Keowee courier. [volume] (Pickens Court House, S.C.) 1849-current, 1881-09-29
a Sermon by Rov. a. w. Mooro
Of Bishopvillo, South Carolina.
The Drought Its Uses, Sec
ular, Moral, Spiritual.

| Trxr--Anl when the tcmpcr came TO him
AMI said, /! thou he The Son Of God. comman
/ that these stones DC male brcad But he nm
swcred and said, 1t is written, man Shall no
live by bread alone, but by every word chat
procccdch cut Of the mouth OF Col.-AIatt.
4---2, 4.
Immediately after Jesus, our J'cssct
Saviour, had been baptized uto the gra-
cious mcssianic Office, when the validity OF
TINT baptism had been attosted by the voice
from heaven, saying this is my beloved Son
in whom am well pleased, was Jesus led
up of the Spirit into the wilderness TO be
tempted of the devil, and whcu he bad
tasted forty days and forty nights ho was Il
hungercd.
Hero in the wilderness, when reduced to
this pitiable physical coalition, the tcmptor
canlo and piled him with temptations,
temptations which touched our humanity at
every point, temptations SO thorough SO
exhaustive, SO cumulative, that nothing
could have been added. The great temp.
tation began in the suggestions of our
physical nature. in tho clamorous cravings
of hunger and thirst Every department of
our nature, every mental faculty, every spir--
itual oupabIity is subjected to all the pressure
that could be brought to bear, aud every
assault of the Evil Onc, so subtle, So
thorough, SO intense, is foiied- 50 that he
whose nature it is to tempt, whose peculiar
function it seems to be is to tempt, rctircs
from tho contest, and he, who"cndured so
faithfully, 80 triu,nphantIy is refreshed and
oomlorted there in the desert by the angels
Of God.
Brethren, if We patiently study the
temptation, if We strive to comprehend
something Of its depth and breadth and
compass, we shall understand better that
great truth, embodied 10 such Scriptures as
these: For in that he himself hath suffered,
being tempted, he is able to sucoor .hem
that are tempted, For we have not high
priest which cannot be touched with the
feeling of our inlirmities, bnt was in all
points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin. There hath no temptation taken you
but such as is common to man; but God
ID faithful, who will not suffer you to be
tempted above that yc arc able, but will
with tho temptation also mako way to
escape, that yc may be ao!o to bear it,
Tho tcmptcr approaches our Saviour
first at that point where most men are bo-
ipg tompted aud where the great majority
Of men are liable to fall Tho temptation 10
cur text consisted in the solicitation, under
tho pressure of the most ravcnous hunger,
to satisfy that hunger by llogitimatc and
hurtiul methods, methods that would have
betrayed distrust of that great perennial
system of gracious, aboundng Providence
which the All Wise Father has established
1t Ia here that our human nature s most
Vulnerable aud it is right along this line
that multitudca are falling every day.
When We are tempted to engage in an
illegitinuto business, when, for the sake of
making money, wc pursue any business
that hurts others, or when wo cugage in n
legitimate business in spirit of coyctous.
ness, in a spirit of extortiou, in spirit of
dishonesty, wo nro saying, TIet these
stones DO mado bread" It is along this line
that our Saviour was so intensely, 30
thoroughly tdmptcd, that he was enabled