04.07. And Lead into temptation, but deliver evil

Chapter VII. “ And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” OUR prayer, then, is not finished, when we have cast upon our Father in heaven all the cares of our earthly life, and have been also freed from the burden of our sins. It is pleasant to sit in God’s smile, and gather strength in the assurance of His favour; but the future frowns terribly upon us, and we quail at the remembrance that we are still surrounded by the world we have renounced, and are still liable to the sins we have just deplored. Acknowledged as the children of God, we do not yet enjoy the security of His home; and it is when we look forward and see what lies between us and that home, that we become aware that sin has not only stained but poisoned us; that the burden has not only weaned but weakened us; that the debt has not only hampered but demoralised us. It will not do to rest in the quiet calm of forgiveness, as if we had now attained that for which we were apprehended. “Thy sins be forgiven thee “ is followed forthwith not by “ well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord,” but by “ go and sin no more “. But this “go,” what a bleak and dangerous world does it launch us into; to what possibilities of disaster and hurt, to what likelihood of ruin does it dismiss us! How contradictory * it seems to add “ sin no more “! We cannot but turn and say, “ Do Thou, then, Lord, lead us; and lead us not into temptation “. And as we continue to pray daily for forgiveness, and find that it is mostly the same sins we have to confess, and how the appetite that is in us for evil finds food in the most unexpected and unlikely quarters, the sense of our weakness grows, and we should feel the prayer to be in sufficient for us, did not our fears find some hope in it, and our feebleness some security. Like those who have received a precious charge to convey safely through a country infested with enemies, undermined with pitfalls, or reeking with malaria, we go forth with spirits made rich by the favour of God, to traverse that dangerous interval between this present moment and our complete redemption. We fear to step out into * This idea occurs in a recent volume of devotional poetry. the ways of this world, lest our garments, made white in the blood of the Lamb, be again denied. The world has not changed to suit our condition.

We would not now sin as once we did, but the world will still be as pressing in its offers of easy helps to sin, as ever it was. There are our former companions in sin waiting for us to join them again; there are our old haunts, and the old seasons come round as before, and our familiar sins meet us again, and tell us that all things are ready. They take the words of wisdom, and say, “ Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled “. The same business awaits us, in which heretofore we have found such room for sinning; the same hours of leisure, and the same pleasant ways of spending these.

All remains the same, ready as ever to make our old course easy, but with no sympathy for our new condition, no rejoicing with us over our new-found treasure, no friendly desire to enter into and prosper our new views. All the world is as it was, and what disappoints us more than all, there is still in us too much that remains as it was. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak as ever. It is still flesh. It is still so adapted to what the world offers, that it clamours to be satisfied in the world’s way, hints that we wrong ourselves and undergo unnecessary hardships in striving to subdue it, and that it cannot be very criminal to do what our nature demands, and what our circumstances not only permit, but induce and almost drive us to.

