and delusions by which the truth is perverted or resisted, it is of the utmost importance that we should not be ignorant of his devices, one of which is to gain advantage on us on the very side where we least expected it, or as a reaction from an opposite evil. * We must remember that the purpose for which the Son of God was manifested was "that He might destroy the works of the devil;" and, therefore, in proportion as we bear witness for the truth, even as Christ did, in that proportion will Satan's designs be frustrated, and in the same proportion will all the strength and subtlety of the Evil One be on the watch to foil that witness.

To bring this truth more directly home to the heart of each of us in regard to "my work for God," it is well that I should realise, in its application to myself personally, the full meaning of the solemn warning given by our Lord to St. Peter: "Simon, Simon, behold Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat. But I made supplication for thee, that cf. 2 Cor. ii. 5-11. E

+ Luke xxii. 31, 32.

thy faith fail not, and do thou, when thou hast turned again, stablish thy brethren." Were those words spoken for Peter only? Must not each of us consider them as a warning to himself? "My work for God" cannot be genuine and effective without exciting the malice, perhaps the special hostility against myself personally, of the Prince of Darkness. Well may I pray, day by day, "Deliver us from the Evil One." Well may I place myself continually under the shelter of Christ's intercession, as that which alone can defeat the attempts of Satan. His endeavour will be, through my falls, to stultify all my previous witness for the truth, and make my name a stumbling block to all generations, as that of Peter would have been, had not his repentance been as deep, his conversion as complete, as edifying to the Church, and as convincing to the world, as his sin was scandalous and aggravated.

CHAPTER VIII.

WHY ALL WORK FOR GOD IS THROUGH SUFFERING.

THE causes which have been examined in the previous chapter are of themselves sufficient to teach us the necessity both of being prepared for severe trials of faith in our work for God, and of watchfulness against those temptations that would rob us of our crown. But for the confirmation of our faith under these trials, we must look further into the question, why work for God must be through suffering. And here again the example of Him who "though He was a Son, yet learned obedience through the things that He suffered" O most profound, and, to finite thought, fathomless mystery!throws a light on the connection between our witness for God's truth and the suffering which it is His will that we should endure, such as we cannot elsewhere obtain. For it was not because He had, as we have, the tendencies of

a sinful nature within, which required to be mortified and subdued; there was in Him no rebellious heart to be humbled under the mighty hand of God, as for us is so often necessary in order that we may both know the will of God and do it; and yet even He had to learn the lesson, how to obey His Father through suffering.

One meaning of this is obvious, and directly applicable to ourselves. It was necessary for Him to become "a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief,” in order that He might learn how to manifest fully the love of God for man, by Himself sympathising with all the sorrows of the human heart. From whatever source those afflictions arose, they enabled Him to be a witness for God to us the children of men, as He could not otherwise have become. need we indeed seek further than this for the necessity of our suffering with Christ, in order that we may learn to testify to God's name of Love, even as He witnessed.

Nor

But that we may look a little more deeply

into this mystery of the relation between our suffering, physical and mental, and our service to God, and use the truth for our spiritual edification and strength in our work for God, it is well that we should carefully weigh the teaching of the Apostle Paul on this subject in the eighth chapter of his Epistle to the Romans. In the seventh chapter he had spoken of the discovery of sin which the Law makes to the conscience of a man when he is awakened to perceive its spiritual power; how, even when he delights in the law of God after the inward man, he finds another law in his members bringing him into captivity under the law of sin there. And yet through Christ and the spirit of life in Him, he is able with the mind to serve the law of God, and is set free from the law of sin and death. And "as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God," having the spirit of adoption which teaches them to come to God as their Father, and bears witness with their spirit, "that we are children of God; and if children then heirs ;