, and therefore needs caution. Let us ask ourselves this
question, "How often do we think of Satan in the course of the day as our
great tempter?" Yet surely he does not cease to be active because we do
not think of him; and surely, too, his powers and devices were revealed
to us by Almighty God for the very purpose, that being not ignorant of
them, we might watch against them. Who among us will not confess, that
many is the time that he has mixed with the world, forgetting who the god
of this world is? or rather, are not a great many of us living in
habitual forgetfulness that this world is a scene of trial; that is, that
this is its _chief_ character, that all its employments, its pleasures,
its occurrences, even the most innocent, the most acceptable to God, and
the most truly profitable in themselves, are all the while so handled by
Satan as may be the most conducive to our ruin, if he can possibly
contrive it? There is nothing gloomy or superstitious in this, as the
plain words of Scripture will abundantly prove to every inquirer. We are
told "that the devil, our adversary, as a roaring lion walketh about,
seeking whom he may devour[6];" and therefore are warned to "be sober, be
vigilant." And assuredly our true comfort lies, not in disguising the
truth from ourselves, but in knowing something more than this;--that
though Satan is against us, God is for us; that greater is He that is in
us, than he that is in the world[7]; and that He in every temptation will
make a way for us to escape, that we may be able to bear it[8].

God does His part most surely; and Satan too does his part: we alone are
unconcerned. Heaven and hell are at war for us and against us, yet we
trifle, and let life go on at random. Heaven and hell are before us as
our own future abode, one or other of them; yet our own interest moves us
no more than God's mercy. We treat sin, not as an enemy to be feared,
abhorred, and shunned, but as a misfortune and a weakness; we do not pity
and shun sinful men, but we enter into their path so far as to keep
company with them; and next, being tempted to copy them, we fall almost
without an effort.

Be not you thus deceived and overcome, my brethren, by an evil heart of
unbelief. Make up your minds to take God for your portion, and pray to
Him for grace to enable you so to do. Avoid the great evils of leisure,
avoid the snare of having time on your hands. Avoid all bad thoughts,
all corrupt or irreli