The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Warfare of the Soul, by Shirley C. Hughson

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Title: The Warfare of the Soul
Practical Studies in the Life of Temptation

Author: Shirley C. Hughson

Release Date: July 18, 2010 [EBook #33194]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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Produced by Al Haines

THE WARFARE OF THE SOUL

_PRACTICAL STUDIES IN THE LIFE OF TEMPTATION_

BY

SHIRLEY C. HUGHSON

PRIEST OF THE ORDER OF THE HOLY CROSS

WITH A PREFACE BY

THE REV. ALFRED G. MORTIMER, D.D.

_Rector of St. Mark's, Philadelphia_

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.

FOURTH AVENUE & 30TH STREET, NEW YORK

LONDON, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA

1910

_Copyright_, 1910, _by_

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND Co.

_The Plimpton Press Norwood Mass. U.S.A._

{v}

PREFACE

If we desired to describe our life here in one word, that word might be
_Temptation_. From one point of view the purpose for which we are put
into this world is to be tempted, that is, to be tried or tested, in
order that the wheat among us may be separated from the chaff, and that
the children of light may be manifested and divided from the children
of darkness.

This _testing_, however, is not only that the good may be separated
from the bad, it is the means by which the good becomes good; for by it
latent virtues are developed and a character fitted for heaven is
formed.

Let us regard a little child just baptized--it is an innocent child of
God, but what is innocence? In many respects a beautiful attribute,
but a purely negative one; for it is the attribute of an _untried_
soul. That child must pass through the wilderness of temptation, and
with the result either that the innocence will be transformed into
_sanctity_ or will be lost and give place to sin.

When our Lord was baptized, as He came up {vi} out of the water, the
Voice from heaven proclaimed, "This is my Beloved Son in Whom I am well
pleased," and we read "_Then_ was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil," and the temptation was a
testing on the part of the Evil One, wheth