CHAPTER IV.

THE TEMPTATION-FIRST AND SECOND ADAM-JESUS LED INTO THE DESERT SATAN'S SUGGESTIONS-OUR SHIELD AND SWORD-HONOUR OF SCRIPTURE-CALL OF PETER AND ANDREW OF ZEBEDEE'S CHILDREN SYNAGOGUES AND CHRISTIAN CHURCHES-PATRISTIC USAGES-TEXTS-HEALING AND TEACHING DEMONIACS.

THE introductory part of the chapter I have read is one of the most remarkable in the records of inspiration. It describes, not a phantom scene depicted by a poet, or a dream that passed through the mind of Jesus, but, as we are bound to conclude in the exercise of fair and honest and impartial criticism, a literal historical fact. We cannot deny that it is Satan personally who here appears; it is Jesus personally who was assailed by him; and it is over Satan that Jesus, by the use of celestial weapons, gains the victory.

The first Adam fell amid the beauties and the advantages of a garden; the second Adam triumphed amid the hunger, the bleakness and the cold of a desert. It was in a garden our crown of glory was lost; it was in a desert that a crown of yet richer glory, beauty and perfection was earned.

We read that "Jesus was led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." He is presented here, mark you, not simply as God, but also as the prototype and specimen of the perfect believer. Jesus not

only came into the world to atone for our sins by his death, but to set a perfect example for our imitation in his life. And in this conflict with Satan he presents the precedent of the perfect believer, showing us where the arena is, what our weapons are, and how certain our victory will be in the use of these weapons, and in reliance on the right source of triumph and of victory. He did not go or thrust himself into the wilderness-he was led. If you are led in the providence of God into scenes of trial, the same God who leads you there, if you look to him, will keep you there from falling; but if you go spontaneously or from idle curiosity into scenes of trial, temptation and danger, and calculate that God will keep you where you have wickedly and wilfully exposed yourself, you have no reason to look for God's assistance, for it is written, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

"When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred." That fast, we learn from the parallel passage in Luke, who says he ate nothing, was absolute and entire abstinence from food. Now, there are certain traits in Jesus which we cannot imitate, there are other traits which are precedents for us to imitate. When he stilled the waves, he did not set a precedent for us to imitate him in this-if we try, we shall fail. When he raised the dead, and walked upon the unruly waters, he did what human power cannot do, and what it would be folly or fanaticism in us to attempt to do. But there were certain things which he did do, which are designed and intended to be examples and precedents for us, and these are recorded in his life throughout the Gospels. Here now is fasting forty days and forty nights, which surely is not a precedent for us.

Try it completely, and death must ensue; imitate it imperfectly, and there can be no end or object in your doing so. It is not morally, but physically impossible. He was placed where it became a necessity, and for us to take that necessity and turn it into a duty for our adoption, or for any to try to imitate, is not to follow the example of Jesus, as it was meant to be followed, but to fly at impossibilities.

When the tempter came to Him, he put the hypothetical expression, "If thou be the Son of God,"Satan knew quite well he was the Son of God, but this was in order to try him-" If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread;" that is, You are hungry; do not, therefore, wait for bread in the ordinary way of Providential supply, but turn these stones into bread.

Now, how did Jesus answer? He might have said, "I tell thee from the depths of my own unsearchable wisdom that what you have said is wrong. I tell you from my own personal knowledge that man lives not by bread alone." But he did not say so; he foiled every temptation by an appeal, not to tradition, not to the fountains of inexhaustible wisdom, but to that blessed book which he has caused to be written for our learning; and he said, "It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." I know no eulogium on Scripture more decided or impressive than this, that He who inspired it quotes it as the rule of his faith, and life; that the Son of God, who was above it, and needed not to quote from it, so honoured it, that it might be an example to us, that he foils every temptation by a simple extract from the word-"It is written, Man

doth not live by bread alone." This was his sword, and here too his shield.

We then read that Satan, foiled here, "taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple." That word rendered pinnacle might be translated "a wing of the temple." It seems to have been some lofty platform, probably the Beautiful Gate, or Solomon's Porch on the side of a lofty hill. This may have been days or a week after the former temptation; it does not follow that it was in instantaneous succession to the former trial. "And he said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down;" and Satan noticing that Christ appealed to Scripture in the first trial, imitates his example so far, that he too quotes Scripture in the second-" for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." Now this was quite true; this was a quotation taken from God's holy word; and it teaches us this lesson, that Satan can quote the most solemn words of Scripture when it suits his purpose; but when he quotes it, he generally does it not correctly and truly; for it is written, "He shall give his angels charge concerning thee to keep thee in all thy ways;" not to keep thee absolutely wherever you choose to go, but to keep thee always in the path of duty. Satan leaves out the modifying clause, quotes the absolute promise, and then says to our Lord, "Show that this is true by casting yourself down from the temple." "And Jesus said unto him, It is written again,” -if you have quoted what is written, yet "it is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." How apposite! What indication of wisdom was here !

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Again, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain," probably a portion of the mountain on which the temple was built, "and showeth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them." Satan is the prince of this world, a usurper, but a usurper armed with power, possession and influence; and he says, "All these things will I give thee," whether he spake truly or not is another question-" if thou wilt fall down and worship me." Many a one is caught by this bait still. For the sake of wealth they will worship the prince of the power of the air. For the sake of preferment-the lust of splendour and the thirst of advancement in the world—they will sacrifice all that is dutiful to God, and take the very path prescribed by Satan the usurper and the great deceiver. But Jesus answered him again, " It is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve.” How complete was each answer, and how interesting that each was taken from Scripture, and what a precious precedent and consolation for us! "It is written," is the sword of the Spirit; and wherever it is wielded in the strength of Him who has inspired it, it will be crowned with victory.

"Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him." Angels visited the holy conqueror.

"Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee," and by the place he came to he showed the fulfilment of an ancient prophecy contained in Isaiah, that "the people which sat in darkness saw great light.”

Jesus then began to preach, and as if he had caught up the very echoes of John's ministry, he says, "Repent: