The Maryville times. (Maryville, Tenn.) 1884-1944, 1893-08-02
TEN PTATIONS.
The Christian Should Consider Them as
stepping-Stones Rather Than as Stun
bling Blocks.

The Christian Should Consider Them as
stepping-Ston Rather Than as Stun
bling Blocks.
We may find in temptation stimu-
E,s, as well as tombstone. For it
places an obstacis in our path, it raises
difficulty, it causes check. And OBJ
stacles, difficulties, checks are just the
means of calling out our very best; for
every venture is the more absorbing,
according to the effort it demands
This is true all along the line.
We all know the pleasure of tingling
muscles, set aglow by sustained endur-
ance. Half the charm of athletics, of
sport. of Alpine climbing, consists in
the sense of challenge, thrown down
by risk and difficulty. 1t is not per-
versitv, it is not Impotence, but it is a
healthy fund of energy, which causes
us to lind such new strength in Opposi-
ton and OBSTACLE. And is it not the
same with mental effort? Does it not
give the keener joy as it makes the
larger demand on our intelligence?
Do we not find in the very entangle-
ment of the problem, in the very hard
ness of the riddle, the keenest in
! centive to its solution.
And so, on the level of the spiritual
activity, the greater the strength OF
the temptation, the sterner will be the
resistance it calls forth. What to us
appear as ''stum bling blocks" are real
ly "stepping-stooes." Our Father in
tends us to rise by using them to rise
into higher res3lves and more concen-
| trated endeavors toplay the man. Are
we fretting at the obstacles which in.
tercept our path.
Let us remember that there can be
no perseverance, where nothing
thwarts, and that courage is impossi
Bile where there is no danger. Let us
not, then, be daunted and depressed
at the strength of our temptations, but
let us rather get to the point of view o.
st. James, and count it all joy wher
we meet them, because we see in then
the beckonings of nail-scarred hand
Temptations are calls to sympathy. W.
read of our divine Master that sin tina
He Himself hath suffered being tempt
ed, He is able to succor them that are
tempted" And in proportion as we al
low His spirit to enter into us, we MAJ
do the game; our temptations viii
make us filter to help others to b
strong.
But the capacity for sympathy will
the tempted is not enriched but parl,
spoiled if we have succumbed in sim
liar straits. For the power of sucl
sympathy depends not on the expert
ence of fall but on the sense of tn
strength of the inducement to fall
And to know this we must resist t.
the bitter end; we have not felt tn
| full force of the situation, we have no
faced all its difficulties, unless we sur
vive its attacks.
And this is why our Lord can he'll
us so much. His sympathy is not i'm
paired, as we sometimes fear, by Hi
sinlessness; no, the truth is that, wer
it not for His sinlessness, it could no
be so profound. Let us not. then
allow ourselves to add to the weakness
of our nature the further enticement
that the experiences of falls will hel
us to raise others; no, if we want to d
this most effectively we must perseve
to the end.
Such are some of the reasons why 81
James calls on us to welcome tempts
ton. We must remember, of course
that he is holding in his mind tn
power which is our for self-conquest
that is to say, that he is looking a
temptation from the Christian point G
view.-Waldegrave Bell, in the Culver