Those who have nothing to lose are (to a proverb) little put about by the presence of thieves; and of those whose hopes are small, the fears also are few and slight. The fear of defilement found no place in our souls, until the grateful sense of purity introduced it. It seemed a small thing to risk all temptation, before we experienced the grace and joy of the goodwill of God; but now that we have tasted His goodness, and prize His favour as our choicest possession, it seems a hazardous thing to venture into a sea of temptations, one or other of which will almost inevitably sweep over our soul, and leave it bare of its prize under the displeasure of God. I do not purpose to sin; I have no present and special resolve which I know to be wrong, but am I therefore secure? Or has it not often happened with me that, when least I expected it, evil was very powerfully present with me? Besides sinning deliberately, have I not sinned through ignorance, through weakness, through surprise, through habit? Did I not sin, because I was tempted by such a combination of inducements, and hedged off from the right path by so many difficulties, that I greatly fear to be placed again in a similar predicament? Rather will I pray, “ Lead me not into temptation, but deliver me from evil “. A person may use these words as two distinct petitions; but, as they here stand, they are connected and form one double request. It is one utterance of the soul. The soul does not first view temptation and utter its desire about this, and then view evil, and utter a new desire about that; but seeing at one view temptation and evil, and knowing, moreover, how they are joined together, a prayer is uttered which, though it has two parts, is one. There is no end that we can propose for ourselves short of deliverance from evil, and no means can be suggested as more necessary to the attainment of this than being kept from temptation. To be kept from disease, from poverty, from loss of friends, from any ill that the soul dreads, would not be so broad and effectual a petition as this, if our end be deliverance from evil. From these and all other ills we desire deliverance j but if there be left within us evil dispositions that will respond to temptation, then there is no lasting deliverance for us. For this is the account of the whole matter which is given by the Apostle James: “ Every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death.” Evil, then, is that to which temptation leads, and to which sin binds. And there is that in every one of us which, if left to itself, will bring us to the most evil form of evil. Only let it have its way, only take no precautions against it, and gradually the evil within will wed the evil without, and death will grow up around you. This will as certainly result as death will result if you place an animal that lives by breath into a poisoned atmosphere. But if the evil be within us, how will a merely negative petition effect our cure? How will the mere absence of certain outward objects destroy the evil that has its life within the soul? It will do so by taking from that evil the food on which its life depends. Fire must have fuel, must be active, in order to be living; it may smoulder long, but die it must, if it be not fed. And so it is of evil dispositions and propensities. Give them no opportunity, let neither sense nor imagination minister to them by presenting their objects, and, finding no outlet, they will pine and die. This at least is the grand external means of deliverance from evil. Plant a tree in a congenial soil, and surround it with every advantage, it will grow and bear fruit after its kind; and just as certainly will our desires find nourishment in the world we are in, and so grow up to matured sins, and bring forth death, if they be not checked. And therefore we pray that God would not suffer the nourishment suitable to our fleshly and natural desires to be given, but would so order our circumstances that we shall have the least possible temptation to sin; that we may be put in positions in which there is least opportunity of gratifying those of our inclinations to sin which are strongest, and in which our opposite tendencies may be most easily and effectually matured. Here the experience of our better mind arms itself against the law of the members. We take precautions against ourselves. The first question that rises in most minds concerning this petition is, “ Is there any likelihood that God would lead us into temptation, or why do we pray that He would not? “ Is it not said that as God is not tempted, so neither tempteth He any? But we do not present this petition because we suppose that God ever stands on the side of evil, and allures us to sin. This would be something more than leading into temptation. What God often does, what He did in the case of Abraham, of Job, and especially of our Lord Himself, is to expose a man in a very critical and precarious position, to bring him in the course of his life into circumstances where sin is very easy, holiness very difficult. We read that it was “ of the Spirit” that “ Jesus was led up into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil “; a very instructive intimation, giving us in one view all the parties concerned. The human nature, with its liability to temptation, its capability to suffer and to enjoy; the divine nature, ordering the circumstances which may permit the temptation to take place; and the diabolical nature, the tempter, exerting his ut most to induce sin. (For this is the distinguishing characteristic of Satan, that he desires that sin may be the result of every temptation.) Our Lord had just passed through His own trial, when He gave this prayer to His disciples. He remembered what it had cost Him, how His holy nature had seemed to be violently driven within sight of sin, and He knew that were His disciples to be similarly exposed, the result might be defeat instead of victory. It is He knows best what temptation is, and who has most successfully overcome it, that bids us pray, “Lead us not into temptation “. It became His own prayer before He entered on that greatest of all temptations, “ Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me “. And how is this, that we see the soul of Jesus trembling in prospect of temptation, while we brave it, fearlessly, confidently, and even boastfully? He knows what Satan’s power is, and He knows the evil of sin. And he who has some measure of the spirit of Christ, and fears above all else the Father’s displeasure, will not go forth believing that he is proof against every assault of Satan or the world, but will pray that God will so guide his path that he may escape from those more violent or seductive temptations to which he sees others yielding. He will not seek to change this petition into “ succour us when tempted,” but, out of the consciousness of his own weakness, desires rather to avoid temptation than to take the chances of overcoming it. And this raises a second question, “ Can I pray thus with any hope, seeing that life is just one series of temptations? “ Must we not meet temptations, whether we deprecate them or no? Is there any such man on earth as an untempted man? Can God give us what we ask for, and still keep us on this earth? How shall He guide us? Is there any course through life free from all inducement to sin? Where shall He put us? Is there any position where we shall no longer need constant vigilance, unflinching constancy, and painful effort of soul? “ Lead me not into temptation,” how do I expect that this will be answered? Is there some profession the members of which find nothing in it to foster their own corrupt affections? Is there some employment in which failure shall no more tempt us to murmur, nor success elate us to forgetfulness of God? We know that, be a man’s occupation what it may, he cannot be secure from all enticement. Various indeed are the temptations that assail men, from the statesman whose name is in every man’s mouth, to the invalid whom the world has long forgotten; but every one can tell of some part of his lot that seems bordering on evil, from which at any moment he could pass over into sin, and at which he is in constant danger of being urged by a sudden impulse across the boundary. Every one can tell of something in his occupation that seems to conspire with something in his character, and make sinning easier to him there than elsewhere. He is passionate, and there is some constant source of irritation; or he is covetous, and there is an unrighteous but prolific source of gain always offering itself. He is ambitious, and there is a path open to its gratification, which would also lead him to sin; or he loves the applause of men, and that desire can be gratified. He is naturally despondent and distrustful, and he is called to endure protracted suffering; or he is naturally careless and worldly, and he enjoys unmingled prosperity. Or he is liable to sullenness, or pride, or sensuality, or indolence, and whatever be his infirmity, he will not be without drawings that way, encouragements in his infirmity, opportunities of showing what manner of man he is. And shall we therefore cease to use this petition?

