THE FAMILY ALTAR
September 4.
"And He said unto me: My grace is sufficient for thee; for My
strength is made perfect in weakness." 2 Cor. 12:9.
The bufferings of Satan which the Apostle Paul had to endure
for a while filled him with great alarm. Again and again he cried
to his Lord for deliverance from this terrible affliction, but received
the answer which our Lord gives him in the words just read. From
this answer we see that the apostle suffered these satanic afflictions
not by any fault of his own, but by the will of God, and further-
more, that they could not rob him of God's saving grace, but had
to serve to strengthen and ground him in a faith that wholly relies
on God's mercy and help. Let us remember this answer of our
Lord when Satan would assail us with his fiery darts of doubt and
unbelief or even with blasphemous thoughts that fill a Christian
soul with horror and dismay. Then let us not think, as the devil
wants us to think, that we have lost faith and God's grace, or that
God has given us over to perdition, and for this reason permits us
to be harassed by such vile, satanic thoughts. No, indeed not!
From Paul's example we learn that it is just God's true, believing
saints who are thus afflicted. God permits the devil to assail them
in order to teach them their utter helplessness outside of His pro-
tecting and sustaining grace. Thus He frees them from all dan-
gerous spiritual pride and self-confidence, and they learn to cling
more firmly to His hand, which alone can save them from the
terrible and merciless power of the devil. When the old Evil Foe
thus afflicts us, let us courageously put him to shame, as did Father
Luther, who relates the following experience: "Once upon a time
the devil said to me, 'Martin Luther, you are a great sinner and
you will be damned.' 'Stop ! Stop !' said I ; 'one thing at a time.
I am a great sinner, it is true, I confess it. What next?' 'There-
fore you will be damned.' 'That is not good reasoning. It is true,
I am a great sinner, but it is written, Jesus Christ came to save
sinners; therefore I s hall be saved! Now go your way !' So I cut
the devil off with his own sword, and he went away mourning
because he could not cast me down by calling me a sinner."
