Recall the precious promises He has given us, and how that often in the very language of these promises we gain a glimpse of conditions of the war that ought mightily to encourage us. "Resist the devil and he will flee from you,"[13] says the Spirit, comforting us concerning the peril of the conflict. Glance for a moment at the particular words the Holy Ghost here chooses. "Resist the devil"; or, to go back to the etymology of the word, Stand against him; yield not one step to him however he may fling the full weight of his power against you. But what will be the result? Not only that your soul will be safe from stain or guilt, but that you will carry consternation into the ranks of hell. "He will flee from you," and the word used by the inspired writer means not merely that he will withdraw and leave you, but that he will make a precipitate flight, as one in a panic flees from impending danger.[14] Let us remember when suggestion of fear comes that this is in itself a special temptation from Satan, and nowhere in his temptations is he guilty of more deliberate lying. As a matter of fact there is no danger, even in the fiercest of his assaults, to the soul that cherishes the {69} presence of Christ within. For if He be in my heart, then the conflict is between Him and the tempter, and so long as my heart is His, and I do not, by wilful sin, drive Him forth, it is as impossible for Satan to conquer as it was for him to have triumphed over our Lord in the great conflict in the wilderness. In short, at such times all our Lord asks is that we maintain our hearts for Him that He may use them as battle-fields upon which to join issue once more with the adversary that He may administer to him another crushing defeat. True, He uses our faculties with which to fight, but the battle is His, and if we stand not in the way His will be the victory. There can be no real danger to the faithful soul when the struggle is conducted under these conditions. (2) Speak not of your anxieties to everyone. We may rightly take counsel with some wise spiritual guide who may be able to interpret them for us; but experience shows us that many times much speaking of these matters gives body and reality to troubles which have no adequate ground, and which might easily have been driven away, had we only sought to divert the mind from them, and so to forget them, instead of impressing them still more on the consciousness by dwelling upon them in thought and conversation. {70}