How many times have loving hearts that would choose death a thousand times rather than dishonour our Lord become sick with terror when in the midst of such prolonged temptation there {127} comes a dread whisper within, "You have consented, though you knew it not." It is the voice of the tempter, and the ruse is a favourite one in his warfare against the soul, for he knows that for us to think we have sinned is almost as fatal in its effects on the _morale_ of the soul as to have actually yielded consent. So when the lying whisper comes, let us cry out against him, charge him with his lie; and then turning swiftly to our Lord, renew our allegiance to Him with such strong, passionate acts of love, that the evil spirit, filled with despair, will take his flight, departing from us "for a season." [1] S. Greg. Mag., _Regulae Pastoralis_, III, xxx. See also the opening paragraph of Dr. Pusey's sermon on "Victory over Besetting Sin," _Parochial Sermons_, Vol. II. [2] _Imitation_, I, xiii. [3] 1 Cor. x, 13. [4] "Our trial, by God's appointment and mercy, lies mostly in some few things. We bring trials upon ourselves which God did not intend for us. We increase manifoldly our own trials by every consent to sin."--Pusey, _Parochial Sermons_, Vol. II, p. 121. [5] "Past sin involves present trial, not present sin. When a man has once turned to God his past sin will not be imputed to him either in itself, _or in its effects_. One who has given way would by God's just appointment, visiting for sin, have trials. He need not, if he wills not by God's grace, have sin." _Ibid._, p. 335. [6] _Ibid._, p. 334. [7] _Ibid._, p. 338. [8] 2 Thess. ii, 12. [9] Rom. vii, 21-23. [10] Scupoli, _The Spiritual Combat_ (Pusey's Trans.), chap. xii.