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TOPIC: Gordon, Samuel Dickey - Quiet Talks About the Tempter (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 003. How to Meet Temptation
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How to Meet Temptation
Some people yield to their temptations, I am sorry to say. They calmly lie down, and are trodden underfoot, like—shall I say like a dog? Of course I mean a dead dog. No live dog would. But some men do.
Some men play with their temptations. Their consciences are not dead yet, though they are a bit withered up from lack of exercise. They make a pretence of fighting, and then having thrown that bone to their consciences to be chewed on a bit, they likewise lie down and are trodden underfoot, like their brothers and sisters just referred to.
Some persons fight their temptations. They recognize and resist them. They have learned the meaning of "watch and pray." The "watch" brings into play the human side, the "pray" the divine side. Their watch-tower is never deserted. They have found out the sleeplessness of the tempter, and of all his sub-tempters. They lock up the joints of their will, and limber up the joints of their knees, and they fight. They say, "even though we go down, we will go down fighting, and only in the last ditch, and with face outward toward the foe. And when the sword blade snaps we will use the scabbard. But we will never yield by so much as a half hair's breadth." That's the spirit in which they meet and fight their temptations.
In a certain large steel work a big muscular Scotchman called "Striker Jones" held the position of boss-striker. Nearly all the men in his department were hard drinkers. And he was not an exception to the rule. But a change took place. He became a Christian; and when pressed by his fellows to take a drink he refused. "I shall never take a drink ony mair, lads," he quietly said, "na drunkard shall inherit the Kingdom of God." And they said, "Wait a bit, till the hot weather comes—till July. When he gets as dry as a gravel-pit he will give in. He can't help it." But right through the hottest months he toiled on, the sweat pouring in streams, yet he never seemed to be tempted to drink.
At last the time-keeper of the mill spoke to him as he was giving in his time. He said, "You used to drink a good bit. Don't you miss it?"
"Yes," he said, very emphatically.
"How do you manage to keep away from it?"
"Weel, just this way. It is now ten o'clock, isn't it?"
"Yes."
"Weel, to-day is the twentieth of the month. From seven till eight I asked that the Lord would help. He did. And I put a dot down on the calendar right near the twenty. From eight till nine. He kept me, and I put down another dot. From nine to ten He has kept me, and now I gie Him the glory as I put down the third dot. Just as I mark these dots I pray—'O Lord, help me; help me to fight it off for another hour.'"
That's the fighting spirit for temptations. And it makes no matter what the temptation is, it can be fought and resisted successfully only by steady stiff fighting.