There are many practical means we can employ to allay that kind of solicitude which is both the cause and effect of a doubting spirit.
(1) Think not overmuch of the dangers of the warfare. The imagination brooding over them will be apt to paint them in lurid colours that will terrify and weaken. If the thought of the peril presses upon us, supplant it by recalling the oft repeated pledges of divine help. Think rather of the glory of a conflict in which God is our Leader, and in which victory is absolutely assured if only we do not lose heart but fight on to the end.
Recall the precious promises He has given us, and how that often in the very language of these promises we gain a glimpse of conditions of the war that ought mightily to encourage us. "Resist the devil and he will flee from you,"[13] says the Spirit, comforting us concerning the peril of the conflict. Glance for a moment at the particular words the Holy Ghost here chooses. "Resist the devil"; or, to go back to the etymology of the word, Stand against him; yield not one step to him however he may fling the full weight of his power against you. But what will be the result? Not only that your soul will be safe from stain or guilt, but that you will carry consternation into the ranks of hell. "He will flee from you," and the word used by the inspired writer means not merely that he will withdraw and leave you, but that he will make a precipitate flight, as one in a panic flees from impending danger.[14]
Let us remember when suggestion of fear comes that this is in itself a special temptation from Satan, and nowhere in his temptations is he guilty of more deliberate lying. As a matter of fact there is no danger, even in the fiercest of his assaults, to the soul that cherishes thepresence of Christ within. For if He be in my heart, then the conflict is between Him and the tempter, and so long as my heart is His, and I do not, by wilful sin, drive Him forth, it is as impossible for Satan to conquer as it was for him to have triumphed over our Lord in the great conflict in the wilderness.
In short, at such times all our Lord asks is that we maintain our hearts for Him that He may use them as battle-fields upon which to join issue once more with the adversary that He may administer to him another crushing defeat. True, He uses our faculties with which to fight, but the battle is His, and if we stand not in the way His will be the victory. There can be no real danger to the faithful soul when the struggle is conducted under these conditions.
(2) Speak not of your anxieties to everyone. We may rightly take counsel with some wise spiritual guide who may be able to interpret them for us; but experience shows us that many times much speaking of these matters gives body and reality to troubles which have no adequate ground, and which might easily have been driven away, had we only sought to divert the mind from them, and so to forget them, instead of impressing them still more on the consciousness by dwelling upon them in thought and conversation.
Above all things let not our conversation concerning our anxieties take the form of complaint, for in every case the complaint is against God. He is directing the detail of the warfare, and each complaint is an open questioning of His justice and wisdom and love. When Satan sees that our spirits are thus inclined, how quick he is to take advantage of it. How thick and fast do suggestions come that lead us swiftly on to that state of self-pity at the supposed hardness of our lot, that means a speedy extinction of divine grace within. Remember that complaint means disloyalty, and disloyalty is a long step toward open rebellion.
Even if our querulous spirit does not lead directly to such serious sin, it involves us in great peril. We have already seen that Satan has no means of knowing the effect of his assaults except by the outward indications we give. When we openly complain of the force of his attacks, are we not advertising him of our weak points? The garrison that is maintaining a siege not only seeks to keep its fortifications intact, but, should weakness transpire at any point, is most careful not to give the enemy knowledge of it. Keep a brave front always. This not only encourages our own heart, but discourages the adversary.
(3) We must also draw upon our past experience to convince ourselves that most of our anxieties have no real basis in fact. How many hours and days of troubled care can we recall which were proved by the issue of the event to have had reality only in our anxious imagination.
"My sons," said an old man on his deathbed, in giving his last counsel to his children, "I have had much trouble in this life, but most of it never happened." This is the universal experience, and it holds good with the solicitude that we feel over our temptations and other spiritual trials as in the less important matters of our temporal life.
(4) It will be a help to remind ourselves very frequently that in indulging a false anxiety concerning our spiritual difficulties, we are seeking to-day to bear the morrow's burden, something God means no soul to undertake. There are surely temptations enough to-day to require all of to-day's grace and strength; and, conversely, we know that no grace will be wanting for the trials of the present hour.
The promise is given to us as to God's people of old, "As thy days so shall thy strength be";[15] that is, according to the need of each particular occasion so will strength be given. There is nopromise that strength will be given to-day to bear the anticipated, and often imaginary, ills of the future; and when we allow ourselves thus to anticipate them, we are courting sure defeat.
