“Why comes temptation but for man to meet
And master and make crouch beneath his foot,
And so be pedestalled in triumph? Pray
“Lead us into no such temptations, Lord!”
Yea, but, O thou whose servants are the bold,
Lead such temptations by the hand and hair,
Reluctant dragons, up to who dare fight,
That so he may do battle and have praise.”
Temptation has a mission. Our Lord was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted. If he had missed being tempted he would have missed something that was necessary to the complete development of his manhood. For any man temptation is an opportunity. If the soldier never had a battle, how could he become a hero? How could he ever learn the art of war? It is foolhardy for any one to seek to be tempted, but when temptation comes to us while we are in the line of duty, as we follow the divine guidance, we dare not shirk it, nor run away from it; we must meet it with faith and courage, and in doing so we shall take a blessing from it. This way lie crowns which can be won only by those who are victorious in temptation. It is with struggle as with pain:
“Put pain from out the world, what room were left
For thanks to God, for love to man?
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