(1) The _world is full of peril to the Christian, because it is full of temptation_. The word translated “temptation” in my text really means “testing, trial.” Never a day passes but something happens which puts our moral strength to the test. God does not “tempt” in the sense of inciting to evil; God TESTS. The presence of evil in our world, the incitements to evil that abound, looked at from God’s standpoint, are tests—tests of character, tests of moral strength. But these incitements to evil appeal to weakness and evil in our own hearts, and so to us they become “temptations.” And of such “temptations” our world is full. Bunyan described the Christian life as a journey, but it is a journey through a very dangerous country. There are snares and pit-falls around us on every side. The path leads between a ditch on one side and a quagmire on the other, and along the route are the Slough of Despond, and By-Path Meadow, and Doubting Castle, and the Mount of Error, Broad Way Gate, and Dead Man’s Lane, and Vanity Fair. Yes, the path is one that is surrounded with peril, and to stray from it is a very easy matter. That path is the path of life, and these pitfalls and snares and by-paths that endanger the unwary traveller on every hand, are the temptations that beset a man in life, and lure him to his ruin and death. The old story of the fight between the English and the Scotch at Bannockburn says that Bruce, on the night before the battle, honeycombed the ground in front of his army with pit-falls, each of which contained a hidden stake, and then covered them up again with the green turf. In the morning the English cavalry, when it charged upon the Scottish troops, found that the ground, which looked so firm and solid was deceitful and treacherous, and, falling into these hidden pitfalls, horse and rider met their fate. Does life to you look in prospect like a firm, safe, solid road? I tell you that at every step you take you need to beware of some secret pitfall. Does life appear in prospect to any of you like the still, glassy sea of a summer’s noon? I tell you that beneath that shimmering, smiling surface lie hidden the dark and treacherous rocks which have meant wreck and death to many a voyager. Oh, yes, human life is beset with temptation. No one is exempt from it. No moment of the day is free from it. Incitements to sin abound. Invitations to enter the broad way meet us at every turn. Why is it parents are so anxious, when their children are sent for the first time to fight life’s battles for themselves in a large town? I will tell you. It is because they know that temptations abound. There is temptation in the glare and false gaiety of the public-house. There is temptation in every painted shameless face seen upon our streets. There is temptation in the companionship of foolish and godless friends. There is temptation in the coarse and filthy speech of associates. There is temptation in unclean literature.