he tried the opposite way, the way of giving up self, but giving it up in an unlawful manner. He advised Him to throw Himself down from the temple into the court or city below before all the people, that the marvellous sight of a man leaping from such a height, and yet receiving no hurt, might startle their dull hearts, and turn them to listen to Him in whom so great a power was given by God to dwell. We have seen already that from the experience of the first temptation the devil had learnt to assail Christ through His care for the people. Let us notice also how he learned to use Scripture as a weapon of his own, even as Scripture had been the means by which he was first defeated. The snare was well and wisely chosen ; but the devil's wisdom cannot stand before the simple life of holy trust.

Jesus said unto him, "It is written again, 'Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.'" Once more He will not stand alone, but throws in His lot with His people, and confesses Himself bound by their duties. The children of Israel in the wilderness were often forgetting God their Saviour, murmuring when any want of food came upon them, doubting the truth of God's presence and care-as the Bible says, tempting or trying God and His patience. All the sins they committed came from this root, that they did not feel they were in God's hands, to do His work and will and not their own. Christ owned no higher rule for Himself. He too dared not tempt the Lord His God. He knew that God had not called Him to throw Himself down from the temple. That short and sudden way of producing

an effect might minister to His own pride, but it would not be God's way. A humbler and quieter and more truly painful task lay before Him for days and months to come. Because He really trusted in God, He could trust in God's ways of converting His people, no less than in God's willingness and power to keep Him from harm. The act which the devil proposed to Him would have been after all a glorifying of Himself in His own heart, a leading of men to worship Him more than His Father. His trust was one that we all can practise, though we dare not believe that God will break His own laws to save us from harm when we rush upon our own destruction.

This second temptation may not seem at first sight to yield so much instruction for ourselves, brethren, as the first, and yet we need it too. It is a great thing to have resisted some strong impulse to seek our own pleasure or welfare alone. But, after that, we are very apt to think that our task is over, and we may yield ourselves up without further thought to ourselves, trusting the good feeling which has thus far prevailed. But no, says the Bible, "Be not highminded, but fear." It is madness to trust to anything in ourselves. The just man lives only by faith, by a constant steady looking up to God at every step for guidance as to the right way, and strength to walk in it. Do not let us dream of gaining some extra credit by cutting out for ourselves a new way of doing good: this is only disguised pride, and want of trust in God and His ways. The grace of God must come to us in vain, if we do not

live in the belief that we are workers together with Him, and that all work that is not done with Him is rotten from the very beginning, and doomed to perish. When we want to go our own way, it is easy to find good excuses, easy to quote texts out of the Bible to soothe our uneasy consciences. We forget that the Bible is so precious for our use because it is the word of God, and that we make it not His but our own word when we quote it against His known mind and will. Lastly, it is true now as ever that God does give His angels charge to keep His people in all their ways: He does still deliver those who set their love on Him. But He works no miracles to keep us from the common lot of man, suffering and death. It is His will that we should pass through them: they are His instruments for our highest salvation. Our Elder Brother has gone before us through the same. would not ask for angels to keep Him from bodily hurt. He drank willingly, and His Father willingly suffered Him to drink, the full cup of human misery, and through His death He opened to us the gate of everlasting life.

He

IX

THE TEMPTATION ON THE MOUNTAIN

AGAIN, the devil taketh him up into an exceeding high mountain, and sheweth him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them: and saith unto him, All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto him."—Matthew iv. 8-11.

SINCE the beginning of Lent we have been considering the temptations which our Lord had to endure at the opening of His ministry. We have seen how the tempter endeavoured to shake His belief in His being the son of God, or at least to induce Him to prove it by doing what a true son of God would not do, that is, by turning stones into bread to supply His own bodily needs. But Christ, the Son of Man, would neither separate Himself from men, His brethren, nor distrust His Father's power and will to support Him in any way that seemed to Him best; He applied to Himself the words, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out

of the mouth of God." Again, we have seen how the enemy, finding Christ firmly resolved not to be led astray by His own wants, endeavoured a second time to beguile Him through His very love for His people; how he tried to persuade Him to cast Himself down from the temple before them all, that the sight of one marvellously kept from death by the power of God might startle their dull hearts into obedience. But once more Christ would suffer neither a text of Scripture nor His own desire for the welfare of His people to betray Him into seeking their welfare in a way undutiful to His Father in heaven. He rested once more on a commandment given of old to them. He refused to break it by tempting the Lord His God.

Now then we come to the third temptation, which is our proper subject for to-day. The tempter had tried to make Christ work a wonder for His own relief, and he had failed in that. He had tried to make Him work a wonder of risk to Himself for the sake of His people, and he had failed in that too. But he had one device still left, a device which would seem to ask almost nothing from Christ, while it held out the most tempting of bribes to one who was ordained to be a Prince and a Saviour. Christ now stood on the top of a high mountain, and looked out far and wide over the earth and its various kingdoms. When the devil had let Him gaze well on the distant sight, he said, "All these things will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me."

To understand this offer, we must think a little of what hopes rightly belonged to Christ. The Jews