Towanda daily review. [volume] (Towanda, Pa.) 1879-1921, 1880-01-22
JANUARY %.
THE TEMPTATION OF JESUS.
MATT. Ill.

GOLDEN TEXT" For in that he himself hath
suiferad being tempted, he is able to succor them
that are tempted. ."-HebreacS 2:IS.
Central Truth Christ was tempted in
all points like as we are.
The event recorded in this lesson oc-
cured directly after the baptism of Jesus.
1t is noticed that the time of temptation
followed the time of exaltaton. Jesus
had just received special manifestation
of the divine favor. The Holy Cost in Il
visible, symbolical representation, had
rested on him, and u proclamation had
been made before the assembled people
that he was the ''beloved Son. in whom
the Eternal Father was ''well pleased"
Immediately otter this, we are told
that he was 'led of the Spirit into the
wilderness to be tempted of the devil"
The question has often been asked How
could Christ, who was perfectly holy
being, be tempted to sin? The answer is
easy. Christ was man. as truly SO as he
was God. AS such he had nature like
ours, with all the constitutional passions
and appetites belonging to it, This was
necessary to enable him intelligently to
sympathize with us, and help us to resist
our temptations He could feel hunger,
thirst, WEAKNESS and pain as much as we
can. And they were not pleasant to him
any more than they are to US. They
could produce suffering in him as truly as
in us. He would feel natural desire to
escape them as truly as we should. But
constitutional desires are not in them
selves sinful The sin lies in gratifying
them unlawfully, both in spirit and in
method. We may desire physical graft
fcation; we may desire fame, or power,
or pleasure and it may not be sinful. But
when these desires seek to be gratifed at
the expense of law, or moral principle, or
duty to higher interests or relations, sin
begins. Temptation assails us and we
weakly and culpably yield.
In this way Christ could be tempted, and
good men can be tempted. But Christ
had no sinful nature, and so he was able
in his own strength to resist and foil the
tempter.
But this story is not myth, or merely
an allegory. 1t is not an unreal drama.
1t is the history of a real experience.
Christ was truly tempted, and the temp
tation was oppressive and painful. ''IIe
suffered, being tempted" And it was
not merely arbitrary thing. There were
good reasons for it, There were wise
and good purposes to be answered by it.
1t proved his fitness for the great office
which he had assumed. 1t established q
tie of sympathy between him and his peo-
pie. The three temptations to which he
was subjected represented the common
temptations Of life. TO be truly and eff
teCtually our helper i'll these, it was nee
esSary that he should not only feel them,
but conquer them. Had Satan succeeded
i'll mastering Christ, it would have been
the greatest possible triumph, and re-
demption would have been impossible.
Satan staked everything on this effort to
lead Christ to sin, and failed!
| do not know that it was necessary for
us to hold that the language of the narra-
tive is to be in all details understood TT
er0liy; that a personal tempter, real
stones, Il literal temple, or mountain, are
to be insisted on as parts of the occur
renee. Nor do hold it necessary, on the
other hand, to claim that the history only
clothes in dramatic form IL real but inte,-
nal experience; that the narrative describ-
es a series of images or pictures which
Wara praSautad tn ChriSt's iuouiuafion