r, along what road it will
be, or what space of time it will occupy. The plan laid out in such a
case must be, at best, a poor kind of thing. God has promised us that
we shall not be tempted above that we are able. In other words, that
He will preside over this battle, watching it in its every detail, and
when the limit of our strength is reached, the tempter will be
instantly checked. What must be his rage and chagrin to find so often
the spoil of the battle apparently all but within his grasp, when
suddenly his arm is shortened, his power paralysed.

[1] "Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary, the devil, as a
roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."--1 Peter v, 8.

[2] Rev. xii, 7.

[3] "It seems certain that this sin was pride, which is the beginning
of all sin.... More specifically, the pride of the fallen angels seems
to have been a refusal to accept the position of creature, subject in
all things to their Creator."--Hunter, _Outlines of Dogmatic Theology_,
448.

[4] Rom. v, 20.

[5] "According to the divine economy, the Evil One is not consigned at
once to the place of punishment allotted to him, but is permitted to be
at large for the trial and probation of men; that he may, though
contrary to his own design, render the Saints more righteous through
patience, and become the cause of greater glory to them."--St. Macarius
the Egyptian, _Institutes of Christian Perfection_, Bk. IV, ch. ii
(London, 1816).

[6] Ps. cvii, 16.

[7] Ps. xcviii, 2.

[8] Rom. v, 12.

[9] 1 Cor. xv, 55. Compare Hosea xiii, 14.

[10] Heb. xii, 23.

[11] Moberly, _The Administration of the Holy Spirit_, p. 25.

[12] "For Thou, even Thou only, knowest the hearts of all the children
of men."--1 Kings viii, 39.

"After all, with all his vast knowledge and experience, he is but a
creature. He cannot know you from within; he is not omniscient, not
omnipresent. He can only _guess_ at your motives,--the secret spring
of your actions."--Webb, _The Presence and Office of the Holy Spirit_,
pp. 78-79.

[13] Job i and ii.

{28}

CHAPTER III

THE TEMPTER: HIS CHARACTERISTICS AND METHODS

I. _Satan, the Deceiver_

The foremost characteristic of Satan is that which marks him as a
Deceiver. It was by deceit that he brought death into the world and
all our woe. Our first mother was "beguiled through his subtilty,"[1]
and "being deceived, was in the transgression."[2] Our Lord declare