Rays of Hope

A Book of Encouragement

Accusations

  What I am about to write has a very dark appearance, and lest the reader might conclude that such an experience is the unavoidable lot of every Christian, I must say that it is not. No one who will begin right, and begin in time, to cast aside the suggestions of Satan need suffer such things. Life is largely made up of habits, and only those who get into the habit of listening to impressions and ignoring reason and their better judgment are likely to fall into the ditch of accusations about to be described.

  To those who are in this dark pit there seems no way of escape, and of all persons in this world who need the encouragement and the prayers of God's people, those who are tormented with accusations need them most. I say tormented, because to be accused by Satan is the purest type of torment and is akin to the torment of hell. None but those who have felt the living torture of accusation can realize the depth of suffering inflicted thereby. And what is more cruel, the devil invariably imposes accusations on the most conscientious persons. Those who are hardhearted and stiffnecked he never attempts to accuse, as they already belong to him. He accuses the innocent and excuses the guilty.

  The accusing spirit is generally so well disguised that persons unaccustomed to his wily tricks are easily deceived by him. Accusations often seem so real that it is hard for the over conscientious soul to discriminate between accusations and real conviction. Satan will come with a load of accusations and without asking permission will unload them at the door of some conscientious child of God whom he thinks too feeble to remove them; and if he meets with any resistance, he will at once transform himself into an angel of light and strike his victim with the fear that he may grieve the Lord. Satan will cast an accusation at a soul, and if inquiry is made as to where it comes from, he will reply at once that it comes from God. He often [37] continues this deception for many days and weeks, and some times for years, before he is detected.

  Under the awful accusing powers of the devil souls often hope for death to relieve them of their anguish. But even here Satan appears and says, "You cannot die, and you will never be free from these awful feelings, and even if you were to die, you are unprepared." Under such torment the nerves are often wrecked and the reason almost dethroned, and still Satan is not satisfied. Accusing spirits can never be satisfied. If you are accused of committing sin and you undertake to repent, the devil will then say you are not repenting right, that your heart is not in it, or you are just going through a form. If Satan can get you to give up and try to repent, he will then say, "You had a much better experience before than you now have, and it would have been much better if you had not given it up."

  Accusations very often get people into the most rigorous bondage. For instance, Satan will impress you to do some certain thing—possibly speak to some one concerning salvation—and say, "If you do not obey, you will lose your soul." Such suggestions are usually made when it would be unreasonable or impossible to obey them, then Satan will say, "You have grieved the Lord."

  It is almost enough to drive insane anyone who will listen to the repeated accusations of the devil. The past experience abandoned, the present one unsatisfactory, and but little hope for the future, the soul sighs and reels beneath the load, supposing that God is grieved away, when it is only Satan's lie.

  Satan is very cautious in his approaches. He will not present too much at once, lest he should be detected; and yet when the proper time comes, he will present the most unreasonable things possible. He generally begins by suggesting that you are not sanctified. If he can get you to believe this, he will begin to argue about as follows: "Now you know that you could not lose sanctification without losing all, so you are unsaved and will have to repent." On this you give up and begin to try to repent; but as you cannot think of anything of which to repent, you will [38] possibly conclude that you are all right after all. At this juncture Satan again appears on the scene and suggests that even if you were all right in the first place, you are now backslidden, as you have doubted the Lord. After you have struggled on under these false impressions for a while, Satan will then advance far enough to tell you that you have committed the unpardonable sin and grieved the Holy Spirit entirely away. This lie is self evident to all who are acquainted with the wiles of the devil, from the fact that the one who has committed the unpardonable sin does not feel convicted. But many poor souls have believed this falsehood and on account of it have been driven to the utmost bounds of human anguish. Mortal tongue can not frame words to describe the suffering of a soul thus accused of the devil. The imagination of Dante could not dream of a darker scene than this nor could the brush of the most skilled artist paint a picture so dismal.

  Probably the next bold step Satan will take is to suggest self destruction, or suicide. And souls in this awful state of mental anguish have been known to take their own lives, and so perish soul and body, when mercy was freely offered.

  The same vile spirit of the devil that will accuse you about your own experience will, in order to cut off any possible help he may see coming your way, accuse others to you and cause you to lose confidence in them, thus causing still greater discouragement. [39 middle]