I. All progress arises from the conflict of contraries. Our bodily life goes on by means of continual exhaustion and reparation, growth and decay. Death is as necessary as life for the continual advance of the universe. The free-will of creatures originated a force opposed to supreme goodness in God. These two forces, good and evil, are engaged in a continual struggle with one another. They are like the centrifugal and centripetal forces, and between them they produce equilibrium and progress. The human soul and the human race are the battlefield of the two forces, and our free-will decides which shall predominate. The eternal conflict begun in heaven continues on earth, and it necessarily found its place in the happy abode of our first parents. They also could not be crowned without striving lawfully (2 Tim. ii. 5); and their striving took the form of being tempted by the spirits of evil. The simple account given in Genesis is most true to nature, true to all our experiences, true to the facts of the history of mankind. The wisdom and goodness of God permitted it; and in spite of certain evil consequences, He is able to draw from it a greater good. Even evil becomes subordinate to good, and you may gain greater profit from the very fact of your losses.
II. The evil we have to contend with is not merely in our own nature and in the world. The Apostle tells us that “our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against … the spirits of wickedness in the high places” (Eph. vi. 12). The great forces of evil are concentrated in these angels who fell from their principality. Their perverted will hates goodness and loves evil. All their faculties are turned against God and His interests. Their only pleasure, so far as they can be said to have any pleasure, is found in thwarting the divine will, and causing sin and misery. Their hatred of God extends to men who are made in His likeness, and who are to possess the glory which they failed to secure. God does not stop them any more than the tides of the ocean; He allows free-will to have its full play in every being, and He does not interfere by violence or miracle to destroy the faculties that He has given. The fallen angels remain active in the universe; and, as every particle of matter acts upon every other particle, so spiritual intelligences are for ever able to act on one another. Satan then is our tempter, and he was the tempter of Adam. We have a source of temptation in our natural perversity, but Adam was free from this. His temptation could come from an external suggestion alone. Hence it was that “by the envy of the devil death came into the world” (Wisd. ii. 24). Pray God for strength to resist these terrible enemies of your salvation.
III. At the first mention of Satan in the Bible he is called the serpent. This name is not used again till the last book (Apoc. xx.). It is a most suitable figure; for the serpent is insidious; his movements are swift and hard to detect, he strikes suddenly, and his venom is fatal. So is the action of Satan in temptation. Some have supposed that he suggested the temptation invisibly to the mind of Eve, as he does to us; but it is more usually believed that he appeared in some visible form, as he did when the time came for the second Adam in turn to be tempted. God conversed with Adam in some visible shape; the angels, too, appeared in human form to men in early days; and it may well have been that this other spirit appeared visibly and spoke audibly. It may have been that he actually assumed the form of a serpent, so as to overthrow the rival to his throne under the guise of the lowest of creatures, in revenge for his own subjection to God under the lower form of a man. You are subject to the attacks of the “old serpent,” but Our Lord covers you with His protection. In His name you will be able to cast out devils, to take up serpents, and to go unharmed by their poison (Mark xvi. 17).
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