The slander of man to God is illustrated by the book of Job (Job i, 9-11 ; ii, 4, 5). In reference to it, Satan is called the "adversary" {dvri^iKoo) of man in 1 Pet. V, 8, and represented in that character in Zech. iii, 1, 2; and more plainly still designifted in Kev. xii, 10 as "the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our (iod day and night." It is difficult for us to understand what can be the need of accusation, or the jiower of slander, under the all-searching eye of God. The men- tion of it is clearly an "accommodation" of God's judg- ment to the analogy of our human experience; but we understand by it a practical and awfid truth, that every sin of life, and even the admixture of lower and evil motives which taints the best actions of man, will rise up against us at the judgment to claim the soul as their own, and fix forever that separation from God to which, through them, we have yielded ourselves. In that ac- cusation Satan shall in some way bear a leading part, pleading against man, with that worst of slander which is based on perverted or isolated facts; and shall be over- come, not by any counter-claim of human merit, but " by the blood of the lamb" received in true and steadfast faith.
But these points, important as they are, are of less moment than the disclosure of the method of Satanic action upon the heart itself. It may be summed up in two words — temptation and possession.
The subject of temptation is illustrated, not only by abstract statements, but also by the record of the temp- tations of Adam and of our Lord. It is expressh' laid down (as in .James i, 2-4) that " temptation," properly so called, i. e. "trial" (Trfipoirjuoc), is essential to man, and is accordingly ordained for him and sent to him by God (as in Gen. xxii, 1). ISIau's nature is progressive; his facidties, which exist at first only in capacity (fiyvrt- ^Ei)) must be brought out to exist in actual efficiency (tvtpyticf) by free exercise. His ajipetites and passions tencl to their objects, simply and inireservedly, without respect to the rightness or wronguess of their obtaining them; they need to be checked by the reason and con- science, and this need constitutes a trial in which, if the conscience prevail, the spirit receives strength and growth ; if it be overcome, tlie lower natm-e tends to predominate, and the man has fallen away. ]?esides this, tiie will itself delights in independence of action. Such independence of physical comriulsion is its high
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privilccje ; but there is over it the moral power of God's law, which, by the very fact of its truth and goodness, acknowledged as they are by the reason and the eon- science, should regulate the human Avill. The need of giving up the individual will, freely and by conviction, so as to be in harmony with the will of (iod, is a still severer trial, with the reward of still greater spiritual progress if we sustain it, with the punishment of a sub- tler and more dangerous fall if we succumb. In its struggle the spirit of man can only gain and sustain its authority by that constant grace of (iod, given through communion of the Holy Spirit, which is the breath of spiritLial life.
It is this tentability of man, even in his original nat- ure, which is represented in Scripture as giving scope to the evil action of Satan. He is called the " tempter" (as in Matt, iv, 3 ; 1 Thess. iii, 5). He has power (as the record of Gen. iii shows clearly), first, to present to the appetites or passions their objects in vivid and capti- vating forms, so as to induce man to seek these objects against the law of God "written in the heart;" and next, to act upon the false desire of the will for inde- pendence, the desire " to be as gods, knowing" (that is, practically, judging and determining) "good and evil." It is a power which can be resisted, because it is under the control and overruling power of God, as is emphat- ically laid down in 1 Cor. x, 13 ; James iv, 7, etc.; but it can be so resisted only by yielding to the grace of God, and by a struggle (sometimes an " agony") in reliance on its strength.
It is exercised both negatively and positively. Its negative exercise is referred to in the paralsle of the sower, as taking away the word, the " engrafted word" (James i, 21) of grace, i. e. as interposing itself, by con- sent of man, between him and the channels of God's grace. Its positive exercise is set forth in the parable of the wheat and the tares, represented as sowing actual seed of evil in the individual heart or the world general- ly; and it is to be noticed that the consideration of the true nature of the tares CiiCwia) leads to the conclusion, which is declared plainly in 2 Ct)r. xi, 1-t, viz. that evil is introduced into the heart mostly as the counterfeit of good.
This exercise of the tempter's power is possible, even against a sinless nature. \Ve see this in the temptation of our Lord. The temptations presented to him appeal, first, to the natural desire and need of food; next, to the desire of power, to be used for good, which is inherent in the noblest minds; and, lastly, to the desire of testing and realizing God's special protection, which is the in- evitable tendency of human weakness, under a real but imperfect faith. The objects contemplated involved in no case positive sinfidness ; the temptation was to seek them by presumptuous or by unlioly means; the answer to them (given by the Lord as the Son of Man, and there- fore as one like ourselves in all the weakness and finite- ness of our nature) lay in simple faith, resting upon God, and on liis word, keeping to his way, and refusing to contemplate the issues of action, which belong to him alone. Such faith is a renunciation of all self-confi- dence, and a simple dependence on the will and on the grace of God.