The teaching of the Holy Ghost is not confined to warning us of danger. He has also many lessons of encouragement and consolation for us {177} in the hour of temptation. Certain of these have already been considered, and those that we shall consider now, must be disposed of briefly. Perhaps some of us may take them up at another time as themes for further thought and meditation. Such an exercise would be of great profit, for Satan so constantly seeks to discourage us in the field, that we may be sure that it is the loving will of God to offset this by holding before us always that which will enhearten us, and fill us with somewhat of that "stern joy" of the battle which must ever thrill the true soldier in the discharge of his trust. (1) Temptation is an advertisement to the soul that it is, at least in some degree, in the grace of God. To forget this is always a cause of weakness. It is a common thing to hear the complaint, "Something must be wrong with me, or temptation would not come so persistently and in such manifold forms." To see the fallacy that underlies this complaint, one has only to think of our Lord "in all points tempted like as we are."[12] No one was ever so beset with temptation as He was, and if constant temptation be a sign of something wrong within, then no one was ever quite so far {178} gone from righteousness as was our Lord Christ Himself.[13] Something is indeed wrong, from Satan's point of view, with the soul whom he besets with many snares. He is not satisfied with us. There is altogether too much divine love and power in our hearts to please him, and so he sets the battle in array against us. Surely it is a thankworthy thing, one that must bring great joy, to have the evidence that Satan regards us as his enemy. Suppose no temptation assailed us,--what a terrible significance this would have! When we went to prayer, or to Communion, or about the commonplace, God-sent duties of the day, what a fearful thing it would be if Satan, observing us, were to reflect that he had no reason to attack us because, do what we might, he was sure that no harm could come to his kingdom through us! There are men in the world, many of them, indeed, who have no temptations, and who cite the absence of such experience as proof that the Christian teaching concerning the devil and his work is false. {179} Alas, they know not their own misery, for "never art thou more strongly set upon than when thou believest thou art not at all assaulted."[14] Satan does not assail them, and in thus refraining he acts on the same principle as does a warring king who lays no siege to a fortress that is already in his possession, whose sometime defenders lie in his dungeons, chained hand and foot.