Enduring to the End

PERSEVERANCE IS THEREFORE, THE TARGET OF ALL OUR SPIRITUAL ENEMIES.

We have many adversaries. Look at the world! The world does not object to our being Christians for a time. It will cheerfully overlook all misdemeanors in that way, if we will now shake hands and be as we used to be. Your old companions who used to call you such good fellows, when you were bad fellows, would they not very readily forgive you for having been Christians, if you would just go back and be as in days gone by?

Oh! certainly, they would look upon your religion as a freak of folly, but they would very easily overlook it, if you would give it up for the future. “O!” saith the world, “come back, come back to my arms once more, be enamored of me, and though you have spoken some hard words against me, and done some cruel deeds against me, I will cheerfully forgive you.”

The world is always stabbing at the believer’s perseverance. Sometimes she will bully him back, she will persecute him with her tongue—cruel mocking shall be used. And at another time, she will cozen him, “Come you back to me, O come you back! Wherefore should we disagree? You are made for me, and I am made for you!” And she beckons so gently and so sweetly, even as Solomon’s harlot of old. This is the one thing with her, that you should cease to be a pilgrim, and settle down to buy and sell with her in Vanity Fair.

Your second enemy, the flesh. What is its aim? “Oh!” cries the flesh, “We have had enough of this. It is weary work being a pilgrim, come, give it up.” Sloth says, “Sit still where you are. Enough is as good as a feast, at least, of this tedious thing.” Then, lust cries, “Am I always to be mortified? Am I never to be indulged? Give me at least a furlough from this constant warfare.” The flesh cares not how soft the chain, so that it does but hold us fast, and prevent our pressing on to glory.

Then comes in the devil, and sometimes he beats the big drum, and cries with a thundering voice “There is no heaven, there is no God, you are a fool to persevere.” Or changing his tactics, he cries, “Come back! I will give you a better treatment than you had before. You thought me a hard master, but that was misrepresentation, come and try me. I am a different devil from what I was ten years ago. I am respectable to what I was then. I do not want you to go back to the low theater or the casino, come with me, and be a respectable lover of pleasure. I tell you, I can dress in broad cloth as well as in corduroy, and I can walk in the courts of kings, as well as in the courts and alleys of the beggar. O come back!” he says, “and make yourself one of mine.” So that this hellish trinity, the world, the flesh, and the devil, all stab at the Christian’s perseverance.

His perseverance in service they will frequently attack, “What profit is there in serving God?” The devil will say to me sometimes, as he did to Jonah. “Flee you unto Tarshish, and do not stop in this Nineveh. They will not believe your word, though you speak in God’s name.” To you he will say, “Why, you are so busy all the six days of the week, what is the good of spending your Sunday with a parcel of noisy brats in a Sunday school? Why go about with those tracts in the streets? Much good you will get from it. Would not you be better with having a little rest?”

Ah! that word rest—some of us are very fond of it, but we ought to recollect that we spoil it if we try to get it here, for rest is only beyond the grave. We shall have rest enough when once we come into the presence of our Lord. Perseverance in service then, the devil would murder outright.

If he cannot stay us in service, he will try to prevent our perseverance in suffering. “Why be patient any longer?” says he, “Why sit on that dunghill, scraping your sores with a potsherd?—curse God, and die. You have been always poor since you have been a Christian. Your business does not prosper. You see you cannot make money unless you do as others do. You must go with the times, or else you will not get on. Give it all up. Why be always suffering like this?” Thus the foul spirit tempts us.

Or you may have espoused some good cause, and the moment you open your mouth, many laugh and try to put you down. “Well,” says the devil, “be put down—what is the use of it? Why make yourself singularly eccentric, and expose yourself to perpetual martyrdom? It is all very nice,” saith he, “if you will be a martyr, to be burnt at once, and have done with it, but to hang, like Lord Cobham, to be roasted over a slow fire for days, is not comfortable. Why,” saith the tempter, “why be always suffering—give it up.” You see then, it is also perseverance in suffering which the devil shoots at.

Or perhaps, it is perseverance in steadfastness. The love of many has waxed cold, but you remain zealous. “Well,” saith he, “What is the good of your being so zealous? Other people are good enough people, you could not censure them. Why do you want to be more righteous than they are? Why should you be pushing the church before you, and dragging the world behind you? What need is there for you to go two marches in one day? Is not one enough? Do as the rest do. Loiter as they do. Sleep as do others, and let your lamp go out as other virgins do.” Thus is our perseverance in steadfastness frequently assailed.

Or else, it will be our doctrinal sentiments. “Why,” says Satan, “do you hold to these denominational creeds? Sensible men are getting more liberal, they are giving away what does not belong to them— God’s truth, they are removing the old landmarks. Acts of uniformity are to be repealed, articles and creeds are to be laid aside as useless lumber, not necessary for this very enlightened age. Fall in with this, and be an Anythingarian. Believe that black is white. Hold that truth and a lie are very much akin to one another, and that it doesn’t matter which we do believe, for we are all of us right, though we flatly contradict each other. That the Bible is a nose of wax to fit any face, that it does not teach anything material, but you may make it say anything you like. Do that,” saith he, “and be no longer firm in your opinion.”

I think I have proved—and need not waste more words about it—that perseverance is the target for all enemies. Wear your shield, Christian, therefore, close upon your armor, and cry mightily unto God, that by His Spirit you may endure to the end.