Satan delights to lead us into this false anxiety, for he knows we have at the present moment no grace to grapple with temptations and trials which do not belong to this time; and further, he knows that a faithful confidence in God now is thesine qua nonto securing and storing up strength against the future trial. If he can disturb that confidence to-day, when the real temptation comes to-morrow we shall not have laid hold of the grace that was offered, and so cannot but fail, unless some extraordinary mercy of God saves us then in spite of our faithlessness.
Nor should we ever permit ourselves to forget that there may be no to-morrow. "Remember that it is God's, not thine."[16] How sad a case would it be (and doubtless there have been many such), if we should weaken our souls and God's power within them, by fretting over what might happen to-morrow; then, the call suddenly coming, find ourselves saved indeed perhaps, but occupying a lower place in heaven forever, because in troubling our hearts over the burdens of a to-morrow that never came we lost thegrace of to-day. Every grace given us here is transmuted into glory there. Let us not lose one of them, for the graces proffered and accepted here are pledges of the measure of the heavenly glory that will be ours.[17]
But, do what we will, after all, the best and only unfailing refuge from the snare of a false solicitude is to turn in these anxious moments to Him with Whom alone true sympathy is found. With profit may we hearken to the warning of the blessed à Kempis: "By mutual speech we seek mutual comfort, and desire to ease the heart overwearied with manifold anxieties..... But, alas, often in vain and to no end; for this outward comfort is no small loss of inward and divine consolation."[18]
In our solicitude we desire, and rightly desire, human sympathy, and God means us to have it. It was for this very thing that He sent His Son to take our nature and a human heart, full of warm love and sympathy, that we might find in perfection that for which we yearn,—the tender sympathy of our own kind. What sweet andstrong consideration for our weakness is shown in this. Mere human sympathy only enervates, and in the end the soul is left weaker than before. Every man's experience has told him this, and yet deep in the human heart there is that uncontrollable longing for the loving touch of another heart, human like our own. God sees this, and condescends to it. He takes humanity, full and complete, up into the Godhead, that in Him we may find that human Heart that will give us perfectly the comfort and sympathy for which we yearn.
So in our solicitude let us turn to Him, our Elder Brother, and the disciple who lay on His breast at Supper will have no more loving a welcome, no sweeter a sympathy, than that which He will give to us who are wearied with the burden of life's warfare, and perplexed with the problems of the battle.
[1]Imitation, I, xiii.
[2] "When the mind ceases to entertain religious anxiety, it becomes at the same time forgetful of the commandments, and while it thinks itself advancing, it wanders from the smooth road, and idles on its way."—St. Macarius,Institutes of Christian Perfection, Bk. I, chap. v.
[3] Scupoli,The Spiritual Combat, chap. xxv.
[4]Imitation, IV, xvii.
[5] 1 St. John iv, 18.
[6] 1 Cor. x, 13.
[7] Ps. xxxvii, 8. The R. V. reads, "Fret not thyself; it tendeth only to evil-doing."
[8] Archbp. Ullathorne,Christian Patience, p. 128.
[9] Deut. xxxiii, 27.
[10] Heb. xiii, 5.
[11] Heb. xi, 11.
[12] Ps. xviii, 16.
[13] St. James iv, 7.
[14] [Greek:pheúgô], from which our English wordfugitiveis derived.
[15] Deut. xxxiii, 25.
[16] Pusey,Parochial Sermons, Vol. II, p. 158.
[17] See a remarkable discourse in Dr. Pusey'sLenten Sermonson "The Losses of the Saved."
[18]Imitation, I, x.
If we have the right spirit of solicitude about our temptations, it will arm us with a double weapon against Satan which he will have no power to break. We are told that we are to watch in prayer,—vigilare in orationibus.[1] It is the command given by our Lord to his disciples in the Garden in the hour of the power of darkness: "Watch ye and pray lest ye enter into temptation."[2]
St. Paul, also, in his exhortation to the Ephesian Christians to "put on the whole armour of God,"[3] does not regard it as enough to give the great list of virtues with which they are to be panoplied. The loins must indeed be girt with truth; the breastplate of righteousness must be buckled on and the sandals of the preparation of the gospel of peace; while above all else there must be the shield of faith; and the great catalogue ofthe Christian soldier's equipment ends with the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.
