The Bossier banner. [volume] (Bellevue, Bossier Parish, La.) 1859-1952, 1909-11-04
RESISTING TEMPTATIONS.

RESISTING TEMPTATIONS.
All the world prays not to be led into
temptation, but to be delivered from evil, a
distinction in the terms employed that has
substantial reason back of it. Temptations
will come to men, and they should learn to
resist them; their virtue is not an assured
quality until they have met and success
fully resisted temptation. Butthey should
pray not to be led into temptation in recog-
milton of the weakness of humanity. Evil
they desire to be altogether delivered from;
ordinary temptations are means OF dis
cipline, resistance to which strengthens
character. No man desires to be led into
physical danger, but man OF courage
does not ask to be delivered from that
which naturally arises. 1t is in meeting
dangers that his courage is tested and de"
veloped. So also in meeting temptation
his morality is tested and developed. The
best men and women are those who have
been sorely beset by temptations to wrong
doing and have maintained the right. They
may have been no more honest or free
from blame than their fellows who have
not been put to the test, but their qualities
are known, their virtues have a positive
value; those of their fellows may be merely
negative. Take as an extreme illustration
two men, each of whom finds a purse in
the street containing a few dollars, with
the names of the owners. One is wealthy,
the money he has found has scarcely any
value in his eyes, it would not suffice to
pay for his dinner; the other is sorely in
need of the small sum he has found; he is
in positive distress, and for moment the
money appears like gift from Heaven
until he remembers that it is the property
of another. Both men return the purses
to their respective owners, but both have
not proved their honesty. The man of
wealth may be honest, but his honesty has
not been tested; he has been under no
temptation. The poor man has been sorely
tempted, but has resisted temptation and
proved in the face of it that he is made of
sterling stuff. This difference is commonly
recognized, but when dishonesty is con.
sidered the same discrimination is not al
ways shown. If both men should keep
the purses they found, making no effort to
find the owners or resisting the efforts of
the owners to recover their lost property,
both would be dishonest; but the measure
of guilt of the one sorely tempted by pow
erty would surely be less than that of the
man who was dishonest without need or
excuse for his dishonesty. Without apollo
giving for wrong. doing, without condoning
faults, the just and discriminating man,
nevertheless, recognizes that there are
grades and degrees of offenses not recog.
nized by imperfect human laws, and thatif
one would be at all charitable the tempta-
tons to which an offender was exposed
must be considered. And those who have
escaped temptation, who have lived hap
PLY, honestly, virtuously, because they
have never known want, have been free
from passions and contented with their
lot, should be so grateful that they have
not been led into temptations as to look
with charitable eye upon those who have
been, in part at least, the victims of cir
cumstances. Temptations come with
crushing force upon those whose wants,
great or small, remain unsatisied. All
about them are the means of gratifying
their desires, but they suffer like Tantalus,
being unable to grasp that which they
would have because of the law. Unlike
Tantalus, however, they can, if they choose
to sacrifice honor, crafty their wishes. 1t
is their duty to resist, and humanity as a
whole is heroic in its resistance to tempta-
tons, but when one among the number
falls let not those who have known no
temptations be the first to deride him.