I THE FAIRNESS OF TRIAL There hath no temptation taken you but such as man can bear; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation make also the way of escape, that ye may be able to endure it.- -I COR. X. 13. THE word' temptation' is sometimes used to express the general discipline of life, and again it is employed to signify allurement to evil. We now use it in the latter sense, and design to show that such temptations are so regulated as to leave us no reason for complaint. We are apt to assume that we have cause to complain, that temptation is often excessive, that it is of such a character and force as to be practically irresistible. If we happily survive the ordeal we congratulate ourselves upon a narrow escape; or, if we succumb, we consider that we are rather to be pitied than blamed. On the contrary, we desire to make clear that the tests to which our moral life is submitted are never excessive, never out of proportion to our potential strength, never without the way of escape; 'God is faithful,' and every trial of our faith or principle, our temper or conduct, that He permits, is reasonable, and such as we may endure and master. It is never of such character as necessarily to baffle us by its subtlety, to overwhelm by its intensity, to surprise by its novelty, or to exhaust us by its frequency. Let us consider this. 1. The subtlety of temptation is often pleaded in extenuation of a fall. We reason as though evil possessed a power of deception that necessarily bewilders and victimizes; its approach so stealthy, its disguises so consummate, its processes so beguiling, that in the simplicity of nature we are no match for it. Supernatural evil, commanding stratagems of profound cunning, is supposed to mock at our utmost vigilance and penetration. Naturalists tell us of the extraordinary skill with which some of the traps of Nature are constructed. Let one of these describe the fascination of the pitcher plant. 'It cannot be doubted that insects must be attracted towards, and induced to visit, the pitchers of the Nepenthes, considering all the artifices and inducements brought into play, the strange shapes of the pitchers, their bright colours, and, above all, the glands disseminated around, affording all kinds of sweetmeats, to tempt and lure the insects to perdition. Of this kind are |