But this armour is not sufficient for the warfare. Complete as it seems, something else is necessary to insure the victory; and so the great Christian warrior, who himself had "fought a good fight,"[4] adds something more, namely, watchfulness and prayer,—"Prayingalways, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, andwatchingthereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."
How strong are his words, poured forth with such impetuosity of expression as to seem to a superficial reader to be almost tautological,—"praying with all prayer and supplication." How careful, too, is he to remind us that this prayer and supplication must be "in the Spirit," in response to the Spirit's impulse, and with the right judgment that He alone can give, and which He will give only to those who ask Him "nothing wavering."[5]
Nor will prayer alone suffice. There must be a "watching thereunto with all perseverance"; not relaxing our vigilance, but maintaining it to the end. Neither is the soul to grow faint in its watch, nor imagine, in regard to any point, that careful guard is no longer necessary.
The word "thereunto" calls for comment. Does the vigilance enjoined apply only to the work of prayer which has just been mentioned, or does it reach back to the whole category of duties included in putting on the armour of God? At first glance it might seem inadequate to make it refer only to the all-embracing duty of prayer, but if we comprehend fully all that prayer means, we shall see that it is not necessary that we should directly connect the injunction to vigilance with anything else.[6] If we are keenly vigilant to pray as we ought in the power of the Spirit concerning truth and righteousness, faith and salvation, and all else that the Apostle has been describing, nothing will be wanting to us as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. How truly did à Kempis catch the thought which the Holy Spirit had given the great Apostle when he paraphrased our Lord's command in the words, "Be watchful in prayer."
Let us consider, then, this twofold weapon with which God will arm us, for we note that they are not two separate weapons. Our Lord said, "Watch ye and pray," and the blessed à Kempis gives us, as we have just seen, the true commentary on the command in the paraphrase, "Watch in prayer."
Vigilance without prayer would be to learn of the danger, and yet fail to guard against it. To pray without vigilance would be to expect God to work some miracle for us, to protect us when we ourselves had done nothing to employ the means He places in our hands for forestalling and defeating Satan. In short, it would be a sin of presumption. So one cannot avail without the other.
With this understanding clear in our minds, let us proceed to examine the relation of vigilance and prayer to temptation.
"Watch." This implies much more than a mere guarding ourselves in a general way. It means that a systematic and regular guard is to be kept over ourwhole life, overallour senses and faculties, overallcircumstances and conditions so far as we can by any means direct them.
Here again we may find our illustration in the world about us. Approach the camp of a well disciplined army. How quickly you are challenged. Seek to enter it on any side, and a sentinel, alert and suspicious, keeps you at a distance. The foe may be hovering in the darkness of the neighbouring forest, or he may be a hundred miles away, but this makes no difference in the vigilance of the guard. They takeno chances. The enemy is abroad, and no man sleeps on his post. Nor is it the known weak points only, or only the side from which the attack is expected, that receives attention. Everywhere strict watchfulness is maintained, while the threatened points are doubly sentinelled.
We have in this the picture of what the watch about the beleaguered soul should be. The soul that means to give a good and generous service to God must guard itself at every point. How frequently, when attention is called to some sin, do we think, "Oh, that is not my weakness," or, "That would constitute no temptation to me whatever." Vain, boasting spirit!—trusting to escape from evil by merely natural means! How Satan gloats as he marks one point that is being left unguarded, and waits, alert and observant, for a favourable opportunity for attack. Through long time, months and years it may be, he maintains a steady, subtle work of suggestion, leading the mind little by little, unconsciously because no guard is kept, into an attitude where the temptation we boastingly defied will prove a terrible foe before whose sudden onslaught we shall go down in grievous and ignominious fall.
If in truth God has spared us the fall into some sin that happens in the lives of those about us, our safety will lie not in self-congratulation,but in humble thanksgiving that only through the mercy of God have we been spared this stain. "But for the mercy of God, there goes John Bradford," exclaimed a rugged old Christian as a condemned murderer passed by on his way to death.
Again, our vigilance must be especially directed against the temptations to which we have already yielded. When a sin has once found entrance, it is easy for it to enter again, not only because experience of the sin itself makes it attractive, but because psychologically it is easy to do the thing we have done before. In my self-examination to-night I find that a certain sin has been committed. Let me mark it over against the morrow that the temptation, if it recur, may be stamped out quickly, lest the fault entering often become habitual, and a binding chain of besetting sin be forged about my soul.
