On Overcoming The Evil One

On Overcoming the Evil-One

There are men who have overcome the devil, and they have overcome him in many shapes. There are many pictures of the devil about, but I am afraid there are none of them accurate, for he assumes different shapes in different places. He is a chameleon, always affected by the light in which he happens to be; a Proteus, assuming every shape, so that it may but subserve his purpose. Some young men have overcome that blue devil which keeps men despairing, doubting, trembling, and fearing. You once were subject to him, you could not, you said, believe in Christ. You were afraid you never should be saved. You wrote bitter things against yourself. Ah I but you have cast him out now by a simple faith in Jesus; for you know whom you have believed, and you are persuaded that He is able to keep that which you have committed unto Him. You have overcome that devil, and though he does try to come back, and when your business is a little troublesome, or the liver may not be acting properly, he endeavours to insinuate himself, yet by God's grace, he shall never fasten on the old chains again.

Then there is that dust-eating devil, of whom we can never speak too badly—the yellow devil of the mammon of unrighteousness, the love of gold and silver; the dread god of London, rolling over this city as if it were all its own. I think I see him as a dragon on the top of the church steeple, chuckling at the inscription over the Royal Exchange—The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof, and laughing because he knows better, for he reckons it all belongs to him; even as of old he said to Christ, "All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me." What tricks are done nowadays in business for the love of gold! In fact, we know, some of us who are not business men, but who, nevertheless, are not blind, that dishonest marks and dishonest measures have become so systematic that their effect is lost, and the thing itself is almost as honest as if it were honest. It is the fact that men have become so accustomed to say that twice three make seven that their neighbours all say, "Exactly so, and we will pay you for the goods after the same reckoning," so that the thing has to square itself. But the genuine Christian, the man who is strong, and has the Word of God abiding in him, scorns all this. He hears others say," We must live," but he replies, "Yes, but we must die." He determines that he will not throw away his soul in order to grasp wealth, and that if it be not possible to become a merchant prince without the violation of the code of honour and of Christ's law, then he will be content to be poor. O young man, if you have come to this you have overcome a wicked one indeed! I am afraid there are some with gray heads who have hardly ventured on the fight. Alas! for them.

Another form of the wicked one we must speak of but softly, but oh! how hard to be overcome by the young man—I mean Madame Wanton, that fair but foul, that smiling but murderous fiend of hell, by whom so many are deluded. Solomon spake "of the strange woman," but the strong Christian in whom the Word of God abides, passes by her door, and shuts his ear to her siren song. He flees youthful lusts which war against the soul, he reserves both his body and his soul for his Lord, who has redeemed him by His precious blood.

Young man, if you are strong, and have overcome the wicked one, you have overcome, I trust, that Lucifer of pride, and it is your endeavour to walk humbly with your God! (You have given up all idea of merit. You cannot boast nor exalt yourself, but you bow humbly at the foot of the cross, adoring Him who has saved you from the wrath to come.

You have given up also, I trust, young man, all subjection to the great red dragon of fashion, who draws with his tail even the very stars of heaven. There are some who would think it far worse to be considered unfashionable than to be thought unchristian. To be unchristian would be but such a common accusation that they might submit to it; but to be unfashionable would be horrible indeed! Young men in London get to be affected by this. If the young men in the house are going to such-and-such an entertainment—they all read a certain class of books—if they are dissipated and sceptical, then the temptation is to chime in with them, and only the man who is strong, and hath the Word of God abiding in him, will overcome the wicked one by doing the right alone—

"Faithful among the faithless found."

Of course, certain talents are necessary for certain positions, but it is a rule without exception that every child of God may be useful in the Divine family. God has not one single servant for whom He has not appointed a service. Now, you are strong: granted that, then this very strength which you now have will enable you to do mission-work for God, and the graces which have been wrought in you, through Christ Jesus—faith, love, courage, patience—are your fitnesses for sacred labour.

