n we
injure any soul.

It does not acquit us to plead, as silly souls are sometimes heard to
do, that we are injuring no one but ourselves. In the first place,
this is not true. Every hurt we inflict on our souls, every
discouragement into which we lead ourselves, is not only a wrong to
God, but inflicts a hurt on every soul that is bound up with us in the
Communion of Saints. This is just what the Apostle meant when he said,
"Whether one member suffer all the members suffer with it."[8]

The care and constant strengthening of our own souls is a part of the
obligation laid upon {155} us as our brother's keeper;[9] and we know
the curse that fell upon Cain not only for his crime of blood, but in
punishment for the far greater crime of refusing to recognize the
solidarity of humanity, and the duties that arise therefrom. He
murdered one man's body, but who can tell how many souls we have been
slaying though weakening our own power to help and rescue them in their
hour of conflict.

Even were it true that we injure none but ourselves by injustice to our
souls, we are in this case injuring that which belongs, not to
ourselves, but to another, namely to God, and He will let no such wrong
go unavenged.

Although we are not to accuse ourselves in such cases of doubt, it is
well to speak of them to a wise spiritual guide.[10] This will afford
us the opportunity of receiving such counsel as will aid us should the
particular form of assault be repeated.

It is also a discouragement to the enemy to see that his schemes are
thus understood and exposed. He loves ever to work in the dark, and it
is a matter of common experience that he often abandons a plan of
temptation when he finds it {156} has been detected and discussed by
those against whom he has been plotting.

III. _Signs of the Soul's Victory_

In the course of the struggle there are many circumstances and
conditions by which we can test how the battle is going. We shall
consider some of these, choosing certain ones which Satan often uses
for our discouragement by presenting them to us in a wrong light. It
is a favourite device of his to snatch at the very circumstance which a
good God, ever tenderly solicitous of our safety, allows for the
consolation of His faithful soldiers, and by presenting it from a false
point of view, turn it into an occasion of scruple and unnerving
anxiety.

(1) Continuance and increased severity of attack is proof that the w