FIRST SUNDAY IN QUADRAGESIMA. The Temptation of our Lord. It was after His Baptism, and the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Him, that He, who was in all things tempted as His people are, suffered that great assault of the enemy of God and man which is recorded in the Gospel of this day. The voice from Heaven declaring Him the beloved Son of God, the unmeasured pouring out upon Him of the Spirit of God His Father, were immediately followed by a conflict commensurate with His new might. The good fight of faith grows fiercer not easier with growth in grace, and every new gift of God is a weapon that will of a surety be called into use. Jesus was led of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. He was led of the Spirit, but He was not tempted of the Spirit; He was tempted of the devil. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God; for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth He any man. Temptation is of the devil. But also every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lusts and enticed, and lust when it hath conceived bringeth forth sin. Jesus was tempted of the devil and sinned not because the answer to the temptation was the answer, not of lust, but of the Holy Spirit of God within Him. He used faithfully the power of God bestowed upon Him, and became more than conqueror thereby. Jesus was tempted of the devil, not of God. Yet He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be so tempted. The well-beloved Son of the Father was led by the Spirit of the Father to be tempted of the devil. He who taught His people to pray, Lead us not into temptation, was Himself led into temptation by the Spirit of Him who hears and answers all true prayers. But indeed for this end came He into the world. The adversary whom He came to overthrow could not be overthrown unless he were engaged. As the Captain of our salvation Jesus was led of the Spirit to be tempted of the devil, that being so tempted and victorious He might begin to work out redemption for We, whose salvation has been accomplished for us, and who wait but for full deliverance by the hand of Him who has thus far wrought for us, may well pray "lead us not into temptation" while yet we wait. It is as we so pray, living while we pray lives of faithful effort, that He can keep us from being tempted above that which we are able to bear. When we cease so to pray we fall. But, the tempter and the temptation existing, He must needs. be led into it, that, conquering, He might accomplish salvation for us, and be for ever our strength in every temptation which God's love suffers to fall upon us. It was the beloved Son of God, in whom the Father was well pleased, who endured the temptation of Satan. As we contemplate the fact, the reality of the Incarnation grows upon us. That the Son of God should be tempted of the devil is a thing impossible indeed, save He had most truly and completely taken upon Himself our nature and become very man. Son of God the voice from heaven declared Him; Son of man the temptation in the wilderness proved Him; and our faith and hope rest in the double fact. Either fact lost sight of, the other I becomes meaningless for all the purposes for which we believe in Him. The first of the temptations recorded for our instruction in the Gospel of the day is set forth in the words "And when the tempter came to Him, he said, If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." If Thou believest, or if Thou desirest others to believe, that words from heaven declared Thee the beloved Son of God; if Thou believest, or if Thou desirest others to believe the reality of the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Thee, then stand up in Thy true nature and take up the power that has been given Thee, and, being hungry as Thou art, command that these stones be made bread. The temptation to take up the challenge and work the miracle that was demanded of Him; the temptation to shrink before the greatness of that which He was, if this nature and this power were truly His-both these were real temptations to Him who was as truly Son of man as Son of God. But the very manhood which made the temptation possible, supplied also the ground of the answer to it. He could suffer from hunger, not because He was the Son of God, but because He was the Son of man. As Son of man suffering the common needs of the humanity into which He had entered, it was His duty to use the ordinary means of humanity to supply those needs. Work and prayer are the means by which men must gain their daily bread. Those powers of the Holy Ghost which were upon Him were for others' use, not for His; to work out God's salvation for man, not to render common human life easy for Him who bore it. He, bearing our burden, was, so burdened, to wield the might of God for our redemption. To have used it to lighten the weight that He had under taken to carry would have been to give up the work upon which He had entered. The temptation of Satan struck at the root of all His fidelity and of all our hopes. But the answer came :- -" Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God." The declared will of God, not the need of bread, was the law of His life at this, as at all times. He came to do the Father's will as Son of man not less than as Son of God. Working out the will of God for man He did mighty wonders by the power of the Holy Ghost. Bearing the will of God as man He suffered hunger and all pain till God in His providence should feed and relieve Him. So in obedience of sonship He beat off the temptation of the devil. In the same loyalty to the divine purpose in the gift of the Holy Ghost, He resisted the temptation to presumption, and would, no more than the humblest of His brethren should, call upon God to protect by supernatural means that life and safety which by natural means He was bound, as Son of man, to guard. "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God" beat back the deceitful use of "He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee." Nor would He by any evil means attempt to anticipate the kingdom to which He was born, but, waiting God's time and means to make His purpose good, kept His heart fixed upon the watchword of all holy living, "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." Our Lord and Master, who is also Our Elder Brother, "received not the grace of God in vain." In His House, upon this His holy day, we offer our Eucharist for His conflict and His triumph. But also our lives should be a constant Eucharist, and our true thanksgiving is that we receive not the grace of God in vain. To us also the Holy Ghost has been given. To us the temptation is ever present to disbelieve the fact, or to prize it as for our own use and gain; to reject it, or to presume upon it; to grow careless of God's great ends, or to take evil methods to realize those ends. But let us be strong in God and in the power of His might. Let us believe in our high calling in Christ Jesus, but let us learn also that this calling is no less to bear than to do the will of God. Let us seek to be filled with a meek and godly fear, which shall render presumption impossible. And let us believe in God, waiting for the fulfilment of His purposes, and learning more and more deeply to realize that every time we bow down before evil, we are fighting against the Kingdom of God. So shall we grow up into our sonship of God, and witness for Him by the power of the Holy Ghost. The Obserbance of Lent. THIS day is known among most of our Christian brethren as the first Sunday in Lent. With them, a season of fasting and humiliation began last Wednesday which will stretch on till Easter. Its observance, indeed, is a thing of very varying degree. With some, it means only the abstaining from entertainments, and from getting married. With others, it goes as far as the occasional attendance at church on week days :-for, in many churches, on Wednesdays and Fridays during this season the unwonted sounds of Divine Service are heard. All this is trivial |