from past faults of
our own, Dr. Pusey says, "They are suffering, not sin; nay, so long as
they are suffering they are not sin."--_Parochial Sermons_, II, 334.

[16] Jer. xxxi, 3.

[17] Lam. iii, 22, 23.

[18] Baker, _Sancta Sophia_, p. 237.

[19] Hilton, _The Scale of Perfection_, Bk. II, Pt. 2, chap. iv.

[20] Rev. ii and iii.

[21] Isa. xxx, 7.

[22] St. Francis de Sales, _Spiritual Letters_, xxxvii.

[23] Hilton, _The Scale of Perfection_, Bk. II, Sec. 1, chap. viii.

[24] Baker, _Sancta Sophia_, p. 413.

{166}

CHAPTER XI

THE SCHOOL OF THE HOLY GHOST

One of the most precious promises in Holy Scripture which is repeatedly
made to the faithful is that they shall be taught of God. "Them that
are meek shall He guide in judgment, and such as are gentle them shall
He learn His way."[1] "I will inform thee, and teach thee in the way
wherein thou shalt go; and I will guide thee with Mine eye."[2] "All
thy children shall be taught of the Lord";[3] "The Comforter, which is
the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach
you all things";[4] "He will guide you into all truth."[5]

I. _The Teaching of Temptation_

One of the chief courses of instruction in the School of the Holy
Spirit is that of temptation. Victory over Satan is a very glorious
achievement, but it is only half, and so far as our earthly life is
affected, the smaller half, of God's purpose in sending and permitting
temptation. He means {167} us in every battle to gain a knowledge of
self, a knowledge of our weak points, that realizing them our wills may
be incited to co-operate with His to re-enforce them.[6]

(1) One of the first lessons it is needful for us to learn is that when
great difficulty is experienced in resisting a temptation we are to
regard the point of this particular assault as one that requires
strengthening. How wonderfully does the divine wisdom force Satan
himself to be our instructor and, in permitting him to buffet us,
compel him to proceed according to a principle which teaches the soul
its own needs, and so turns to his own undoing, and to the profit of
the one who is tempted.

Even when, for the time being, he gains a victory, the same principle
holds good. After true penitence has come to make good the breach, how
much has the soul learned, how sensitive it is at that particular
point, how alert to perceive any renewed attack, how full of a holy
desperation that the same d