Nothing is very strong

[soso]

Screwtape reveals Nothing:

The Christians describe the Enemy /as one ‘without whom Nothing is strong’.

기독인들은 하나님을 '그분 없이는 헛것이 막강하게 되는' 그런 분으로 묘사한다

* Nothing ; One that has no substance or importance; a nonentity:

And Nothing is very strong: 헛것은 매우 막강하다

strong enough to steal away a man’s best years

not in sweet sins

but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why,

in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them,

in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels,

in whistling tunes that he does not like,

or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish,

but which, once chance association has started them, the creature is too weak and fuddled to shake off.

You will say that these are very small sins;

and doubtless, like all young tempters, you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness.

But do remember, [the only thing //that matters] is the extent //to which you separate the man /from the Enemy.

It does not matter [how small the sins are, provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light

and out into the Nothing]. Murder is no better than cards /if cards can do the trick.

* it = [how ~]

* provided that~ : 1. if, or only if:

Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one

—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts.

From The Screwtape Letters

Compiled in A Year with C.S. Lewis

Screwtape on Pleasure and Distraction

https://apilgriminnarnia.com/2012/01/23/screwtape-on-pleasure-and-distraction/

The following excerpt from The Screwtape Letters is, I think, one of C.S. Lewis’ most sublime arguments. The senior demon, Screwtape, is trying to help his new tempting nephew, Wormwood, keep the new Christian sliding away from his faith. Within this part of Letter XII are several brilliant quotations and key points of subtle spiritual struggles.

As this condition becomes more fully established, you will be gradually freed from the tiresome business of providing Pleasures as temptations. As the uneasiness and his reluctance to face it cut him off more and more from all real happiness,

and as habit renders [the pleasures of vanity and excitement and flippancy] at once less pleasant and harder to forgo

(for that is what habit fortunately does to a pleasure) you

Harper Collins image will find that anything or nothing is sufficient to attract his wandering attention.

You no longer need a good book, which he really likes, to keep him from his prayers or his work or his sleep;

a column of advertisements in yesterday’s paper will do.

You can make him waste his time not only in conversation he enjoys with people whom he likes,

but in conversations with those he cares nothing about on subjects that bore him.

You can make him do nothing at all for long periods.

You can keep him up late at night, not roistering, but staring at a dead fire in a cold room.

All the healthy and outgoing activities which we want him to avoid can be inhibited and nothing given in return,

so that at last he may say, as one of my own patients said on his arrival down here,

“I now see that I spent most of my life in doing neither what I ought nor what I liked”.

The Christians describe the Enemy as one “without whom Nothing is strong”.

And Nothing is very strong: strong enough to steal away a man’s best years not in sweet sins

but in a dreary flickering of the mind over it knows not what and knows not why, in the gratification of curiosities so feeble that the man is only half aware of them, in drumming of fingers and kicking of heels, in whistling tunes that he does not like, or in the long, dim labyrinth of reveries that have not even lust or ambition to give them a relish, but which, once chance association has started them, the creature is too weak and fuddled to shake off.

You will say that these are very small sins; and doubtless, like all young tempters,

you are anxious to be able to report spectacular wickedness. But do remember, the only thing that matters is the extent to which you separate the man from the Enemy. It does not matter how small the sins are provided that their cumulative effect is to edge the man away from the Light and out into the Nothing. Murder is no better than cards if cards can do the trick. Indeed the safest road to Hell is the gradual one—the gentle slope, soft underfoot, without sudden turnings, without milestones, without signposts,