s, in many cases, mean that the
tempter is working in the dark.

(7) Great comfort must be found in the thought of the victory that
awaits us if we are faithful. This should not arise merely from the
sense of relief at escaping a fall, but from the happy thought that in
every such victory, great or small, Satan is weaker in my life than he
was before, and God and His love are stronger. True, great conflicts
may be still in store for me, but I have greater strength than ever
before for meeting them and overcoming. So while the warfare
continues, the soul grows keener for the struggle, and finds greater
joy in it, because it realizes its strength, and rejoices, as does
every strong man, to use it.

Many other points of consolation may be found in the spiritual combat,
but these will suffice to show us how much of joy there is in the
active, militant life of the Christian, if we only try to find it.

Let us, then, thank God for temptation, and if it presses us hard, let
us rejoice the more, for it is His way of sending us the pledge of our
peace with Him, the guerdon of His love.

{183}

V. _How to Learn our Lessons_

How are we going to recognize all these lessons as they are presented
by the Spirit? There is hardly time in the thick of the battle to
pause to think these things out, as we have done in the quiet hour we
have given to the reading of this chapter. The soldier cannot stop to
draw calm conclusions, and to study the purpose and effect of tactical
movements, when the enemy is thundering at the gate, and all but making
his way in.

One simple suggestion may help us. Let us make a practice of studying
our past temptations, as soldiers are wont to study the great military
campaigns of history in order to learn methods of warfare. Go to some
War College and see the eager young officers as they follow a skilled
instructor, all poring intently over a diagram of some battle fought
and won a century ago. "Here Napoleon made his mistake; there was the
movement by which the field was won; that splendid manoeuvre turned the
enemy's flank." They study every move, the effect it wrought, whether
it failed or succeeded, and why. And thus, combined with their own
practice, men learn the art of war.

In some such way let it be with us in the spiritual conflict. The
School of the Holy Ghost is a {184} War College in which the campaigns
of the armies of God and Satan are to be studied under the guidance of