Similarly must we guard the particular faculty that we find has led us into sin. Is it pride of intellect, the desire to show what little we know, the instinctive tendency to monopolize conversation, or to instruct and correct others? Or is it a weakness that has its seat in our affections, a tendency to condone sin in those we love, or a critical spirit against those for whom we have no natural affinity? Or perhaps it is a sin of speech;the unkind word we so easily speak, the idle boast of our own achievements; or the sin of idle conversation, the "objectless" talk that occupies so much of our conversation with others, and which our Lord so terribly condemned.[7]
Although no sin may have been committed, yet an oft-recurring temptation is always to be diligently watched. It indicates that Satan, who generally knows us better than we know ourselves, has reason to believe that here is a weak point in our armour; or that he thinks that God might, for some reason, be particularly dishonoured by our commission of the sin suggested at some special time or place.
Vigilance, too, must be kept regarding occasions of sin. For this reason we should practise not only daily examination of conscience that we may learn wherein we have failed, but we should begin each day with an anticipation of possible happenings. Where do I expect to go? Whom shall I see? What duties are to be performed which may occasion temptation? Perhaps I know that, if the expected routine of the day be not disturbed, I shall go to a certain place and shall meet certain people. The last time I was in that place something occurred which caused me to sin. Is the occasion of that sin still there?If so, I must note it, and be most guarded concerning it. Perhaps I shall meet a certain person who irritates and annoys me. This, too, I must note, and forestall by some prompt word or act of charity, before the temptation has time to present itself.
All this vigilance will, however, avail nothing unless it be combined with prayer. The good soldier in the field does not depend upon himself, but is constantly referring to headquarters for instructions, and this reference on the part of the soldier in the armies of the Kingdom is what we call prayer.
We must, however, get beyond the narrow and inadequate notion that prayer is confined to formal acts of praise, thanksgiving, confession, and petition. These are real and essential parts of prayer, and we have need of them as we shall see; but they are not all.
Every act of directing the human will towards the will of God is prayer in its truest and most comprehensive sense. Every longing of the heart for God, every effort to identify ourselves with Him, our wills with His will, though there be neither word, nor even thought, definitely framed, is prayer. Our spoken prayers may have prayedthemselves away; the mind and body may be so wearied that formal acts of prayer are a burden to the flesh, and well-nigh impossible. But these are not necessary if we are keeping our hearts turned towards Him, and are striving, even though at times we may not appear to succeed, to maintain, around and within, that atmosphere of loving devotion which is the Christian's way of keeping open the lines of communication with his base of supplies.
Our first duty in prayer, as a preparation over against temptation, is to address ourselves directly to the case in hand, and, pleading our own nothingness, to ask God to go with us through the day to defend and succour us. Pray about the particular occasion of sin that may seem imminent; pray with especial earnestness as we approach it more nearly. But the prayer must not be for ourselves alone. If there are others involved we must pray for them, that they too may be controlled by the Holy Spirit.
If the occasion we are approaching is one that is dangerous because we have before yielded to Satan, no prayer can be of greater effect than an act of contrition for the past sins, the commission of which is now involving us in renewed peril. Every act of contrition purifies the soul more and more, and adds to the strength with whichwe are to meet the confident enemy on the scene of his former victory, but this time to put him to flight. "Amplius lava me,"—Wash me more and more,—was the cry of the Psalmist in his great prayer of penitence.[8]
Here we cannot fail to consider the particular strength which comes from the greatest prayer of contrition,—sacramental confession and the absolution which follows. If the anticipated occasion be one of possible mortal sin, and if the sin of the past has been grievous, the best preparation will be the seeking of absolution in the tribunal of penance. Every sacrament brings its own particular grace, and the special grace of absolution is a power infused into us which will apply to the especial need of our souls. Satan has at some time been able to effect an entrance at some point; again he draws near to assault the absolved soul, confident that he will find the same avenue open. To his chagrin, however, he finds it not only closed, but fortified with a special gift of strength from God; and, fearing the shame of a defeat, he will often withdraw without attacking.