We will all the more perseveringly use it. For if temptations be so thickly strewn around us, who shall say how soon we may be overtaken in a fault? At first this petition may pass our lips with no quite definite expectation. It only rises irrepressibly out of the sense of our own inability to cope with certain temptations. But as it is used from day to day, side by side with our daily life, it interprets itself more fully. We find in it the suitable expression of a desire that grows up within us, that, whilst we must be exposed to temptations, these may be proportioned to our strength; in other words, that God would keep us out of situations in which, so far as we can judge, it would be beyond our present strength to keep from sinning. The harder we purpose in our souls to live to God, the more clearly do we see how we displease Him. We begin to take account of this, that there are certain conditions in which we almost invariably, if not invariably, sin, despite all our resolves to the contrary. We remember our resolves, nay, we remember how a few hours ago we besought pardon of similar sin, and yet we yield. There are persons whose company always betrays us into slandering, or scoffing, or bitter envy, or hypocrisy, or some evil passion; there are places in which we cannot maintain, or have at least never yet maintained, even our usual regard to the will of God, and from which we return less disposed than we ought to remember Christ, or engage in any religious duty; there are books we read, or trains of thought we indulge in, which lower our tone and unhinge the mind for serious, vigorous, and devout exercise.

Now, it is very often the case, that it is quite at our option that we thus put ourselves in the way of temptation. It forms no part of our duty to ourselves or our friends thus to expose ourselves, and yet we find it very difficult to disentangle ourselves from the habits we have formed by a voluntary and repeated exposure to the same influences. So agreeable and fascinating have these situations or employments which tempt us become, that it is beyond our strength to give them up.

Surely in this case we may ask God so to order our circumstances that these things may have less power of appeal than formerly. How the prayer may be answered we do not know. We may be removed to a distance from the companions or objects which most effectually tempted us; our attention may be strongly diverted to some pursuit which dulls for a time the other attraction, and breaks the habit we have formed. But how the answer shall come it is not for us to decide.

