Arizona republican., 1909-05-24
TEMPTATION NOT SIN
 THOUGHT LEADS ID II IT MAY BE A MEANS OF
 GRACE. Sermon of Rev. Henry Martyr Camp
Sermon of Rev. Henry Martyr Camp
 bell Yesterday.

Rev. Henry Martyr Campbell, pas tor of the First Presbyterian church yesterday morning preached on Temptation" using as his text the thirteenth verse of the tenth chapter of First Corinthians: There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful. who will not suffer you to be tempted above that -e are able: but will with the temptation also make a way of escape. that ye may be able to pear it. The following quotations from the ser mon give an outline of the thoughts presented in the discourse:
 "There is no more important or prac- tical subject on which to speak than the subject of temptation. In our text God assures us that we can overcome temptation, and it should be a com fort to us.
 Let us look at some of tho facts relative to temptation, the relation we sustain to temptation, and the way we may overcome temptation in our lives.
 First of all, temptation is common to all men. The tree that represented temptation in the Garden of Eden was in the center of that garden, so that Adam and Eve cOuld not go about without seeing it often: so we cannot pass hither and thither without meet ing temotation There are environ ments in which temptations are not SO strong as in others. yet it is every where. St. Anthony. having gone into the desert to escape temptation, re turned to the city. saying that tempta- tion was as real in his wilderness her mit's cave as in the midst of crowds of men. Everything in our lives has something connected with it by way of temptation.
 Temptation is not sin. l do not say that temptation does not often lead to sin, but I do say that temptation does not always lead us into that which is wrong. A man may be tempted to commit sin. but if he says 'No.' and stands b. it. he has done no wrong. If I intend to do a wrong. but am pre- vented b- some circumstance. I have sinned. though the act itself has not been committed. Temptation Is not sin. but yielding to it is. howsoever far go. Christ was tempted. but He committed no sin. Not only is it not sin to be tempted, but temptation re- sisted comes to be a means of grace to the man who wishes to make 1t so. Blessed is the man who endureth temptation Just as fire is needed in order to make steel, so the temptations that try our strength fit us better for the life we must live. Man- a man who toda,- stands high in the Chris tian life does so because of the ex- periences in the awful environment from which he has risen.
 What is our relation to temptation? We have all fallen. We have all heard the voice os Satan and have yielded. Although We have fallen, yet there is hope. and there may be in us that which shall make us strong in the do ing of the work that we have to per form. We may make our sins step ping g-stones to higher things John Bunyan climbed to the very heights, though in his youth he was looked upon as an example of the very es- sence of sinfulness. David and Peter are examples of those who have fallen, and yet risen again to the heights.
 We may by the life we are living be tempting those about us. Emphasis should be laid on the fact that our influence may not only lead others