We must not, however, leave the matter at {50} this point, lest some be "swallowed up with overmuch sorrow,"[17] and find only despair where they looked for consolation. In the spiritual combat, unceasing as it is, there are many considerations which offer comfort. These we shall not here meditate upon at length. They will find their place before we close our study of this holy warfare. But it will help and encourage us to remind ourselves that in this struggle the exercise of strength does not exhaust the soul. In the moment that we seem weakest, then are we strong, because Christ's strength is made perfect in our weakness.[18] Then it is that God teaches us our own insufficiency that we may look not to anything that we have or do, but to Him that He may send us "help from the sanctuary and strengthen us out of Sion."[19] Great strain upon bodily strength depletes it, but the more unsparing the call upon our spiritual energies, the more are they confirmed and increased. Then again, the harder the battle, the more splendid the victory and the reward. Every Satanic device and energy that is directed against us does but swell the opportunity for a more glorious place in the Kingdom. So à Kempis {51} says: "These help to virtue; these test the young soldiers of Christ; these fashion the heavenly crown."[20] Thus does evil react upon itself for its own destruction, and surely none but a pusillanimous soul will desire to flee the honour of being used as the sure occasion and instrument of the glory of our God, and of the overthrow of Satan. III. _The Sufferings of the Saints_ The holy author of the "Imitation of Christ" tells us, "No man is so perfect and holy as not sometimes to have temptations."[21] The universality of temptation is found not only in respect to outward condition and circumstance, but also in respect to the character of those against whom Satan directs his malice. Saintly souls longing for a still greater saintliness, if they truly discern the things of the Spirit, will not fall into the snare of thinking that perhaps some day in this life they will become so like our Lord that temptation can never more vex and torment them. To become like Him will be to invite more desperate {52} attacks. The more we are conformed to His likeness, the more must we expect to arouse the hatred and malice of the Evil One. He who is the Holy of Holies was, just because of that fact, tempted as never other man was tempted. Not only is our greater conformity to Christ the signal for Satan's attack, but we must expect the particular occasions of God's outpouring of grace upon us to be also the occasions of special and perhaps immediate assault. It was so with our Lord. There are few words in the narrative of stronger or more valuable significance than the adverb with which St. Matthew begins the fourth chapter of his Gospel: "_Then_ was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil."