This diversion of the mind will be all the more effective if it is in the direction of those holy things which Satan abhors. Therefore "let us turn our hearts to converse with God, which is better than to reflect upon our temptations and {144} troubles. Let us be so attentive to Him, that we have neither leave nor leisure to give ear to Satanic suggestions."[26] VI. _Staying not the Hand_ We are told in the Second Book of the Kings[27] that when the prophet Elisha was fallen sick of the sickness whereof he died, Joash, the King of Israel, came unto him. The man of God commanded him to take the arrows and smite upon the ground, whereupon the King, weak in ambition, and with no vision of God's destiny for him as a national deliverer, smote thrice upon the ground and stayed. "And the man of God was wroth with him and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it." If he who goes forth to fight for God would utterly consume the enemy, he must seek the vision of His purpose for him, and if he is truly ambitious of heavenly honours it is not far to seek. We can quite safely say that God never predestined any soul barely to win the victory. He plans high things for all his children, but how many are there who never attain them because, like the king of Israel, they are giving Him a {145} spiritless service. They smite thrice with the arrows of deliverance and stay their hand. They are content to remain on a low spiritual plane, within the pale of divine grace indeed, but satisfied with this, and using their further energies for passing earthly things instead of devoting them with a burning splendour of enthusiasm to an ever higher service in the kingdom that shall have no end. How disappointing are such lives to God! He had meant to promote them to great honour, and they have no aspiration above the lowest place. Nor can they plead that they know not His purpose for them. The Scriptural revelation is full of the highest assurances. God lays wide open before us the plan He has prepared for our glory. He tells us in a hundred passages, every utterance eloquent with love, what it all is, and He stays in His description only when the finite mind of man cannot follow Him; and then He cries: "Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him."[28] If we are to rise up to satisfy the divine measure of our predestined glory, we must smite not thrice, but five or six times. We must smite not only {146} until we feel the assault stayed, but until we are sure that the tempter has acknowledged himself defeated. Some spiritual guides advise the soul pursuing the tempter, not allowing him to depart from us without further chastisement and humiliation. "Do not leave off the conflict until the enemy is, as it were, wearied out, dead, and yields himself up discomfited."[29]