If the tempter now assault your faith, and sinking flesh do give him any advantage, abhor his blasphemies, and cry for help to him that conquered him.
And to make too great a matter of one another's faults, is but to help the tempter to quench your love, and turn your hearts from one another.
Sometimes the tempter saith, Thou art not elected to salvation; and God saveth none but his elect; and so puzzleth the ignorant by setting them on doubting of their election.
Sometimes the tempter will say, At best, thou hast no assurance of salvation, and how canst thou choose but tremble to think of dying, when thou knowest not whether thou shalt go to heaven or hell?
Man will fall as did Satan, but as Satan was self-tempted, and man will be deceived by another, the latter shall find grace where his tempter did not.
And now the Tempter thus his silence broke:-- "The city which thou seest no other deem Than great and glorious Rome Queen of the Earth So far renowned, and with the spoils enriched Of nations.
I decided at that moment that I would take that highway out and pay a visit to the Harrison farm.
And I was going to have ninety days to watch that patch grow at the inexorable rate of one sixty-fourth of an inch per hour!
I dressed hastily, and as I pulled my clothing on I took a slow dig at the other cabins in the motel.
I opened the door because I couldn't have played absent to a team consisting of one esper and one telepath.
Catherine was assuming the position of a lost love rather than a sweetheart expected to return soon.
And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
For a time the Tempter left her, but returned ere long, and creeping into her heart sung to her beautiful songs of the future which might be were Hester's baby a lady.
When He was hungry the tempter said, "If thou be the Son of God command this stone that it be made bread.
The tempter cannot take anybody anywhere except with his full consent.
Was it from this tempter that all of us religious folks and everybody else have gotten into the inveterate habit of quoting verse and sentence entirely out of connection?
The tempter is skilfully following the leading of Jesus' reply.
It is ever a favorite method with the tempter to rush a man.
The tempter cunningly seeks to sweep Him off of His feet by working on His mood.
And to this Jesus remained true, whether the request for evidence came from the tempter direct, or from sneering Pharisee at the temple's cleansing, or from unbelieving brothers.
The tempterattacks first the neediest point, the hunger, and in so far the weakest, the likeliest to yield.
The tempter threads his way with cautious skill among those unpleasant allusions to the serpent, and the dragon, and getting them under our feet, and then twisting and trampling with our hard heels.
The temptercomes now to the real thing he is after.
It may perfect those who endure it as ordained by God; it may bring out the solidity of their character, and redound to the glory of their Saviour; or it may give an opening to the tempter to seduce them from a path so full of pain.
For this cause I also, when I could no longer forbear, sent that I might know your faith, lest by any means the tempterhad tempted you, and our labour should be in vain.
My experience here impressed me with the fact that we could attain such power, and showed me the stern necessity of living near to God; for man, in and of himself, is nothing but a tool for the tempter to work with.
Notwithstanding, the tempter was ever on the alert, and contested every inch of ground with me.
Often, while I was in the most solemn reflections, the tempterwould place before me some lovely female, possessing all the allurements of her sex, to draw my mind from the contemplation of holy things.
May God and St. Mark grant that notempter ever offer me the sight of Venice again at the price of my soul's salvation!
If he had kept silent, would he not have been compelled to worship the tempterall his life?
Certainly the tempter had not borne him to a high mountain and shown him all the glories and powers of this world!
Rather let me take warning myself, amend my life, abandon intemperance, which leads to all manner of wickedness, and suffer myself no more to be ensnared by the wiles and delusions of the tempter in the form of a fair woman.
So the temptertries new weapons, and seeks to pervert the desire for that dominion over the world which was to be a consequence of the sonship.
And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.
Among the many bad actions described in history, there is one which is very rare; it is the artifice of a tempter who throws the blame of his attempt at seduction upon the person who rejected it, perhaps after listening to it.
But if there is one man in Europe who cannot avail himself of this blunder to rid himself of the responsibility of war, that man is surely the tempter of 1868.
When He had fasted forty days and forty nights, afterwards He was hungry": and then "the tempter came to Him.
Why, you have tried to improve before, and failed," the tempter in his soul whispered.
Again the tempter of the night before whispered in his soul, endeavoring to turn the question, What would be the best thing to do?
And when the tempter came to him, he said: 'If thou be the son of God command that these stones be made bread.
And thus disguised the subtle Mara stood, And when the master roused him from his sleep His tempter cried in seeming ecstasy: "O!
Each for himself must seek, as we have sought," The tempter said, "and each must climb alone The rugged path our weary feet have trod.
But as a virtue or gift which is given from on high becometh unto many the odor of life unto life, yet unto others the odor of death unto death, so out of the melody of his voice did the tempter minister the occasion of sin.
Had I not already (thus the tempter continued) been swimming rather unaccountably far, supposing me on a straight track for that inviting spot where my sentinels and my drapery were awaiting my return?
Oh that I had resisted the tempter when he first came to me!
