The spy seeks to know when and where a blow may be struck in the enemy's lines, at a place of least resistance. The soul battles are exactly the same; we have no special battles where we are strong; things that might overcome another will mean nothing to us. Our battles are ever fought around the points of weak fortification; the enemy rarely, if ever, has the pleasure of shouting over our downfall from the best that is in us. The victories of athletic games--the pugilistic bouts in the sporting arena, the mortal duel with rapiers, the battle-fields where thousands fell--have been lost and won by the application of this principle. The general with his field-glass sees a weakening in the enemy's line and orders a charge; the duelist observes a shortening of breath or an awkward movement and seizes the opportunity. It is the weak link in the chain of life that breaks; sins of the lower nature--sensuality--might not appeal to some who fall an easy victim to pride, ambition, or covetousness; others who are liberal, honest to the cent, unassuming, are helpless when tempted in the realm of lower passions. We are at an incalculable disadvantage when our enemy is familiar with our vulnerable points. So long as the heart is unregenerated and unpurified by the cleansing power of the Holy Ghost, Satan has access to every nook and corner of our heart life. He enters and discovers every vulnerable and invulnerable section of the soul's fortification. The tempted and fallen are often unable to tell how it was done. "Why did you go there?" or, "Why did you do it?" Oh, so many, many times do we hear the answer: "I do not know." A friend once showed me a little iron safe in which he kept his valuable papers. This safe had a very ingenious lock; the combinations were such, and the mechanism so wonderful, that it was capable of _three hundred thousand combinations_. Why and how are sane men and women overcome? They were met at a certain place, under peculiar circumstances; met by several--a word, a smile, an argument, a pressure of the hand. How was it done? They do not know. Somehow the attack came in a way which rendered them helpless to resist. One effort failed--a dozen failed; but as often as it failed the Expert changed the _combination_, until the door yielded, and an entrance into the citadel of Mansoul was effected. _Three hundred thousand combinations._ The spy has information from within; and, therefore, the most dangerous man in the army. Satan, by his supernatural powers directing his practice and experience for several millenniums, is a crafty, sagacious spy, acquainted with all the weaknesses and emotions of the human heart. Who is equal to such an enemy? Contending alone, _no one_ on this sin-burdened footstool. XIV THE QUACK DOCTOR "Having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away."--_2 Timothy iii. 5._