The Warfare of the Soul: Practical Studies in the Life of Temptation. Shirley Carter Hughson
2. The Hopelessness of his Warfare
3. The Limitations of the Tempter
4. The Restraint of the Divine Decrees
THE TEMPTER: HIS CHARACTERISTICS AND METHODS
1. Satan, The Deceiver
2. The Fact of his Personality
3. His Experience and Wisdom
4. The Methods of his Might
5. The Soul's Safety
CHAPTER IV
THE UNIVERSALITY OF TEMPTATION
1. The Common Lot
2. Enduring Hardship
3. The Sufferings of the Saints
4. Satan in the Sanctuary
5. The Sacrament of Temptation
CHAPTER V
THE SPIRIT OF SOLICITUDE
1. True and False Anxiety
2. Worry Versus Faith
3. The Cure of a Doubting Spirit
4. God's Sympathy
CHAPTER VI
OUR PREPARATION FOR TEMPTATION
1. A Double Weapon
2. The Spirit of Vigilance
3. Prayer and Temptation
CHAPTER VII
TRAINING THE INNER LIFE
1. Environment and Character
2. Educating the Memory
3. Guiding the Imagination
4. The Practice of Constancy
5. The Practice of Calmness
6. The Practice of Patience
7. The Practice of Diligence
CHAPTER VIII
THE STAGES OF THE BATTLE
1. The Satanic Suggestion
2. The Response of the Natural Heart
3. The "Inferior" and "Superior" Wills
4. The Fatal Consent
CHAPTER IX
IN THE HOUR OF BATTLE
1. Realizing God's Friendship
2. The Divine Example of Humility
3. Instant in Prayer
4. A Holy Perversity
5. Scorning the Tempter
6. Staying not the Hand
7. The Final Phase of Victory
CHAPTER X
THE TESTS OF VICTORY AND DEFEAT
1. The Test of Common Sense
2. The Test of Doubt
3. Signs of the Soul's Victory
4. Spiritual Safety, Spiritual Victory
5. The Truest Test
CHAPTER XI
THE SCHOOL OF THE HOLY GHOST
1. The Teaching of Temptation
2. The Bulwark of Love
3. The Lesson of Humility
4. The Lessons of Consolation
5. How to Learn our Lessons
CHAPTER XII
THE RETURN FROM CAPTIVITY
1. Hastening to Repent
2. A Tranquil Sorrow
3. A Spirit of Reparation
4. The Work of Amendment
5. The Gainsaying of Satan
CHAPTER XIII
THE GROUND FOR CHRISTIAN COURAGE
1. Members One of Another
2. The Church's Treasury of Grace
3. God's Interest in our Victory
CHAPTER I
THE WARFARE OF THE SOUL
I. A Personal Issue
The spiritual warfare is intensely personal. Any consideration of it is a consideration of definite personalities, divine, angelic, human, Satanic,—God, the Angels, the Soul, and Satan. We speak commonly of great principles being at stake in this warfare, often forgetting that it is not possible for a moral or spiritual principle to exist apart from a person.
As we shall try to learn in the following pages, God—the three Persons of the Ever-Blessed Trinity—is always to be the first thought of the Christian warrior,—God, His Presence, His power, and His loving interest in our victory. But the well-trained soldier has an eye not to his own resources only; he seeks to learn something also concerning the Enemy he is to face. Next to the Presence of God, nothing is so necessary to the Christian soldier as to remember the presence of the Tempter; either in his own person or in that of one of his evil angels. Although God has revealed nothing directly to us on the subject, yet His revelation concerning Satan's work is such that we can hardly escape from the conclusion that, as each soul has a guardian angel, so each soul has assigned to him by Satan an attendant evil spirit, whose whole business is to seek to lead the soul into sin.
We see how in the conflict we have tremendous personalities to deal with, the Personality of the triune God,—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost,—and the Personality of Satan and his innumerable fallen angels, who, though finite and created, possess a scope and power which are, perhaps, so great that our human thought cannot compass them. But immeasurably below any of these as it is, our own personality must not be forgotten, for let it ever be kept in mind that the issue of our individual battle depends on ourselves. The laws of this war are such that on the one hand the powerful personal will even of the arch-fiend himself has no power to control us, except in so far as our personal will, acting with complete freedom, permits it; and on the other hand, the infinite personal will of God never operates so as to compel us, unless again our will yield freely to His call. Satan cannot control or influence us against our wills, and God, reverencing His image in man, refrains His power and never forces man's love or service. The will of man is free, and this makes him the central factor in the spiritual warfare.
II. Not Peace, but a Sword
In sending them forth on their first mission, the Prince of Peace declared to His awe-struck disciples, "I came not to send peace but a sword."[1] The world being what it was,