Effective Resistance—God’s Way of Escape

Finally, one day, Miss Vanity noticed that her intendant was looking quite pale, and upon inquiry, found that he had been eavesdropping and had heard a conversation between those unruly ones, Miss Perception, Mr. Steadfast, and his wife, Humility. There was also with them a cousin of Mr. Sincerity by the name of Mr. Holy Boldness; and the conversation had gone thus:

Miss Perception: “I simply can’t see black white, or white as black; it matters not what they say.”

Mr. Steadfast: “No, none of these things move me at all, and I for one will stand against it if it takes me to the chopping block.”

Humility: “I am praying the Lord to shake the scales from the eyes of the little ones, if He has to use an earthquake to do it.”

Mr. Boldness: “Yes. I will pray also, but perhaps there is something we can do to answer our own prayers. Let’s quit ourselves like men, and expose and fight the thing.”

At this, Mr. Hypocrisy had nearly sunk into a swoon, for hitherto he had been overlooking those “insignificant ignoramuses,” as he had always called them.

Upon this news the committee was hastily called together to consult as to what should be done with these troublers. The decision was to tar and feather them as liars and accusers of the brethren; and thus make them an example to the flock.

[Lottie L. Jarvis; A True Story in Allegory, “Trouble with the Faithful Ones”]

(Now this aforementioned great camp had once been pitched on the top of a mountain, called Inspiration Mount. But of late years it had been gradually moved downward toward a valley called the valley of Morality. This was done not through any bad motive, but a man called Mr. Worldly-Wise had made it his business to inform some of the Shepherds that, if they would pitch the camp in a lower altitude, they would be able to bring in many who were too sickly or lame or lazy to climb the steep mountain, as it was ascended by a steep and narrow pathway which meant a laying aside of all luggage and much weariness to the flesh. So they, without consulting the King, had taken his advice, thinking that when they had got their new converts strengthened to a certain degree, they could get them to move upward.)

“Then,” Mr. Circumspect continued, “I warned them many times, so did my Brother Discernment, but we were put down as old fogies, cranks, etc., so we submitted for the sake of unity. I also found that some whom you would least suspect, were troubled with an affliction of the eyes, and would not use the King’s eye-salve (Revelation 3:18), but preferred moving down into the fogs, as the sun is always bright upon the mountain. I warned them that the Compromise family would come along and capture them sometime, but they said, ‘Impossible! impossible! How could we be so deceived after knowing so much of the truth!’ But now, you see, no one can descend to this valley and be safe. So let us hasten to our rightful place on the mountaintop.”

Now on this mountaintop was a very large Rock in which they could hide safely, as in a fort, and though it appeared as a most common-place mount from the lowlands, still to those on the top it presented a most pleasing spectacle. There was a large lake of crystal waters which was supplied by a river that gushed from underneath the great Rock. Then, there were fruit trees in abundance, which supplied both food and medicine (Revelation 22:1-2), and the landscape was of unearthly beauty.

[Lottie L. Jarvis; A True Story in Allegory, “Return to the Mount of Inspiration”]

“Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall. There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”* (1 Corinthians 10:12-13)

I believe that the reason that so many of God’s children get caught in apostasy and become part of a sect is because they do not take God’s way of escape. With old Brother Circumspect in A True Story in Allegory, they are enticed into this error: “I feel that I must repent before you because that for some time I have refrained from warning you, although God had appointed me as a watchman to warn His flock. But for fear of breaking the unity with many, I have not always been faithful.”1 If ever we disobey the scripture, “Give [no] place to the devil,”* (Ephesians 4:27) we will find ourselves in a position in which we need to repent. It is vital that we “have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”* (Ephesians 5:11)

The awful pressures of this kind of trial either prove that we love the Lord above all else, or they prove that our love is not pure but is mixed with other affections. How solemnly the words of our Lord apply, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me.”* (Matthew 10:37)

It is easier not to look; to just hope for the best; to take refuge in a rather uncomfortable blind faith in others (uncomfortable because it really is not sound); to exaggerate the “things that remain” into reasons for believing that we are not really at a crisis and therefore ultimate action is not required. Such attitudes will certainly get us out of step with God.

Then there is the awful sense of hopelessness, the despairing sense that “this is too big for us,” which, of course, it is. Living for God according to the Word of God and resisting the devil are all too big for us, too. But in all these, we can say “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me,”* (Philippians 4:17) and “The Lord is my helper, and I shall not fear what man can do to me.”* (Hebrews 13:6)