Satan's Tools

by Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

       "Let us lay aside every weight, and thesin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us" (Heb. 12:1).

 

      There are weights which are not sins inthemselves, but which become distractions and stumbling blocks in our Christianprogress. One of the worst of these is despondency. The heavy heart is indeed aweight that will surely drag us down in our holiness and usefulness.

 

      The failure of Israel to enter the land ofpromise began in murmuring, or, as the text in Numbers literally puts it, "asit were murmured." Just a faint desire to complain and be discontented. Thisled on until it blossomed and ripened into rebellion and ruin. Let us giveourselves no liberty ever to doubt God or His love and faithfulness to us ineverything and forever.

 

      We can set our will against doubt just as we doagainst any other sin; and as we stand firm and refuse to doubt, the HolySpirit will come to our aid and give us the faith of God and crown us withvictory.

 

      It is very easy to fall into the habit ofdoubting, fretting, and wondering if God has forsaken us and if after all ourhopes are to end in failure. Let us refuse to be discouraged. Let us refuse tobe unhappy. Let us "count it all joy" when we cannot feel one emotion ofhappiness. Let us rejoice by faith, by resolution, by reckoning, and we shallsurely find that God will make the reckoning real.--Selected

 

      The devil has two master tricks. One is to get usdiscouraged; then for a time at least we can be of no service to others, and soare defeated. The other is to make us doubt, thus breaking the faith link bywhich we are bound to our Father. Lookout! Do not be tricked eitherway.--G.E.M.

 

      Gladness! I like to cultivate the spirit ofgladness! It puts the soul so in tune again, and keeps it in tune, so thatSatan is shy of touching it--the chords of the soul become too warm, or toofull of heavenly electricity, for his infernal fingers, and he goes offsomewhere else! Satan is always very shy of meddling with me when my heart isfull of gladness and joy in the Holy Ghost.

 

      My plan is to shun the spirit of sadness as Iwould Satan; but, alas! I am not always successful. Like the devil himself itmeets me on the highway of usefulness, looks me so fully in my face, till mypoor soul changes color!

 

      Sadness discolors everything; it leaves allobjects charmless; it involves future prospects in darkness; it deprives thesoul of all its aspirations, enchains all its powers, and produces a mentalparalysis!

 

      An old believer remarked, that cheerfulness inreligion makes all its services come off with delight; and that we are nevercarried forward so swiftly in the ways of duty as when borne on the wings ofdelight; adding, that Melancholy clips such wings; or, to alter the figure,takes off our chariot wheels in duty, and makes them, like those of theEgyptians, drag heavily.

       This classic devotional is the unabridged editionof Streams in the Desert . This first edition was published in 1925 andthe wording is preserved as originally written. Connotations of words may havechanged over the years and are not meant to be offensive.