This is a common experience with those who habitually frequent the tribunal of penance. How many times have we had many and grievousfalls into some particular sin; we make a good confession and go away not only cleansed, but strengthened by the grace of absolution; and after some days or weeks we begin to realize with a sense of joyful surprise that the temptation which a little while ago was constantly appearing seems to be entirely withdrawn. The occasion may arise, but the soul feels no drawing to that in which it had before sinned. It is the operation of the special grace of absolution, a grace which cannot be had other than through the Sacrament of Penance, whatever other great graces God may give us in reward for true contrition of spirit.
It is important that the work of prayer in preparation for temptation should cover every point. As we have already thought in connection with watchfulness, nothing must be done in the natural spirit; no temptation can be overcome by means of dependence on anything else but the gifts of divine grace. "Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, saith the Lord of Hosts."[9]
It is a part of the Faith that we can do nothing pleasing to God in the natural spirit. Nothing can be acceptable with Him, nothing can draw from Him the graces we need, save what is donethrough the power and influence of the Third Person of the Ever-Blessed Trinity.
The Apostle says that no man can do so simple a thing as to "say that Jesus is the Lord but by the Holy Ghost."[10] So it is the Holy Ghost Who is to be our guide and protector. Do we pray to the Holy Ghost? We pray often to the Father; frequently, perhaps, to God the Son, but how much is prayer to God the Holy Ghost neglected amongst Christians! And yet He alone is the agent of the Godhead in the Church. His is the work of sanctification, as the Father's is the work of creation, and the Son's that of redemption. No grace comes to us save through the Spirit. Everything that comes into our lives from God, whether by means of prayer or sacrament, faith or good works, comes through the personal action of the Holy Ghost.
Therefore in preparing for temptation let us look to Him and pray to Him in all things; and thus "strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man,"[11] we can go forth to the day's conflict, knowing that the assaults of Satan and the occasions of sin can only bring us new opportunities of victory that will merit us the crown of life which is promised to them that overcome.
In the midst of this prayer in preparation fortemptation we must expect to find ourselves the objects of Satan's peculiar malice. All prayer is a challenge to him, but none so much as the prayer by which we are gaining new force and resource to employ against him.[12]
In this, as in all else, we see how carefully Satan conducts his warfare. If it were possible to do so, what leader would fail to attack his enemy when he was in the very act of laying in new supplies of food and ammunition upon which to subsist, and with which to fight?
Lastly, in the very moment of temptation our prayers must be strong and unceasing. The more the temptation increases, the more fervently—yea, desperately—must we pray, crying out as a drowning man might call to the only one from whom he could expect help.
But, says one, there's the rub. How can I pray when a thousand distractions are thrust in so powerfully from every side? We are to find the answer to such questions in our Lord'shour of deepest temptation in Gethsemane where we are told that "being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly"[13]—literally, more intensely.
Let the intensity of our prayer keep pace with the intensity of assault. We can more than defeat Satan if at such times we compel ourselves to pray with greater care and exactness, framing with extraordinary care the very words we are speaking to God, and if our perturbation be such that we can find no words to utter, let us not grow faint, but remember that this was precisely the case with our Lord in His Agony, when He prayed over and over again, "saying the same words."[14]
By his constant effort to interfere with our prayers, especially in seasons of trial and temptation, Satan gives his testimony to the efficiency which we shall acquire if we are earnest in our work of preparation for the battle. He fears it with a fear born of long experience. "Grievous indeed to us," says St. Bernard, "is the temptation of the enemy, but far more grievous to him is our prayer."[15] He has through all the ages contended against the grace and strength of God as he found it in its manifold forms in the Saints. He sees the history of the spiritualwarfare repeating itself in us, and surely it should be a source of rejoicing to us that he should count us as foes to be feared, as he feared in other days, or in our own time, the great Saints and warriors of the Kingdom of God.
[1]Imitation, I, xiii.
[2] St. Mark xiv, 38.
[3] Eph. vi, 11-18.
[4] 2 Tim. iv, 7.
[5] St. James i, 6.
[6] SeeThe Speaker's Commentary, in loc.
[7] St. Matt. xii, 36.
[8] Ps. li, 2.
[9] Zech. iv, 6.
[10] Cor. xii, 3.
[11] Eph. iii, 16.
[12] "St. Thomas and many other grave doctors say that it is by reason of the war that the devil is accustomed to make against those that are in prayer, that the Church, directed by the Holy Ghost, ordains that we should begin all the canonical Hours with this verse, 'O God, make speed to save me: O Lord, make haste to help me.' Whereby we implore God's assistance in prayer against the snares and temptations of the enemy."—Quoted by Rodriguez,Christian Perfection.
