The Warfare of the Soul Part 16

[15] Speaking of certain temptations which result from past faults of our own, Dr. Pusey says, "They are suffering, not sin; nay, so long as they are suffering they are not sin."--_Parochial Sermons_, II, 334.

[16] Jer. x.x.xi, 3.

[17] Lam. iii, 22, 23.

[18] Baker, _Sancta Sophia_, p. 237.

[19] Hilton, _The Scale of Perfection_, Bk. II, Pt. 2, chap. iv.

[20] Rev. ii and iii.

[21] Isa. x.x.x, 7.

[22] St. Francis de Sales, _Spiritual Letters_, x.x.xvii.

[23] Hilton, _The Scale of Perfection_, Bk. II, Sec. 1, chap. viii.

[24] Baker, _Sancta Sophia_, p. 413.

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CHAPTER XI

THE SCHOOL OF THE HOLY GHOST

One of the most precious promises in Holy Scripture which is repeatedly made to the faithful is that they shall be taught of G.o.d. "Them that are meek shall He guide in judgment, and such as are gentle them shall He learn His way."[1] "I will inform thee, and teach thee in the way wherein thou shalt go; and I will guide thee with Mine eye."[2] "All thy children shall be taught of the Lord";[3] "The Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things";[4] "He will guide you into all truth."[5]

I. _The Teaching of Temptation_

One of the chief courses of instruction in the School of the Holy Spirit is that of temptation. Victory over Satan is a very glorious achievement, but it is only half, and so far as our earthly life is affected, the smaller half, of G.o.d's purpose in sending and permitting temptation. He means {167} us in every battle to gain a knowledge of self, a knowledge of our weak points, that realizing them our wills may be incited to co-operate with His to re-enforce them.[6]

(1) One of the first lessons it is needful for us to learn is that when great difficulty is experienced in resisting a temptation we are to regard the point of this particular a.s.sault as one that requires strengthening. How wonderfully does the divine wisdom force Satan himself to be our instructor and, in permitting him to buffet us, compel him to proceed according to a principle which teaches the soul its own needs, and so turns to his own undoing, and to the profit of the one who is tempted.

Even when, for the time being, he gains a victory, the same principle holds good. After true penitence has come to make good the breach, how much has the soul learned, how sensitive it is at that particular point, how alert to perceive any renewed attack, how full of a holy desperation that the same disaster come not again.

Satan's desire is to keep us in ignorance of our {168} weakness, and he would persuade the sinner that his relation with G.o.d is at all points what it ought to be. Then, having soothed the soul with the opiate of deception, he would bind us hand and foot. But whatever he may be able to do with those who have submitted themselves to his unholy will, G.o.d will not have it so with those who are seeking to be faithful, but forces Satan to act as His messenger to warn us.

"Temptations," it has been said, "are often very profitable to us though they be troublesome and grievous."[7] We have much to learn in the consideration of this saying. Why should a child of G.o.d who is daily and consciously receiving and enjoying the gifts of a loving Father find the direct solicitation to offend Him so difficult to overcome? If one whom we knew to be our enemy should try to persuade us to commit some act that would be a deep dishonour to a loving earthly parent, we should not find it hard to repel the suggestion.

More than this, the fact that such a thing had been proposed would instinctively impel us to some immediate word or act of devotion, that would leave no shadow of doubt upon our love and loyalty.

An answer to this question comes from the Holy Ghost in the very temptation that is vexing us, for in it He would teach us two truths:

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(1) The first is a very humiliating one, namely, that although our reason recognizes our relation and duty to G.o.d, yet somewhere in our nature there is a powerful tendency to choose evil rather than good, the service of Satan rather than the love of G.o.d.

The Apostle describes his own experience in his letter to his Roman converts. "That which I do, I allow not," he says, "for what I would, that I do not, but what I hate, that I do.... The good that I would, that I do not, but the evil which I would not, that I do."[8]

Nor need we be in the dark concerning its extent, for the struggle for the right is always grievous in proportion to the strength of the tendency to choose what Satan offers.

(2) Again, when G.o.d permits a temptation that is hard to overcome, He is giving us a sign that should teach us that our love for Him is wanting, and that He means us to try by every means to increase it. We ought to be able to act towards G.o.d as we do when one whom we love with an earthly love is involved. We read the lives of the Saints, and we see with what ready indignation they rejected Satan's suggestions. It was because their hearts were full of love for G.o.d; and when they were asked to {170} dishonour Him, they felt that an indignity had been put upon them, and they rose up against it with all the force of a nature made strong and pure by divine grace.

II. _The Bulwark of Love_

At the risk of a digression, we must here consider how we can increase our love and acquire that quality in our souls which will enable us to meet with a sense of outrage any persuasion to violate G.o.d's will.

