mpted like as we are."[12] No one was
ever so beset with temptation as He was, and if constant temptation be
a sign of something wrong within, then no one was ever quite so far
{178} gone from righteousness as was our Lord Christ Himself.[13]

Something is indeed wrong, from Satan's point of view, with the soul
whom he besets with many snares. He is not satisfied with us. There
is altogether too much divine love and power in our hearts to please
him, and so he sets the battle in array against us. Surely it is a
thankworthy thing, one that must bring great joy, to have the evidence
that Satan regards us as his enemy.

Suppose no temptation assailed us,--what a terrible significance this
would have! When we went to prayer, or to Communion, or about the
commonplace, God-sent duties of the day, what a fearful thing it would
be if Satan, observing us, were to reflect that he had no reason to
attack us because, do what we might, he was sure that no harm could
come to his kingdom through us!

There are men in the world, many of them, indeed, who have no
temptations, and who cite the absence of such experience as proof that
the Christian teaching concerning the devil and his work is false.

{179}

Alas, they know not their own misery, for "never art thou more strongly
set upon than when thou believest thou art not at all assaulted."[14]
Satan does not assail them, and in thus refraining he acts on the same
principle as does a warring king who lays no siege to a fortress that
is already in his possession, whose sometime defenders lie in his
dungeons, chained hand and foot.

But as we saw in our first chapter when considering the terms of this
warfare, the captivity that such untempted souls are enduring is no
idle, passive confinement in some spiritual prison. These worldly
souls are the most effective soldiers of him whose very existence and
power they deny. He has no reason to unmask himself to them. He
"leaves them alone, they are doing his work. The blasphemer is not
tempted to blaspheme. Why should he be? He blasphemes already. The
unbeliever is not tempted to unbelief,--he has lost his faith. The
scoffer is no longer tempted to scoffing,--he scoffs enough already to
satisfy even the 'god of this world.'"[15]

(2) Temptation is also an advertisement to the soul that God has some
special mark of His love to bestow at the particular time.

{180}

Every occasion of temptation is pregnant with graces and