Produced by Al Haines THE WARFARE OF THE SOUL _PRACTICAL STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF TEMPTATION_ BY SHIRLEY C. HUGHSON PRIEST OF THE ORDER OF THE HOLY CROSS WITH A PREFACE BY THE REV. ALFRED G. MORTIMER, D.D. _Rector of St. Mark's, Philadelphia_ LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA 1910 _Copyright_, 1910, _by_ LONGMANS, GREEN, AND Co. _The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. U.S.A._ {v} PREFACE If we desired to describe our life here in one word, that word might be _Temptation_. From one point of view the purpose for which we are put into this world is to be tempted, that is, to be tried or tested, in order that the wheat among us may be separated from the chaff, and that the children of light may be manifested and divided from the children of darkness. This _testing_, however, is not only that the good may be separated from the bad, it is the means by which the good becomes good; for by it latent virtues are developed and a character fitted for heaven is formed. Let us regard a little child just baptized--it is an innocent child of God, but what is innocence? In many respects a beautiful attribute, but a purely negative one; for it is the attribute of an _untried_ soul. That child must pass through the wilderness of temptation, and with the result either that the innocence will be transformed into _sanctity_ or will be lost and give place to sin. When our Lord was baptized, as He came up {vi} out of the water, the Voice from heaven proclaimed, "This is my Beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased," and we read "_Then_ was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil," and the temptation was a testing on the part of the Evil One, whether He were indeed the Son of God. So each child in baptism is made by the operation of the Holy Ghost the child of God, and _then_ his whole life is a being led by one of two spirits--the Spirit of God, leading him through temptation to sanctity, or the spirit of evil leading him by temptation into sin. For St. Paul tells us, doubtless referring to this, that, "As many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God." This however must be proved by temptation.