God, in one way or other, may either make it a physical impossibility for us to be in the way of temptation, or He may add to our condition some balance, which keeps us from rushing into the arms of sin at every invitation. So that, whether the temptations we have reason to fear be in the way of our callings, or have been voluntarily and recklessly encountered by us, this petition is suit able; and it will inevitably rise to our lips, if we be fearing sin. But there is a third class of temptations against which we have urgent need to use this petition. There are sudden surprises, which neither occur in the ordinary duties of our employments, nor as we might have anticipated and taken precautions against, but emerge unexpectedly. A special importance attaches to these, for it is thus that many of our greatest sins have been committed; and, when resisted, it is then that we have taken the greatest steps in advance Godwards. In short, these are the temptations in which, beyond all others, it is evident that God is making proof of us. To compare the temptation of David with that of Joseph, similar in kind, but so opposite in result; or that of Adam in the garden with that of Jesus in the wilderness, will sufficiently show us how critical these times are, against which we can use no precaution but this prayer, asking that God would not suffer us to be so assailed. Let a man choose some of his memorable sins, those that conscience needs not to search for, but keeps floating on the surface of the memory, and let him consider how it came about that he fell into these, and he shall find that in very many cases it was because he was suddenly tempted; an unexpected opportunity presented itself of doing what he had long desired to do, or of getting what he had often coveted, or of becoming what ambition or vanity had been set upon; and this opportunity did not offer itself bare, but well supported by inducements and incentives from every side. Was it an appeal to anger or hatred? Then something had first occurred to irritate or embitter. Was it to licentiousness the allurement appealed? Then something had first occurred to excite. Was it to love of gain the temptation spoke? Then something had previously shown the desirableness of wealth, or taught the bitterness of poverty.

Whatever it was that overran the soul and spoiled it, we think we could have resisted had the temptation come in some other shape, at some other time, when we had been under more wholesome influences; had there not, in short, been so many things conspiring against us. Everything seems to have been prepared for our sin; the train was laid, and the one little spark fell. Had we had any idea of what was going on we should have been on our guard; had we seen the possible sin we should have gone out of our way to avoid it. But so suddenly were we set down in presence of the tempting object, that there was scarce a thought of resistance. So wholly at a disadvantage were we taken, that we are inclined to believe that, were we in the same circumstances again, prepared by the same day’s pleasure or day’s business or night’s trouble, instigated by the same company or by the same solitude, brought as suddenly face to face with the same open gate to sin, or driven by the same urgency of motive, freed from the outward restraint that is now upon us, and the reasons on the side of sin equally manifold and thronging, we should now (judging of our own strength from our present experience of it) sin again. And if so, what security have we (who know not what a day may bring forth) against a similar or far more seductive combination of circumstances, except in an appeal to God, whose will orders all things, and whose will is our sanctification? In this petition, then, we pray directly for this, that God in His consideration of our frailty would so order our life day by day that as little as possible we may be exposed to temptation. But it will be asked, “ Has this petition, then, no reference to the temptations we do actually meet? Does it only avert possible temptations, and bring no strength to help us in those that actually occur? “ Directly it does not ask from God any such aid. And it seems a profitless exercise of ingenuity, to wrest the words so that they shall include what is evidently included in the second part of the petition, “ Deliver us from evil “. He who prays these concluding words will surely be little concerned to make the former words mean “ bring us out of temptation safely,” as well as “ lead us not into it “. Nevertheless, it must not be overlooked, that this desire, “ Lead us not into temptation,” has a powerful reflex influence upon the spirit of the petitioner, which enables him, if tempted, to quit himself very differently from what he would otherwise have done. It is a very different war we wage when we have prayed against it, from that we wage when we have carelessly exposed ourselves. The soldier who is steady in the din and carnage of battle which duty has led him into, will quail and tremble at the little hazards to which a fool ish exploit or unadvised adventure has exposed him. If we are engaged in plain duty when temptation assails us, then we can appeal to God for help. And by the acknowledgment of our weakness and fear of sin which is contained in this petition, we do indirectly, but not the less effectually, appeal to the compassion and help of God. If we have asked God to keep us from temptation, and still meet it, then we believe that what we meet is of His ordering, and that good, and not evil, will come of it. Passing through His fire, we are purified. Warring in His warfare, we are rendered more hardy, faithful, and experienced. But if we have not asked His guidance, but have gone forth at our own charges and risks, then how can we with any confidence ask in temptation the help which very probably we should never have needed to ask had we asked God’s guidance before? Trying enough it is to fall into temptation after praying, but to fall into it without praying is a confounding and disastrous thing. It may be good for us to meet temptations, but it is never good to hope for them. It is God’s prerogative to lead us into them, for He also (and He only) can bring us through them: it is ours to watch and pray against them, knowing our own weakness. And if any one thinks that by using this petition he resists the providence of God, let him ask himself the simple question, “ Do I desire to be tempted? “ If not, then let me pray God to preserve me from temptation. And if, after committing myself to God’s care in this matter, I do meet temptations, I shall at least know by whose permission they come, and whose discipline they bring. To view severe temptation as a possible thing, and as a very dangerous thing, this is the best preparation against it.

