St. James tells us, "Blessed is the man that endureth temptation; for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him."[35] This apostolic beatitude can hardly be said to refer only to the blessedness that comes from so meeting temptation as merely to escape sin. This would make the beatitude a poor thing that might {60} be supposed to belong as truly to the man who is never tempted at all. The Apostle is, we can be sure, speaking of a special blessing that comes from bearing a part in the spiritual warfare; and he goes on to say that the crown which constitutes the reward is not one that is promised to those who succeed in the negative work of merely avoiding sin, but to those who excel in the positive service of God, and exercise love,--"the crown of life which the Lord hath promised to them that love Him." So we see that the crowning blessing derived from being tempted is that it affords us the best possible opportunity of exercising that divine love which must be the motive underlying all our spiritual life and action. So it may be said that the temptation of the present moment is the sacrament of the present moment. A sacrament is the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace; and temptation, if met with the right disposition, is a sign of a special grace with which God desires to adorn our souls, a grace which we make our own whenever we fight valiantly, and by the power of God gain the mastery over the temptation. Satan seems never to have realized this truth, or else for the maintenance of his own kingdom he would refrain from his assaults on God's {61} people. So has sin blinded the very Prince of Sin. He assaults the Saints of God. In a strength not their own they drive him back baffled and defeated, and the turrets of the infernal citadel topple and crash. In the age-long conflict with God, he has never learned how the divine purpose is using him and his malice, nay, giving direct permission for its exercise against Himself, in order that the eternal Kingdom may be the more surely built up among men. [1] Job vii, 1. (Septuagint Version.) [2] _Imitation_, I, xiii. [3] Ecclus. ii, 1. [4] St. Matt. vi, 13. [5] St. Matt. xxvi, 41. [6] St. Matt. xiii. [7] 1 Cor. x, 13. [8] Heb. ii, 18. [9] Heb. iv, 15. [10] St. James i, 2. [11] 1 St. Peter i, 7. [12] 2 St. John 8. [13] Rev. iii, 11. [14] Office of Holy Baptism. [15] 1 Pet. v, 4. [16] 2 Sam. xi, 11. [17] 2 Cor. ii, 7. [18] 2 Cor. xii, 9. "Weakness is the guardian of our strength."--Pusey, _Parochial Sermons_, II, 337, quoting St. Greg. Mag. [19] Ps. xx, 2. [20] _Imitation_, III, xxxv. "It happens sometimes that men's souls are shipwrecked through evil thoughts, but also it is by the entering in of such thoughts that we become worthy of being crowned."--_Verba Seniarum_, x, 86. Quoted by Hannay in _The Wisdom of the Desert_, p. 221. [21] _Imitation_, I, xiii.