heavenly
favours which God has in store for the victor. Calling us forth to the
battle is just His way of calling us to lay hold of some increase of
strength He has prepared for us.

(3) Great comfort is laid hold of by the soul in contemplating that in
temptation God is but furnishing us the opportunity to carry out His
commands,--"Lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven";[16] and, "Work
out your own salvation with fear and trembling."[17] Unless such
commands are fulfilled there can be no redemption for us. God has done
His part and done it perfectly. So far as His work is concerned, He
could, when yielding up His soul on the Cross, most truly cry, "It is
finished,"[18] for everything necessary for God to do in order that man
might lay hold on salvation was accomplished. But man must have his
part. Salvation can come to no soul that does not labour for it, and
temptation is the opportunity definitely prepared and presented to us
by a loving God that the work of the Cross may not for us have been
wrought in vain. Therefore great consolation must come with every
assault, and as we feel the weight and thrust of the awful conflict,
let us joyfully cry, "Now is the accepted time; now is the day {181} of
salvation! Why art thou so heavy, O my soul, and why art thou so
disquieted within me! Look up and lift up your head, for your
redemption draweth nigh!"[19]

(4) The greater and more prolonged the temptation, the greater should
be our consolation. The fact that the assault is fierce and persistent
gives the blessed assurance that the soul has been faithful in the
little temptations. The tempter realizes that if he is to have us at
all, it must be at great cost and labour; that we are not going to sell
ourselves cheap.

(5) We sometimes hear men complain against God's justice because He
permits souls to be so beset by the Evil One; but as a matter of fact
his antagonism reassures us on this very point. Temptation is Satan's
tribute to the divine justice. He is the Accuser of the brethren, and
in tempting us he is acknowledging that he must have something real
wherewith to accuse us at the Judgment.

(6) When strange, terrible, and unaccustomed flashes of temptation
come, we learn with great joy that the tempter is puzzled concerning
us. Our steadfast service of God has baffled him, and he can only
experiment with us, as it were, hoping a weak point may by some means
be {182} discovered. Such temptation