Out of these words there are continually rising one or two important suggestions of a practical kind. The first is, that we must see to it that we make this an honest request. For it is a pleasant thing to go so far with sin, and break company before its terrible evil is consummated.

It is a narrow, but a most attractive path which separates actual, outward transgression from the region whence sin can be contemplated. Few Christians intend to sin, compared to those who only intend to place themselves in dangerous circumstances. There is a pleasure in letting the thoughts dwell on forbidden objects, which provokes us to tamper with sin, and prevents us from resolutely shunning the avenues that lead to evil. Have I never asked God to deliver me from evil, while a little deeper in my heart there lay the intention of putting myself in the way of temptation without any call? To do so is grievously to dishonour God. It is to expect that He will pander to my evil desires and appetites, that He will suffer me to enjoy the excitement of temptation, and preserve me from the outward disgrace and fully-formed evil of the sin. It is to take the place of God, and say that it is better I should pray, “ Let me so far into temptation,” than “ Lead me not into it “. And he who can not comprehend how this should be the one prayer given us concerning the special advancement of our own spirits towards complete redemption, has not yet prayed it as he ought; is yet, under God’s word, hiding his own desires. For this petition goes to the very core of our heart, and tries our real purposes severely; makes us say, if we are really anxious to be cut off from all chance of sin, all thought of it, and approach to it; brings us daily to decide whether we should like a state where there was not only no sin, but no temptation. The love of sin is pretty well broken within us, if we can use this petition always and fully; if, considering the persons we shall this day meet, the things that may be said to us, the gratifying offers that may be made to us, the opportunities of pleasure or advancement that may occur, we can yet say, “ Rather let me meet none of these than that they should so much as tempt me to evil”.

Happy indeed is the man who, in the fulness and depth of this petition, can say, “ I this day wish to be far from everything which will nourish evil within me, and I desire the presence of such things only as will mature a Christian disposition. I do not desire success, if success is to minister to vain-glory; I do not wish to make money, if money is to minister to covetousness; I do not long for pleasant society, if that is to make me forgetful of God; I do not yearn for leisure, if leisure is to loosen my bond to Jesus Christ.” What is this but the entire surrender of our lives to God and for His purposes? What is this but a profession of self denial, and a resolution to endure all hardness?

It is the prayer of a humble and holy spirit; of a spirit at least set on holiness, and knowing that God only can guide us in this life, so that holiness shall be the result. Often it calls us to give up (so far as our own purposes are concerned) prospects of great attraction, but which, we fear, would be adverse to our spiritual growth.

We see the beauty of the prospect, it allures us on, but we know not whether the flowers wave and rustle with the healthy breath of heaven or with the subtle windings of the serpent. We will not venture where there may be danger, and where there is not a necessary call, but will pray still to God, “Lead us not thither”. And this fear to go where we may offend God, is the same feeling as gives us absolute courage to go wherever we may serve Him.