The difficulty we experience in repelling Satan points directly to the duty of practising those things which will give us an increase of love and loyalty to G.o.d. This is to be accomplished by the execution of some practical resolution which might be framed in this fas.h.i.+on: "I found it hard to refrain from wounding Him; I know, therefore, that my love for G.o.d is weaker than I thought. I will therefore this day seek to increase my love in two ways: (1), I will watch for the evidence of His love for me, and will meditate upon it, and upon my unworthiness of it; (2), I will, by His help, force opportunity of doing a definite number of loving acts toward Him and others, that by the practice of love I may increase my love."

Then if we would secure a sure increase of love, {171} we must permit no sort of indefiniteness to enter into the fulfilment of our resolution. It must be carried out with precision.

For our meditation, nothing could be more profitable than to write out with fulness and care the account of some blessing that has come to us through G.o.d's love; and by the side of it write a like definite account of some infidelity of ours toward Him. The shame of the contrast, if our hearts be not wholly bad, cannot but drive us to Him with a fuller desire, which will win from Him the gift of a renewed and strengthened love.

The acts, too, must be of the most definite kind. Go out of your way to speak or do some loving thing, offering it, at the time, to G.o.d as your work of love to Him. Or it may be some simple act of prayer, such as kneeling with great recollection and deliberation, folding the hands, and lifting the heart in silence for a moment to G.o.d, then repeating, very reverently and devoutly, the Lord's Prayer, or some other short devotion. Then, after a pause, add, "Dear Lord, I offer Thee this, to show Thee that I love Thee, and that I want to love Thee more"; or some such little prayer as that of Fenelon's: "Lord, take my heart, for I cannot give it Thee; and when Thou hast it, keep it, for I cannot keep it for Thee; and save me in spite of my sins."

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Many a sinner has followed some such simple, child-like method, and G.o.d's response has come into his heart with a thrill of awakening love that has startled it with its sweetness and power, and filled him with a keen sense of personal dishonour at ever again wounding the heart of Jesus by parleying even for a moment with the tempter.

III. _The Lesson of Humility_

The greatest of all lessons the Holy Ghost teaches us is that of humility. Thomas a Kempis shows that one of the special points of profit in temptation lies in the fact that in it "a man is humbled."[9]

The most necessary virtue the Christian soul must learn is that of humility. When our Lord would give His disciples the chief reason why they should learn of Him, He said it was because, "I am meek and lowly in heart."[10]

It was a common expression of the Fathers of the Church that humility is the mother and mistress of all virtues, and they loved to see in the etymology of the word (_humus_, earth), the suggestion of the soil under our feet, in which, though often unpleasant and repulsive, all fair flowers and fruits have their root and draw their sustenance.

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We have only to consider pride, the vice which is the contrary of humility, to understand what is meant by the statement that without humility no other virtue can exist.

The first of the great virtues, Faith, can certainly not exist along with pride, for it is of the essence of pride to make for self-confidence, as opposed to trust in G.o.d or in anyone else besides one's self.

Hope cannot exist, for the true G.o.d-ward Hope which const.i.tutes this virtue has in it an element of meekness and patient waiting on G.o.d that is incompatible with the presence of pride.

Nor can Love and pride exist in the same heart, for love is necessarily unselfish, and the proud soul is essentially bound up in self.

How then are we to obtain this so necessary virtue of humility? St.

Bernard gives us the answer, an answer by no means original with him, however, but which has been the burden of the spiritual masters of every age of the Church. "_Humility is nurtured only by humiliations_." The soul that constantly rejects that which humiliates can never acquire the virtue of humility, for it is deliberately refusing to learn the lesson set for it by the Holy Ghost.

Let us not be surprised if G.o.d then sets very definite lessons for us in the school of humility. {174} We should not be so foolish as to think we could acquire the knowledge of an earthly trade or profession, without applying ourselves to the lessons set for us. If a young man applied to a lawyer to be allowed to study the law under his direction, he would feel that it was hopeless if the lawyer said: "You need not trouble to work at this thing very much. Just stay around my chambers for a year or so, and you will find yourself a pretty good lawyer."

This would not satisfy him. He wants to be told that the law is a jealous mistress, that he must labour long and hard if he would win her honours. His common sense tells him that this is necessary. But, alas, in learning the highest of all knowledge, that of humility, we refuse to use common sense. We think we can acquire it without the lesson of humiliation.

(1) Temptation humbles the soul by showing it the possibilities of its degradation. Satan knows us much better than we know ourselves, and it is not likely that he would solicit us to commit a certain sin unless he saw something in us that encouraged him to think we would, with some persuasion, be willing to do it. Let us be sure that the presence of a special temptation, however it may at the time repel us, is the proof that there is something definite in our {175} nature that would be attracted by this solicitation, if the grace of G.o.d were not holding us back. So temptation brings self-knowledge, and self-knowledge is the first degree of humility.