4. The Protevangelium lays down a great ethical principle. There is to be a continual spiritual struggle between man and the manifold temptations by which he is beset. Evil promptings and suggestions are ever assailing the sons of men ; and they must be ever exerting themselves to repel them. It is of course true that the great and crowning defeat of man's spiritual adversary was accomplished by Him who was in a special sense the " seed " of the woman, the representative of humanity, who overcame once and for all the power of the Evil One. But the terms of the verse are perfectly general; and it must not be interpreted so as to exclude those minor, though in their own sphere not less real, triumphs by which in all ages individuals have resisted the suggestions of sin and proved themselves superior to the power of evil. It is a prolonged and continuous conflict which the verse contemplates, though one in which the
GENESIS III. 15 93
law and aim of humanity is to be to resist, and if possible to slay, the serpent which symbolizes the power of temptation.
^ "I have a theory," says Hubert Bland in his volume of essays entitled, With the Eyes of a Man — " I have a theory that the nation which shortens its weapons wins its battles." I am not clear as to how that theory would work out in the sphere of lower warfare; although even there the practice of long range artillery must be pressed home at the point of the bayonet if victory is to be secured. But in the sphere of the higher warfare it is certainly true ; if you want to win you must shorten your weapons ; you must look your enemy in the white of his eyes ; you must come to close grips with him.^
And evermore we sought the fight, but stiU Some pale enchantment clouded all our will, So that we faltered; even when the foe Lay, at our sudden onset, crushed and low, Afl a flame dies, so passed our wrath away — And fatal to us was the battle-day.
Yet we went willingly, for in our ears
With shrill reiteration, the blind years
Taunted ub with our dreams — our dreams more vain
Than on bare hills the fruitless fall of rain;
Vain as the unaccomplished buds of spring
Which fade and fall, and know no blossoming.
Wherefore we, being weary of the days
Which dumbly passed and left no word of praise,
And ever as the good years waned to less,
Growing more weary of life's barrenness,
Strove with those dreams which bound our spirits fast,
Lest even death should prove a dream at last.
So evermore we fought — and always fell;
Yet was there no man strong enough to quell
Our passionate, sad life of love and hate;
Tireless were we and foes insatiate.
Though one should slay us — weaponless and dim
We bade our dreams ride forth and conquer him.*
The subject, then, is the struggle of man with temptation. It is represented as a conflict between the seed of the woman, for every man must take his part in it, and the seed of the serpent,
^ £. W. L«wi8. ' Margaret Sackville.
94 THE CONFLICT OF THE AGES
for the struggle will be according to the circumstances of our own time and our own life. Let us look first at the origin of this conflict, next at the progress of it, and then at the end of it.
I.
The Origin of the Conflict.
i Its Beginning.
1. Creation of Men and Angels. — God made three different orders of creatures. The first we call Angels ; the second Men ; and the third includes the lower animals and all other created things. He created them all for obedience. But with a difference. The third order — the lower animals and all other lower things, whether living or dead — He created for obedience pure and simple ; but angels and men He created for obedience through love. The beasts obey because they have no choice. The sun rises and sets with unvarying regularity, and we use it to point the moral of punctual obedience.
It never comes a wink too soon, Nor brings too long a day.
But it has no credit for that. It simply cannot help it. It was made to obey, and it has no choice but unwavering obedience. Angels and men were made for obedience also, but not for mechanical obedience. They were made to obey through love. The sun was made to do God's bidding; angels and men were made to love the Lord with all their heart. Now love implies choice. There must be freedom. I cannot love if I cannot do else but love. I cannot love unless I am also free to hate. There must be freedom of choice. So angels and men were left free to choose good or evil, and it is recorded that some angels and all men chose evil
2. Fall of Angels and of Men. — The fall of the angels is not fully related in Scripture, since it does not concern us to know its circumstances. We do not even know for certain what was the cause of it. Shakespeare makes Wolsey say —