Oscar Wilde Tells This Powerful Story: "The ...

Oscar Wilde tells this powerful story: “The devil was once crossing the Libyan Desert, and he came upon a spot where a number of small fiends were tormenting a holy hermit. The sainted man easily shook off their evil suggestions. The devil watched their failure, and then he stepped forward to give them a lesson.

“What you do is too crude,” he said.

“Permit me for one moment.”

“With that he whispered to the holy man, ‘Your brother has just been mad bishop of Alexandria.’ A scowl of malignant envy at once clouded the serene face of the hermit.

“‘That,’ said the devil to his imps, ‘is the sort of thing which I should recommend.’” [SOURCE—Gordon MacDonald, The Life God Blesses, Nelson, 1994, p. 143.]