"[13]

(3) Grief at the temptation implies, of necessity, that the will is
still in a state of opposition to the suggestion. "So long as you are
grieved at the temptation, there is nothing to fear, for why does it
grieve you save because your will does not consent to it?"[14] A
glance at the nature of grief shows this to be true. Grief is {159}
the emotion that arises when we are forced to suffer that which is
contrary to the will.[15]

On the other hand, the absence of grief should rouse us to inquire if
our souls be not in a dangerous state of tepidity. If one were
seriously to suggest our doing something that would be a marked
dishonour to an earthly friend and benefactor, there would be an almost
immediate sense of shock and grief that we should be thought capable of
such baseness.

There would, in all likelihood, be a sense of disappointment with
ourselves that we had given so poor a testimony of our love and loyalty
that anyone could think it possible for us to be thus untrue to our
friend. So, along with the grief at the presence of the temptation let
us make sure that there be a very deep searching of heart to find what
there is in our life to encourage the tempter to think we would be
untrue to a Father who has loved us with an everlasting love,[16] and
whose tender compassions are renewed to us every morning.[17]

(4) A consciousness of the existence of temptation is generally a sign
that the will has not wholly, at any rate, yielded consent.

{160}

The entrance of sin into the soul by consent marks the cessation of
struggle, and therefore, when there is still a clear sense of struggle,
we are to conclude that as the temptation is still going on we have not
yet given full consent. Dom Baker assures us that "A well-minded soul
may conclude that there is in the will a refusal to consent to the
suggestion, even in the midst of the greatest disorder thereof, _whilst
the combat does not cease_."[18] Those who are wholly unconscious of
temptation are too often those who have yielded to the tempter, and he
troubles them no more. Those who still feel the pressure of his enmity
can thank God and take courage that the devil still counts them worthy
of his antagonism.

Says Walter Hilton: "The soul needeth to be ever striving and fighting
against the wicked striving of this image of sin, and that he make no
accord with them, nor have friendship with them to be pliable to their
unlawful biddings, for in