(1) It is a fact of experience, if anything is, that while there are many temptations which beset us all, there is generally one which our own individual nature is specially inclined to; which, if we give way to it, seems, as it were, to swallow up all other temptations. At least, if we examine the other tempta- tions, they seem all to converge on the one point; their distinctive character is lost in that of the " besetting sin," just as when the plague raged at Athens, all other diseases, we are told, seemed to lead up to and to end in it. What that besetting sin is, each must find out for himself and, having found it out, watch.
^ The temptations which we encounter vary according to our temperament and situation. Some seem to seek us, as if there were a diabolical intention lurking in our environment. It is not difficult to account for man's belief in a personal devil and evil
^ J. Aitchison.
ST. MARK 441
spirits. Some temptations seem to rise within us out of the darkness that underlies consciousness. We cannot account for them. They grapple us unawares. They are like foes that fire upon us from some hiding-place within our citadel. Bunyan's description of an experience which Christian had while passing through " the valley of the shadow of death," while exaggerated and almost fantastic, has in it, nevertheless, a note of reality. " I took notice," he says, " that now poor Christian was so con- founded that he did not know his own voice; and thus I perceived it : Just when he was come over against the mouth of the burning Pit, one of the wicked ones got behind him, and stept up softly to him, and whisperingly suggested many grievous blasphemies to him, which he verily thought had proceeded from his own mind. This put Christian more to it than anything he had met with before, even to think that he should now blaspheme Him that he loved so much before ; yet if he could have helped it, he would not have done it. But he had not the discretion neither to stop his ears nor to know from whence those blasphemies came." ^
^ Enter not — e/VfX^jjr? — suggests a territory of temptation to be specially avoided, where the force of allurements to sin is particularly felt, and wher^ the flesh is peculiarly weak. The petition, "Lead us not into temptation," suggests a similar thought, as also the language about our Lord's being led up or driven into the wilderness to be tempted, as though even He would not venture unbidden upon such dangerous ground. There certainly is such territory, and it is found wherever the world, the flesh, or the devil is specially prominent and dominant. Hence the emphatic warnings against these three foes.^
Lead me, 0 Lord,
In still, safe places; Let mine eyes meet
Sweet, earnest faces; Far from the scenes
Of wordly fashion, Of faithless care.
And noisy passion.^
(2) Again, experience has taught us that in the spiritual combat we cannot he too watchful against those sins which we think we have no temptation to commit. It is by these that the penitent too often falls. St. Peter knew he was impetuous and impulsive and impatient ; but unfaithful to his Lord he could 1 P. S. Moxom. « A. T. Pierson. » M. F. Butts.
442 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
not be. " Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee." And ere the cock crowed, he wept bitterly over a bitter fall. Satan may be a very wicked being, but he is a wonderfully good general. He is neither omnipotent nor omniscient, nor omnipresent, but he can use his opportunities. He will not long waste his power on the part which you know is weak, where all your sentries have been doubled, but he will turn to that where you think yourself secure, where you never have been attacked. So it was that the virgin fortress of Babylon fell before the conquering Cyrus. The walls were manned, the sentinels were at their posts, every attack failed ; yet secretly — no watch was set where Euphrates and the brazen gates seemed to mock at danger — the enemy entered and surprised the citadel.^
^ There are temptations that we seek. We put ourselves in their way, either perversely and with the nascent intention to indulge in sin ; or, since they lie in the pathway of some worthy enterprise, with the determination to take the risk for the sake of the end ; or, ignorantly and heedlessly, with our foolish eyes closed to danger.2
1[ " Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty." This was spoken in reference to a nation, but it is also applicable to him who seeks to be God's free man in earth or heaven. We cannot train our spiritual eyes too keenly to see the danger in supposedly unimportant things, which may open the doors of temptation and lead to ruin. In training the inner eye we should learn to observe that which is significant in a reconnoitre and relate it to our safety. A young Western farmer frequented the village bar-room and hitched his team by the saloon. After his con- version he never visited the bar-room, but continued to hitch his team in the same place. The trained and watchful eye of a good old deacon noticed this, and after congratulating the youth upon his conversion said: "George, I am a good deal older than you, and will be pardoned, I know, if I make a suggestion out of my wider Christian experience. No matter how strong you think you are, take my advice and at once change your hitching- post." »