x, 13.

[4] "Our trial, by God's appointment and mercy, lies mostly in some few
things. We bring trials upon ourselves which God did not intend for
us. We increase manifoldly our own trials by every consent to
sin."--Pusey, _Parochial Sermons_, Vol. II, p. 121.

[5] "Past sin involves present trial, not present sin. When a man has
once turned to God his past sin will not be imputed to him either in
itself, _or in its effects_. One who has given way would by God's just
appointment, visiting for sin, have trials. He need not, if he wills
not by God's grace, have sin." _Ibid._, p. 335.

[6] _Ibid._, p. 334.

[7] _Ibid._, p. 338.

[8] 2 Thess. ii, 12.

[9] Rom. vii, 21-23.

[10] Scupoli, _The Spiritual Combat_ (Pusey's Trans.), chap. xii.

St