If you are to be a minister, you may need to acquire a measure of learning; if you are to be a missionary, you will need a peculiar training, but you can get these; God will give you strength to obtain them, and the spiritual strength will go very far to help you. Meanwhile, for other work, all the strength you require is that which you already possess. There are persons in the world who will not let us speak a word to the unconverted, because they say, and say very truly, that unconverted men are dead in sin, and therefore we are not to tell them to live, because they have no power to live. They forget that we have the power in the quickening Word and Spirit of God, and that as we speak the Word for God, power goes with it. Now, there is among us too much of this forgetfulness of the fact, that we actually have power from on high. In prayer we are always praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which is very proper; but, remember we have the Holy Spirit—the Spirit is here. He is not always manifest, but He is given to His church to abide in every one of His people, and if we would but believe in His presence we should feel it more. They who preach most successfully will tell you that one cause of it is that they expect to be successful. They do not preach hoping that one or two may be saved, but knowing that they will be, because the Word of God is the power of God unto salvation. They believe in the Holy Ghost, and they who do so see the Holy Ghost, but they who only waveringly hope in the Holy Ghost, discern Him not: according to their faith so is it unto them. Believe, my brother, that you have within you, as a believer, the power which is necessary for reforming that house of business of yours, which is now so godless, into a house of prayer. Believe it, and begin to work like those who do believe it. Believe that those who pass you in the morning, my young artisan friend, may be and shall be converted by you and by God if you speak to them out of your heart. Go up to them as one who knows that God is working with him; they will be awed by your manner, and if they reject your message they will feel it go hard with their consciences.

If the young man enquires for tools and weapons with which to serve his Master, "The Word of God abideth in you." Now, if you desire to teach others, you have not to ask what the lesson shall be, for it abides in you. Do you want a text that will impress the careless? What impressed you? You cannot have a better. You desire to speak a word in season from the Word of God which shall be likely to comfort the disconsolate. What has comforted your own soul? You cannot have a better guide. You have within your own experience a tutor that cannot fail you, and you have also an encouragement that cannot be taken from you. The Word of God within you will well up like a spring: and truth and grace will pour forth from you in rivers. I have heard our Lord likened to a man carrying a water-pot, and as he carried it upon his shoulder, the water fell dropping, dropping, dropping, so that everyone could track the water-bearer. So should all His people be, carrying such a fulness of grace that everyone should know where they have been by that which they have left behind. He who hath lain in the beds of spices will perfume the air through which he walks. One who, like Asher, has dipped his foot in oil, will leave his footprints behind him. When the living and incorruptible seed remains within, the Divine instincts of the new nature will guide you to the wisest methods of activity. You will do the right thing under the inward impulse rather than the written law, and your personal salvation will be your prime qualification for seeking out others of your Master's flock.

"You have overcome the wicked one." The man who has once given Satan a slap in the face need not be afraid of men. If you have often stood foot to foot with a violent temptation, and, after wrestling have overcome it, you can laugh to scorn all the puny adversaries who assail you. It will breed manliness within the young man, and make him a truly muscular Christian, to have been practised in inward conflicts. You have overcome Satan by the power of grace—you; why, then there is hope that in the Sunday-school class which you have to teach, in the hearts of those boys and girls, Satan may again be conquered. There is hope for that drunken man you have been talking with lately; why should not he overcome the wicked one? You were once weak enough, but grace has made you strong: what grace has done for you it can do for another. "After I was saved myself," said one, "I never despaired of any other." So should the fact that you have been enabled to achieve a conquest in a very terrible strife, comfort you with regard to all other cases. Go into the back slums—they are not far off; penetrate the dark lanes and alleys. You have overcome the wicked one; you cannot meet with anything worse than him whom you have already vanquished. Let the majesty of grace in your souls be to you a solace and a stimulus, and never say anything is too hard for you to do who have already met Apollyon face to face and put him to the rout. In the French wars, certain young men, unhappily, found their names written down in the conscription, and were marched to the wars. Now, in a war from which none of us desire to escape, I hope there are young men whose names are written down—heavenly conscripts—who are summoned more fully than ever before in their lives, to go forth to the battle of the Lord of Hosts. I invite every young man who is already converted to God; to dedicate himself to the Lord Jesus Christ. It is not a matter that I can talk you into, nor indeed would I try it, but I would ask you to sit still a moment, and consider with yourselves thus: "I am a believer in Christ; I have been lately to the sacramental table; I profess to have been chosen of God, to have been redeemed with precious blood, to have been separated from the rest of mankind, to be destined for an immortality most brilliant: am I living as becometh a redeemed one?" Passing your hand over your brow thoughtfully, you will come to the conclusion, probably, "I am not; I am serving God, I trust, in a way, but not with all my heart, and soul, and strength, as I should. How about my time? Do I devote as much of that as I can to sacred work? How about my talent? Does that display itself most in the Literary Association or in the Sabbath-school? Are my oratorical abilities most developed in the debating room or in preaching at the street corner? Am I giving to Christ the prime, and choice, and vigour of my life? If I am not, I ought to do so; I ought, I feel I ought, to be altogether Christ's; not that I should leave my business, but I must make my business Christ's business, and so conduct it, and so to distribute of its results, as to prove that I am Christ's steward, working in the world for Him, and not for self." If this night you shall not so much vow as pray that from this time there shall not be a drop of blood in your body, nor a hair of your head, nor a penny in your purse, nor a word on your tongue, nor a thought in your heart, but what should be altogether the Lord's, I shall be glad enough.