[13] St. Luke xxii, 44.
[14] St. Matt. xxvi, 44.
[15] St. Bernard,Serm. in Dedicat. Eccles., III.
A psychological principle we should never lose sight of is that the attitude of mind and heart towards all moral questions is just what we choose to make it. Surround a man with debasing associations, and let him yield to the resulting influences, and he becomes debased. On the other hand, the influence of a pure and noble environment makes for purity and nobility of character. Every man in his inner character, and in that outward expression of character that we call life, is the product of the influences to which he yields himself.
One of our chief dangers, however, is that many influences flow out from our daily environment of which we are quite unconscious. We are not always in a position to realize our surroundings and their effect, and even when we can realize them, it is often beyond our power to control them. But before an external influence can work any hurt to us, there must be somethingwithin that answers to it. A child may pass unscathed through an environment of vice, because there is nothing in the child-heart that responds to the call of sin.
Our Lord had this in mind, perhaps, when He laid it down as a condition necessary to entrance into the Kingdom of God that we should become as little children,[1] and He was able to make this condition quite absolute, because while no man can control his external environment and the consequent influences, he can, by the deliberate use of his will, acting in the power of the Holy Ghost, create, in very large measure, whatever interior condition he wishes. By his daily course he can develop a moral and spiritual interior that will habitually respond with alacrity to the evil and be deaf to the good; or, on the other hand, one that will not only rise up quickly to entertain every good influence and suggestion, but will in a large measure (though never wholly in this life) be even unconscious like little children of the presence of evil influences.[2]
So let us learn how to create an interior environment in which the Holy Ghost will be the dominant force. Otherwise Satan will surely surround us with so much of sin, that becoming accustomed to it, and to the thought of it, we shall be unable to resist the effort he will make to use our faculties as instruments for his work.
Nor must we wait until conscious of his approach before seeking to create the proper interior environment. In most cases it will then be too late. It is not easy to surround ourselves with an atmosphere of good and pious thought in the moment of assault. We must be beforehand with him. In times of peace we must prepare for war.
We may be quite sure that it is with the intention of affording us the opportunity to do this that God often gives us rest from the attacks of the enemy. He does not mean us to lie idle at such times, but to seize the opportunity to train for future battles, just as soldiers in barracks engage in daily drill that they may be more efficient fighters when again called to take the field. "After thou hast escaped thesetemptations, or else if our Lord hath so kept thee (as He doth many by His mercy), that thou hast not been troubled much by any such, then it is good for thee that thou beware of turning thy rest into idleness."[3]
Let us consider how Satan uses certain of our faculties as instruments of sin, and see how by a definite system of spiritual exercises we can so forestall him that he will find nothing in us ready for his use.
How much sin, for example, is due to the action of memory! It is indeed strange that this wonderful faculty, which more than any other operates to give unity, consistency, and proportion to our life, should be so often used to call up past sins that we may sin them over again in will if not in deed. We linger with pleasure, by the exercise of this faculty, over past sins, making them our own again, staining our souls once more with that which we thought had been buried forever in the far-off years.
We bring to renewed life old revenges, ancient hates, and revel again amid scenes of impurity which can never be re-enacted in real life. Suchacts, frequently indulged, grow into a habit, and the habit becomes necessity when the memory not only easily and naturally reverts to those events and conditions of the past that were bound up with sin, but becomes so trained that it must recall the evil, and can only with great stress, difficulty, and distaste be made to recall that which is good.
If, on the other hand, by persistent acts of will we force the memory to recall the righteous passages from our past, far-off happenings sweet and holy, we, little by little, train it to retain these righteous things, while all other impressions grow more and more dim as the years go by.
Those who have practised such methods find that after a time the memory, even when left alone, will engage itself with that which is good, just because it has become accustomed to it, and will reject the evil (in many cases, of itself, without the direct interposition of the will), because long exercise has so trained it that in its ordinary operation evil memories are repugnant to it.
Therefore keep the memory definitely busy. Too often when we think it is browsing, as it were, carelessly among the fields of the past, it is, as a matter of fact, being subtly directed by Satan, until, ere we know it, it has fallen upon some evil thing whose touch is poison.