“Whenever there is a storm in the spirits of saints, and the winds of their emotions are high and loud, it is easy to see who has stirred up the tempest. The devil practices his black art on unmortified lusts, that enable him to raise easily many storms of division among believers. Paul and Barnabas, for instance, set out in a calm together, but Satan sent a storm to part them in the middle of their journeyings: “And the contention was so sharp between them, that they departed asunder one from the other” (Acts 15:39).There is nothing, next to Christ and heaven, which Satan begrudges believers more than their peace and mutual love. If he cannot separate them from Christ, and stop them from getting to heaven, he takes sinister pleasure in watching them get there in a storm. He would have them be like a shattered fleet separated from one another, saints deprived of the comfort and help of other Christians along the way. And when the devil can divide, he hopes to ruin also, knowing well that one ship is more easily taken than a squadron.”
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