Another practical hint suggested by this petition is, to shun the beginnings of temptation. It puts us on our guard against the earliest movements of sinward inclination, and prompts us to deal vigorously with its faintest symptoms. All evil is easiest checked in its rise, with less pain to ourselves, and with more unalloyed result. To have parleyed with temptation is to have lost strength already. Go a mile with the tempter, and the chances are that he will persuade you to go two. He will first tell you that you are not going out of your way at all, and forthwith he will tell you that you have gone too far to go back. The first step may not be wrong in itself, but it is wrong if it be the first of a succession of steps which lands you in sin. When we find ourselves very anxious to discover reasons for going on, we may well suspect whither we are going. We shall probably find reasons enough, and only after the sin is committed open our eyes to their hollowness.

It is the former part of this petition which gives the tone to the latter. The evil we chiefly aim at being delivered from, is that which comes of temptation yielded to. Not that the words do not include every kind of evil, all that man redeemed will at last be free from, but the evil primarily in view here is sin, or what produces sin. By the words of Christ Himself we must interpret this prayer; and His own petition for His people is, “ I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil”. Without being at once put beyond the reach of the ordinary privations of this life, we may, then, be delivered from the evil. We can be kept from the evil without being set above disappointments, sicknesses, distress, loss. We can be delivered from evil without being delivered from this world. This evil, therefore, cannot be in the world so much as in ourselves; cannot be in our condition so much as in our character. All men have an idea that this world has something wrong about it, that our condition here is not altogether satisfying, but to be delivered from. And so we begin to deliver ourselves, and set to work at the outmost branches of evil instead of at the root; we provide against loss, guard against disease, while we ought to be asking God to deliver us from that evil which is within us, and which, though all these outer branches of evil were lopped off, would send forth fresh branches; which, though we were put into a world where all was blessed, and well-ordered, and according to the best, would soon spoil that world as it has spoiled this. It was by yielding to temptation we ever became connected with evil of any kind; first with evil doing, and then with all other evil. Through the heart of man did evil steal its way into this world. And until it be expelled from the heart, it will find its way into all we are connected with. Could there be a fairer world than this was when God pronounced it very good, and “ when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy “? Take from this world all that sin has wrought, and you shall have a world fairer than your imagination, though not than God’s purpose, can conceive. No doubt we inherit a troop of evils, and fall heirs to the ills that men have been aggravating from the first; but there is that in each one of us which, if we be not delivered from it, will turn the happiest and most faultless inheritance into sorrow and confusion. Our evil dispositions do not show all their deadly influence now, only be cause what they would do is done already. They do not destroy the world, because the world is already destroyed. And appalling as are the effects of the “ one man’s disobedience,” and of that whereby all his descendants have ratified his act and approved their parentage, more appalling still is it to find the hold and the power that sin has over us.

Many of the effects of sin, and especially those of them which are most palpable to us here, spend their force and pass away. That effect of sin which admonishes us of a sinful future, the helplessness and bondage of sin, that effect of sin which is sin itself, is the most alarming of its present results. We see no prospect of accidental deliverance from this, nor of its merely wearing out. With sin the law of age is reversed; and time, which weakens and consumes all else, adds vigour and life to sin. And yet there is hope, near and bright. However multiplied, involved, deep-rooted, or grievous be our sinful propensities, there is a deliverance out of them all. There is a deliverance from all their effects; but we can readily believe this, yes, and patiently wait for it, when we find that there is a deliverance from our sinful natures themselves. And this God has wrought, and now works, in all them that pray this prayer; for “ God has raised up His Son Jesus, and sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities”. It is He who “delivers us, and doth deliver, in whom we trust that He will yet deliver “.

Therefore will our hearts together praise Him, and our own joy will dictate these words, “ Thine is the kingdom, the glory, and the power, for ever. Amen.”

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