CHAPTER IV. (Continued from page 68.)

But here we are made to realize the wondrous privilege that is ours,-the solemn responsibility that rests upon us. For we are sanctified unto the obedience of Christ, and He has left us an example, that we should follow in His steps (i Pet. 1:2; 2:21). The principle of His life, then, must be, above all, the principle of our lives. If with Him the governing motive was this, to do the will of God, -if He rejected every motive that could be urged from His own necessities,-how simple is it that, for us also, the will of God must be in the same way that which prompts to action; apart from this there is no right motive possible.

What a world, then, is this, in which the mass of men around us have no thought of God, no knowledge of His will, no desire to know it,-with whom life is little less than the instinctive animal life, disturbed more or less by conscience, that is, by the apprehension of God ! And as to Christians themselves, how easily are they persuaded that, with certain exceptions at important crises in their lives, the simple rule of right and wrong-often determined by custom of some kind, rather than the word of God- is sufficient to indicate for them the will of God, their own wills being thus left free within a variously limited area ?

The law, in fact, drew such a circle around men, and in mercy, as a sheepfold is the limit for the sheep. A class of actions is defined as evil, and forbidden; within these limits one may please oneself. Nor could law go further than this:for it the rigidity of a fixed code is a necessity. But Christ came into the fold to make His sheep hear His voice, and to lead them out:free, but where freedom would be safe as well as blessed, in following the living guidance of the Shepherd Himself. (John 10:) The rule is much stricter, even while freer. And the reality transcends the figure, just as the " Good Shepherd" Himself transcends every other shepherd, To a love like His, united with a wisdom absolutely perfect, no detail of our lives can be unimportant, as in the connection of these throughout, and of one life with another, none can be insignificant. Could it be imagined that any were so, yet which of us is competent to discern this in any instance? "Behold, how great a matter a little fire kindleth" is but the utterance of common experience. Who, then, that has learned to distrust himself at all, but must welcome deliverance from such an uncertainty, and find it joy to be guided at all times by higher wisdom !

Nothing makes this appear severe, nothing difficult except the love of our own way, and the unbelief which, having given up confidence in God, first sent man out from the bountiful garden, to toil and strive for himself in the world outside. But the divine love which has pursued us here, and given us Bethlehem as our "house of bread," should suffice to heal that insane suspicion, and close up the fountain of self-will within us :" He who spared not His own Son, but gave Him up for us all, how shall He not, with Him also, freely give us all things?" The path ordained for us has, no doubt, its roughness, and the cloud hangs over it, but the cloud itself is but His tabernacle, and just in the very night it brightens into manifest glory. All differences are in the interests of the journey itself, as was said of Israel, that they might " go by day and by night." The record of experience adds to this the assurance, "They go from strength to strength."
No wonder ! if "by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God doth man live." What a sustenance of the true life within to be thus, day by day, receiving the messages of His will, listening to that wondrous Voice, learning continually more His tender care for us :"He wakeneth morning by morning; He wakeneth mine ear to hear as a learner" (Isa. 1:4). This is the utterance prophetically of the Lord Himself :how blessed to be able to make it our own, and thus to have the, fulfillment of those words, "I will instruct thee, and teach thee, in the way in which thou shalt go :I will guide thee with Mine eye."

So, then, the first temptation is met and conquered; and with this, in fact, is conquered every after one:for he who walks with God, and waits on God, what shall ensnare him ? what enemy shall prevail against him ? It is plain that Satan has been hinting again here the lie with which of old he seduced the woman. And that, as in her case, "the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eye, and the pride of life," came in through the door so opened, they were here effectually shut out. Satan might repeat and vary his efforts, but to one cleaving fast to God, God was the shield against which every shaft must be broken to pieces. How great the importance for us, then, of such a lesson !

But if we are to listen for the word of God, and our lives are to be shaped by it, we are called next to guard against the misuse of the word itself. This is Satan's next attempt. "Then the devil taketh Him up into the holy city, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the temple, and saith unto Him, If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down :for it is He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee, and in their hands they shall bear Thee tip, lest at any time Thou dash Thy foot against a stone."

