The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1894-08-09
THE SUNDAY SCHOOL.



as we are, yet without sin.--Heb 4:I5
OLD TESTAMENT PARALLELs.--Moses (Ex.
| S42s) and Elijah Il Kings 1873 14) representing
the law and the prophets on the Mount of
TRANSPORTATION. each spent forty days fasting
In the wilderness
| TIME-Probably about January, A. ID. 27 di-
rectly after His baptism.
PLACE.-There is no hint given as to the
place where Jesus went to be tempted, but
most authorities incline to the northern part Of
the wilderness Ct Judea, between Jerusalem
and Jericho on the west and the Jordan and the
upper part of the Dead sea on the east. Tradi-
tion places 1t In Mount Quarantania, not far
from Jericho, near the Jordan. 1t was named
Quarantania (which means a space of forty
days., because Jesus was supposed to have
passed his forty days Of fasting in one of its
caves,
CIRCUMsTANCEs-Ast the first Adam, the head
Of the race, must be tempted and tested at the
beginning of his career, so must the second
Adam, the head Of the redeemed people Of God
be tempted and tested at the beginning OF his
work. The first Adam failed, and changed par
adise into desert; the second Adam gained
the victory. and ehangd desert into paradise,
FORTY DAYS OF TEMPTATION.
''Then:" Immediately after His bap-
tism, when He was "full of the Holy
Ghost" luke, and thus best fitted to
meet temptation and to enter upon His
work. God prepares us beforehand for
the storms and labors of life. Jesus
led up of the Spirit by some constrain-
ing impulse of the Holy Spirit, proba-
bly, In the same way that we are led by
the Spirit. He did not seek or run heed
lessly into temptation. He obeyed the
principles in His own prayer: Lead us
notinto temptation;" but He also obeyed
the Holy Spirits impulses, and went
where He was bidden to go, even though
it brought Him into temptation. Into
the wilderness GA pathless desert,
dusk with horrid shades, ,"-Milton):
where in solitude He could be absorbed
in intease meditation, and fight for
Himself the great battle with tempta-
ton. Mark says He was with the
wild beasts" i. e., without human COM
panionship or help, ''to be tempted
of the devil for the whole forty
days, according to Luke. 1t was
not merely one sudden assault.
1t was not probable that Jesus
lived thirty years in Nazareth without
enduring many temptations and over
coming them; but this period of temp
tation was in reference to His great
work as the Messiah. Q) God was put
ting it to the test whether Jesus was
qualified for His otfice-whether He
would remain true to the spiritual idea
of the Messiah. (:) In order to be the
Saviour of tempted mankind, it was
necessary that He Himself should be
tempted in all points like as we are,
yet without sin Heb. 4;15). 1t was
necessary that Jesus should not only
be exposed to the same temptations as
we.are, burt that He should gain the
victory over them, and by the same
means which are available to us. (3)
There was no doubt preparation
needed in the human Lord Jesus. He
needed to feel and realize His great
work, and grapple with. the great
difficulties in the way; to see clearly
the course that lay befora Him, and de-
iberately put aside every hope and joy
which would hinder His mission, and
accept every danger and trial. If
Jesus should enter safely upon His
work as the Messiah, then the king
dom of God would come and Satans
kingdom be broken for ever, and Satan
could not let this crisis pass without
exerting every possible power to de-
feat the Son of God and His mission of |
salvation.
The Tempter. The Greek word is |
diabolos, slanderer, accuser; the He |
brew, Satan, is one who opposes, an ad-
versary. The devil in the Bible is al |
ways with the article and always in |
the singular number. Whenever the |
plural, devils" is used, it is the trans
"a nf IA
is no more unreasonable to believe in a
personal devil than in bad men, bad
leaders on earth. To deny the exist
ence OF the devil is to lay much heavier
charges of evil on the nature of man
than does the belief in Satan.
The Reality of the Temptation.-The
temptation of Christ was a real tempta-
tion, as real as our temptations, and
without miraculous aids to victory, but
only such aidA as we all may possess.
For why was He tempted by a sa-
gacious temper If He could not by any
possibility be led into evil? And, if He
Himself knew that He could not sin,
what could the transaction have been
to Him but mere formality? Or how
is He an example to us, if His tcmpta-
tion is an unreality? MOI They dishonor
Christ's work who think thus. "-Presi-
dent Theodore ID. Woolsey.
The Method of the Temptations.-Q)
The temptations must have come from
without, and not from the mind of
Jesus, if He was sinless. '"The notion
that the Illicit suggestions sprang up
in the heart of Jesus; that
the devil was in Him and of Him; that
the battle was with His own appetite,
His own vanity, His own personal am
bition, is infidelity in it's worst FORM"
Lyman Abbott. But (2) this does not
imply that Satan came as
Satan, as Apollyon to Bunyan's Pill
grim, with horrible form, and sulphur
GUS and flaming breath; for that would
destroy the power of the temptation it.
self. He may have come as an angel
OF light. Christ was tempted like as
we are" but Satan never comes to us
IN his own form. He comes in a garb
OF light and attractiveness, not in
flames and horrors: in the snarLla ~