hearts are knit up with ours in loving earthly friendship!

Before we go on to consider definitely the methods we may profitably
employ when the battle is actually upon us, let us use an illustration
that may help us to grasp very practically just what our relationship
is to God.

You know a man whom you look up to with profound regard and reverence.
Not only this, {130} but his unfailing goodness to you under many and
various conditions has claimed and won your deepest love and gratitude.
This man has an enemy, a despicable character, universally known to be
devoid of every sentiment of common decency and honour, who has for
years scrupled at no means, even the foulest and most contemptible, to
injure the object of his hate. You know these facts to be true, and
have yourself had the misfortune to have many dealings with him, and
have always found that his actions justify the low opinion that all
right-thinking men have of him. One day this creature has the audacity
to approach you, and try deliberately to turn you against your
benefactor, and to induce you to consent to something that would be to
the dishonour and contempt of the one to whom you owe so much. How
long would you listen to him? Do you think you would stop to weigh
calmly the arguments for and against his proposition? Or would you
not, without a moment's hesitation, turn upon him with indignation, and
drive the contemptible creature from your presence, with a sense of
loathing, almost of contamination, that you had been made to listen to
such a suggestion?

We do not have to go far to find a key to the parable. The benefactor
whom we regard with {131} so deep a reverence is our loving heavenly
Father, who has claimed and won our love through the goodness and mercy
with which He has followed us all the days of our life. The enemy
whose age-long efforts have ever been for His dishonour is the devil,
who seeks to make us the instrument by which he would dishonour God.
When illustrated thus, the audacity of the tempter, and the insulting
character of every temptation, are made plain.

This simple parable will surely enable us to grasp the relations
between God and ourselves and Satan, and with this realization fresh
upon us, we can go on to consider some of the special methods we may
use to overcome God's enemy and ours.

II. _The Divine Example of Humility_

It is interesting to note that when our Lord was assailed in the
wilderness by the Te