OUR PREPARATION FOR TEMPTATION
I. A Double Weapon
If we have the right spirit of solicitude about our temptations, it will arm us with a double weapon against Satan which he will have no power to break. We are told that we are to watch in prayer,—vigilare in orationibus.[[1]] It is the command given by our Lord to his disciples in the Garden in the hour of the power of darkness: "Watch ye and pray lest ye enter into temptation."[[2]]
St. Paul, also, in his exhortation to the Ephesian Christians to "put on the whole armour of God,"[[3]] does not regard it as enough to give the great list of virtues with which they are to be panoplied. The loins must indeed be girt with truth; the breastplate of righteousness must be buckled on and the sandals of the preparation of the gospel of peace; while above all else there must be the shield of faith; and the great catalogue of the Christian soldier's equipment ends with the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit.
But this armour is not sufficient for the warfare. Complete as it seems, something else is necessary to insure the victory; and so the great Christian warrior, who himself had "fought a good fight,"[[4]] adds something more, namely, watchfulness and prayer,—"Praying always, with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints."
How strong are his words, poured forth with such impetuosity of expression as to seem to a superficial reader to be almost tautological,—"praying with all prayer and supplication." How careful, too, is he to remind us that this prayer and supplication must be "in the Spirit," in response to the Spirit's impulse, and with the right judgment that He alone can give, and which He will give only to those who ask Him "nothing wavering."[[5]]
Nor will prayer alone suffice. There must be a "watching thereunto with all perseverance"; not relaxing our vigilance, but maintaining it to the end. Neither is the soul to grow faint in its watch, nor imagine, in regard to any point, that careful guard is no longer necessary.
The word "thereunto" calls for comment. Does the vigilance enjoined apply only to the work of prayer which has just been mentioned, or does it reach back to the whole category of duties included in putting on the armour of God? At first glance it might seem inadequate to make it refer only to the all-embracing duty of prayer, but if we comprehend fully all that prayer means, we shall see that it is not necessary that we should directly connect the injunction to vigilance with anything else.[[6]] If we are keenly vigilant to pray as we ought in the power of the Spirit concerning truth and righteousness, faith and salvation, and all else that the Apostle has been describing, nothing will be wanting to us as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. How truly did à Kempis catch the thought which the Holy Spirit had given the great Apostle when he paraphrased our Lord's command in the words, "Be watchful in prayer."
Let us consider, then, this twofold weapon with which God will arm us, for we note that they are not two separate weapons. Our Lord said, "Watch ye and pray," and the blessed à Kempis gives us, as we have just seen, the true commentary on the command in the paraphrase, "Watch in prayer."