The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1900-06-18
TEMPTATION OF JESUS
AND WHAT 1T TEACHES

At the Emmanuel Baptist Church yester-
day morning the pastor. the Reverend c: h.
Murray, took as his subject The First
Temptation of Jesus" He spoke in part as
follows;
significant ordinance, the baptism of Jesus,
had Just been celebrated. The voice from
heaven, This is my beloved Son in whom l
am well pleased which had delighted and
thrilled Jesus. had hardly ceased to rever-
berate In the Jordan Valley when ne was
led away by the Spirit for this remarkable
ordeal.
He was 10 suffer an experience IN COM
mon with many of the children of men. in
that, when they have had delightful COM
munion with God and have enjoyed the
sweetest privileges of the saints as they
sat in heavenly places, the end has come
only to find themselves nightly assailed by
the arch-enemy OF their souls.
We follow the Lamb OF God out into Inc
dreary Judean Wilderness, called py tne
Jews The Horror, the Appalling Desoia-
tion.' The surroundings were d Httlng en-
vironment for this remarkable temptation-
The bare chalk Mills, the nigh ellis, the
yawning chasmS, the gorSes ana caves III
the barren land of drought, must have had
Q depressing effect on ms deeply sensitive
I'VE are deeply interested. for in this
contest between the Son of Man and satan
hangs the fruit of all the work and history
Of an ancient people; or it depends the full.
dllment Of the hopes and prophecies OF
centuries Shall the cutlery OF mummy
be hushed? Shall the sins of the world.
which have been a heavy burden. find a
nnal resting place? Is there a Rossio,n,y
that eatn will be SUCCESSFUL! he enters
broken record Of victories. reaching back
TO the time when he defeated our parents in
The sarden; L. Jesus capable bI Of Of SHINING, Gna san y
his human nature is supported BY It's union
with the divine. There is no evil In his
nature to respond to the evil without. 1t
n Gods plan from the beginning that the
Master fail not. On the other hand. the
humanity OF Jesus must have been peacea.
q farce. There must have been grave dan
ger, for we read: He was touched with
the feeling Of our inflrmities. for he was
tempted in all points like as we are
"Nrhen it seems that the limit OF endur-
ance must have been reached. when Jesus
was wsake:t the temper came me VIII tn le
become bread. Can 1t be sinful. when I'M
der the pressure Of dire necessity, to trans
change the water into the best Of wine: he
- to multiply the loaves and fishes. We
can imagine that Jesus holds the stone in
when q voice within tells him that a sacred
gift win be desecrated by using IL Tor
selfish, ends and the stone falls to the
forced. All power belongs to him, but IT
was laid on Gods altar for humanity. He
would not rave been : an no example to o fSs ms th !.
sGod has given you some powers Of a
soc;ai position or wealth. How are you us,
ing them? II merely for selfish ends, you
are committing q heinous dissertation self
fshness IS the very essence OF sin. If the
world would learn this lesson, strife would
cease and peace would reign. Those who
have Gods gifts would soon know that to
enjoy them most they must be used TO
benefit and bless others. 1t is more blessed
to give than to receive.
Jesus did not sin. in that he chose and
did the best that was open to him. He
took and maintained the highest possible
stand. The lives Of many are retrosrading
because they are satisfied with that which
they consider good enough: In this they
are unfaithfui to the light they have, false
ard OF duty. Every protested follower of
Jesus. between two possibilities ought al
ways to choose the worthier. To do that
which 4. less good than might be accom-
than the best others have done.
God has revealed to you some high
plane Of Christian living. You refused TO
60 up. The door has been closed and since
been satisfied. The light called for some
sacrifice on your part which your lower ma
ture, at Satan's bidding. refused to make.
and your Christian experience can never he
what 1t might have been had you been
faithful. to light and duty.
Another saw the same duty. He made
was true to the vision Of duty and he ex-
psriences a JOY to which you are an entire
Jesus would teach the lesson that the
are not to live by bread alone, but by every
word Of God. This. rightly interpreted and
properly used. will prove to be not only our
sure means OF defense. How quickly the
swurd flashed, how effectively the Master
used it! H attestede authority as the