How careful should we be as to quotations from Scripture ? how little, in fact, we often are ! Scripture twisted but a little awry, the authority of God is made to sanction a lie, and our very faith in it betrays us to the enemy.

How important, too, becomes on this view the complete verbal inspiration of Scripture. If but the thought meant to be conveyed is guaranteed to us, but the wording is left to the choice of imperfect wisdom, then unless words mean nothing, we can never settle what the thought precisely is. If the words are possibly faulty, who can assure me of the exact truth hid under a faulty expression ?

Satan did but leave out two or three words of the original, "to keep Thee in all Thy ways;" but those words guard them against the abuse which he would make of them. The "ways" of Him who in the ninety-first psalm says of Jehovah, "in Him will I trust," could never be such as the unbelief would prompt which would make trial of Jehovah's words to see if they would be fulfilled. That is what the Lord's answer is, by another quotation, once more from that book of wilderness-lessons, Deuteronomy, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." This last text is one often enough misused to mean, Do not rely upon Him for too much :and the Lord's refusal to cast Himself down plausibly made an illustration of this meaning. But the whole question is of what has been settled in the first answer. If our ways are with God, directed according to His word, and following that living guidance of which even that of Israel of old was but a type and foreshadow, then we need never think that we shall tax the divine resources too much to sustain us in them. Had we His word, it would be only faith to cast ourselves down, when without it would be to "tempt" Him. Let us be assured, He will never say to us, " You trusted Me too much." There are abundance of possible sins without inventing an imaginary and impossible one.
Satan's argument is still grounded upon this:"If Thou be the Son of God;" but although He had just been declared that, He had come to submit to the conditions of humanity, to display under "these the moral perfection of that eternal life, which could best display itself in such humiliation. The revelation of God Himself could only be made aright upon the level of humanity; and the title which He constantly gives Himself is that of the Son of Man. This is the place He has come to take, and He cannot be moved from it:for thus alone can He be Mediator between God and men, and thus alone can He be also an example for us.

But in the third temptation Satan shifts his ground completely. He could not say, "If Thou be the Son of God, fall down and worship me." He suddenly seems to realize so the truth of His humanity that he will adventure fully upon it. If this be indeed One who is Son of man, shut off, as it were, from the claims and conditions of Deity;-if He has come in the very weakness of manhood itself to work the work committed to Him, then he will test Him by the appeal to that very weakness. All the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them shall be flashed upon Him as in a moment; the power of which He came to possess Himself, He should have it by an easier path than He had chosen:"All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me."

For us who know His glory, this seems indeed only like the raving of despair. But however it may seem to be no longer temptation, but an awful insult to the divine glory vailed in humanity before him, it does not seem to be given us as this. The Lord answers it, as He does the rest, from Scripture, though with an indignation which He has not shown before. Satan has disclosed himself, and can be called by his name and bidden to be off. Yet the whole reads as if he had as much confidence in this attack as in the others. The change of address, no longer, "If thou be the Son of God," with the matter of what he says, seems to say that he has at last discovered and accepted the fact, that as his conflict had been all through with man, so now it was to be still with One, who, be he more than this or not, had indeed come to meet him as man only; and man he thought he knew. Granted the conflict were to be moral only, -granted, that the One he met had only the weapons of goodness, was here truly and only as Man,- this was the ground He had taken, simply obedient, dependent, believing:this, then, was not divine sovereignty, omnipotence, omniscience ; and human strength, what had He proved it to be !

In result, he has disclosed himself, and is defeated. There is still no display of Deity, no outburst of divine judgment or of power :" 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." The sufficiency of the word of God as the divine weapon against him is thus seen all through:a great encouragement for us also in the irrepressible conflict which we have all to maintain :"the sword of the Spirit is the saying of God." (Eph. 6:17, Gk.) F. W. G.

(To be continued)