Article November 6, 1920 Issue

God's Way of Escape

SAMUEL GREENWOOD

Paul's message to the Corinthians, that God "will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape," has comforted and heartened many a Christian pilgrim on his way to the heavenly city. Temptation naturally means the testing of one's position, and is therefore an occasion for developing strength, but does not imply any inherent power to produce evil. Its influence depends entirely upon one's own attitude, and succeeds or fails according to the response which it receives from within.

These temptations are sometimes encountered in the guise of circumstances which threaten disaster and from which there is no visible means of escape. We meet them not only in our individual experience, but in our association with others in a common cause, and they try out the nature and quality of aggregate achievement; but whatever character they assume, they always have their root and impulsion in the one evil, which the apostle designated the carnal mind. We know that it is possible under all conditions to meet evil with good, so far as we apprehend good and are willing to be loyal thereto; but the common human tendency is to crowd one's self into worse difficulty by meeting evil with evil, by opposing hate with hate, instead of letting God be the only Mind or intelligence, as we say He is. Acknowledging that God exists everywhere and is the only power, it logically follows that to express good is the privilege of all mankind, and that no other escape from evil can possibly be found.

Two scenes from Biblical history are of particular interest in this connection. The first is that of the Israelites at the Red Sea, on their way from Egypt to the promised land of Canaan. They found themselves in a narrow pass the only outlet from which was closed by the pursuing Egyptians, and to fall into their hands meant a return to slavery. What were they to do in such an extremity? According to the Talmud there was great excitement in the camp of Israel, the people being of different minds as to the proper course of action. One group favored an immediate surrender to the Egyptians, another that they meet them in open fight, another that they attack them under cover of night, and a fourth that they throw themselves into the sea. But these proposals were not prompted by divine wisdom, nor did they offer any reasonable hope of overcoming the difficulty.

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