It will be well if you take a step further as conscripts. You "holy work-folk"—as they used to call those who dwelt around the cathedral at Durham, and were exempt from all service to the baron because they served the church—think of some particular walk and department in which as young men you can devote yourselves wholly to Christ. Generalities in religion are always to be avoided, more especially generalities in service. If a man waits upon you for a situation, and you say to him, "What are you?" if he replies, "I am a painter, or a carpenter," you can find him work perhaps; but if he says, "Oh! I can do anything," you understand that he can do nothing. So it is with a sort of spiritual jobbers who profess to be able to do anything in the church, but who really do nothing.

What can you do? What is your calling? Ragged-schools? Sunday-schools? Street preaching? Tract distribution? Here is a choice for you, which do you select? Waste no time, but say, "This is my calling, and by God's grace I will give myself up to it, meaning to do it as well as any man ever did do it—if possible, better; meaning, if I take to the ragged-school, to be a thoroughly good teacher of those little Arabs; if I take to the Sunday-school intending to make myself as efficient in the class as ever teacher could be." It shall be no small blessing to the churches whom you represent if such a resolve be made, and if the conscripts be found of such a sort.

There are many men who ought to be employed in the Christian ministry who stand back. You need not expect that you will gain earthly wealth by it. If you have any notion of that sort, I pray you keep to your breaking of stones; that will pay you better. If you have any idea that you will find the ministry an easy life, I entreat you to try the treadmill, for that would be an amusement compared with the life of the genuine Christian minister—in London, at least. But if you feel an intense earnestness, if you have succeeded in speaking on other subjects, and can get some attention, think whether you cannot devote yourself to the work. Ah! young man, if I cast an ambitious thought into your mind I mean it only for my Master's glory. If the Lord should say, "Separate Me Saul and Barnabas to this work," if He should call out some fine, noble young fellow, who might have given himself up, perhaps, to the pursuits of commerce, but who now will dedicate himself to the service of the Christian ministry, it would be well. Take care you keep not back whom God would have.

Then, may there not be some young man who will become a conscript for missionary service abroad? "I write unto you, young men, because ye are strong, and the Word of God abideth in you, and ye have overcome the wicked one." You are the men we want.

"Wanted, young men who are strong; in whom the Word of God abideth, and who have overcome the wicked one." You who are weak had better stop at home in the Christian nursery a little while. You, in whom the Word of God does not as yet abide, had need to stay till you be taught what be the elements of the faith. You, who have not overcome the wicked one, had better flash your maiden swords in home fields of conflict. You are not the men who are wanted. But you who are strong enough to do and to dare for Jesus—you who are spiritually-minded enough to have overcome the monster of evil within yourselves—you are the men to fight Satan abroad, in his strongholds of heathendom, and Popery, and Mahometanism. You, the choice men of the church, you are the men whom the Missionary Society requires. Think of it before you go to sleep, and if the Lord incline you, come forward and say, "Here am I; send me."

It is good to be zealous always in a good thing. We should forget the things that are behind, and press forward to that which is before. It will be a great thing when all Christian merchants do what some are doing—namely, give of their substance to the cause of Christ in due proportion. It is a blessed thing for a young man to begin business with the rule that he will give the Lord at least his tenth. That habit of weekly storing for Christ, and then giving to Christ out of His own bag, instead of giving from your own purse, is a most blessed one. Cultivate it, you young tradesmen who have just set up in business for yourselves; and you good wives, help your husbands to do it. You young men who are clerks, and have regular incomes, make that a regular part of your weekly business, and let some share of the consecrated spoil go to the Lord's foreign field. At the same time, never let your subscriptions to this or that act as an exoneration from personal service; give yourselves to Christ—your whole selves in the highest state of vigour, your whole selves constantly, intelligently, without admixture of sinister motives.