March 27

Wednesday after Seragesima Sunday

Lead us not into temptation. S. Matthew 6:13.

IF temptation is not to be shrunk from as an evil, but to be accepted as a necessity and regarded as a means, though painful yet a divinely appointed and sure means through which by the grace of God we advance into a blissful union with the Divine Life, why are we continually to pray this prayer? and why did our Lord bid us so earnestly "watch and pray, lest ye enter into temptation"? It is not the meeting temptation of which these words speak, but the being immersed in it; the being so in temptation, so of one mind with it, so to sink in it, so to admit it and dwell in it, as to make sin inevitable; to enter within its ensnaring folds, to suffer ourselves to be led by its attractions, making no effort to put it away or to flee from it. To meet temptation, to be tested by it, is a necessity of our destiny, not a subject for deprecation. We were re-created in order to meet trial and overcome. It is part of the Divine law which ordered the existence of created life, for angels and men alike have been subjected to it. If we view temptation from the point on which we stand in Christ, we can see it to be, not merely the test of our obedience, but also the condition of our progress, the means, the instrument of perfection.

Then keep thy conscience sensitive,

No inward token miss,

And go where grace entices thee;

Perfection lies in this.

Be docile to thy unseen Guide,

Love Him as He loves thee;

Time and obedience are enough,

And thou a Saint shalt be.