ying of Satan_

We have said that the true test of penitence is amendment of life. We
can hardly read this sentence without being conscious of temptation,
for it is here that Satan brings in one of his most subtle suggestions.
We can hear him taunting the soul: "Is this all you have to depend on
for your hope of salvation? Have you ever really amended your life?"

And then with that mysterious power that {199} God has given him for
the trial of the Saints, and which he uses so pitilessly, he flashes
upon the mirror of the mind old sins, sins of long ago, of which we
repented in bitterness and tears, it may be; but which we took again to
our hearts time after time. We made our Confession, we said to God in
the presence of His priest (for he could not have absolved us without
this), "I firmly purpose amendment." Then we went away and sinned
again and yet again. After a time we came back to Confession. The
same acknowledgment, the same promise,--and then the same old sin again.

Thus has life gone on, year after year, and yet we dare to look to God
to take us back to our old allegiance. Satan tells us all this; and it
loses nothing in the telling. It is very terrible, and the soul
shrinks back appalled.

Then swift as thought the voice of the tempter comes again: "What is
the use? You will sin again; why not give it all up?" Many a soul has
followed his counsel to its eternal loss. It sounded plausible. It
seemed to fit exactly into our own experience; and yet it was a lie.

It was a lie because in all that he said the tempter was deceiving us
as to the true meaning of amendment. Satan's knowledge of what
perfection is, is a very strange and wonderful thing. {200} An angel
from heaven could not set up a higher standard than he is able to do
when he is seeking to discourage a struggling soul. _Amendment does
not mean perfection of life; it does not mean never committing some
particular sin again_. This was not what we resolved; it was not what
we told God we purposed doing. What amendment does mean is, "_to
change for the better_."[14] This is to be the spirit and resolution
with which we return from the captivity of sin. It is all God asks.

But the tempter is not yet vanquished. Quick comes the whisper in the
soul,--"Have you done even this? Has there been a change in your life
for the better? Have you any assurance that your life is in the
smallest degree better than it was a year ago?"

Stag