The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1900-01-25
THE LESSON TEXT.

I1lE LtsSSON lEN
(Matt. Al. "
l. Then was Jesus led up of the spirit
into the wilderness to be tempted of the
devil.
2. And when He had tasted forty days
and forty nights, he was afterward an hun
gered.
he said: If Thou be the Son of God. COM
mand that these stones be made bread.
4 But He answered and said: 1t is writ
ten, Man shall not live by bread alone.
but by every word that proceedeth out of
| the mouth of God.
5. Then the devil taketh Him up into the
6. And saith unto Him: If Thou be the
| Son of God, cast thyself down: for 1t is
written, lie shah give His angels charge
concerning Thee; and in their hands they
shall bear Thee up lest at any time Thou
dash Thy foot against stone.
T. Jesus said unto him: 1t is written
again, Thou shalt not tempt the LORD thy
God
an exceeding high mountain and showeth
Him the king6oms of the world, and the
glory of them;
9. And saith unto Him. All these things
will l give Thee. if Thou wilt fall down
10, The 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: ~, a
behold, angels came and ministered unto
ii'i''' NOTES AND SUGGESTIONS.
Jesus Baptism.--John had been
baptizing, probably for about six
months, when Jesus presented Him
self as "a candidate for the rite. lie
set out from His home in Nazareth to
be baptized-not to hear John preach
or to determine the nature of Johns
mission. 1t seems to be limited in
Luke 1921 that Jesus presented Him
self somewhat privately, at the close
of days work. If so, we may find
in the fact an explanation of what ap-
pears to be the truth that the visible
coming of the Holy Spirit was evident
only to John and to Jesus, and that
only they heard the voice from the
sky. AS to the reason for the baptism,
it seemed necessary to Jesus in order
that He might fulfill all righteous
ness" The righteousness which He
wished to fulfill may well be under
stood as equivalent to the rites of
initiation into the priesthood. Those
rites included baptism. amounting with
oil, and sacrifice. Jesus was baptized
by John rather than by priest, His
amounting was in the descent of the
Spirit upon Him, and His sacrifice was
to come when He should offer Himself
upon the cross.
The Temptation.-Th first evidence
of this presence of the Spirit was
Jesus departure into the wilderness
to be tempted. The temptation con-
sisted not merely in the three attacks
of which we have record, but doubt
less in many an unrecorded suggestion
to Jesus during the 40 days in which
He tasted. The purpose of the retire
mcnt to the wilderness was, of course,
to give Jesus opportunity for concen-
trated thought upon the public work
to which He felt Himself called-its
purpose, its method, and it's results.
ing of Matt. 42; Luke 4:2, the abb
straction of Jesus during the 40 days
was so great that He was not con-
scious of hunger. The paugs, of
which the devil tried to take advan-
tage in the first temptation, must have
been very severe. The account of the
temptation must have been given by
Jesus to His disciples in the course of
the private teaching which occupied
much of the last six months of His
life. The order given in Matthew is
the more logical one, though the
temptations probably framed them
selves to Jesus less separately and
distinctly than they appear in the ac-
count. 1t is not necessary to sup
pose that Jesus was bodily transport
ed, nor yet that the temptation was
entirely within Himself. The truth
may lie between these two extremes.
Note the plausibility of the tempta-
tions. The first promised relief from
hunger and the other two assured
success in work by a manner much
easier than that which it was proper
to take. Observe that the quotations
from Scripture with which Jesus re-
pels the temptations are all from the
book Of Deuteronomy. The first two
temptations enticed to misuse of Di-
vine power; the third to a concession
that the devil holds the world as by
right. The freedom from temptation
which followed the great conflict here
described was only "for a season."
Iuke 4:13.)
The Place of Temptation.-A tradi-
ton. said to be no older than the time
OF the crusades, fixes the scene of the
temptation at a mountain not far from
Jericho, which from this circumstance
has received the name of Quarantania.
Naked and arid like mountain of
malediction, it rises precipitously from
scorched and desert plain, and looks
over the sluggish, bituminous waters
of the Sodomitic sea-thus Offering a
sharp contrast to the smiling softness
of the Mount of Beatitudes and the lin
pid crystal of the Lake of Gennesareth.
Imagination has seen in il a fit place
TO be the haunt of evil infiuences-a
place where, in the language of the
prophets. the owls dwell and the satyrs
dance.-Canon Farrar
PRACTICAL.
Those who would be the children of
God must be baptized with the Holy
Spirit.
The Holy Spirit is like dove. That
heart must be sinful indeed that would
keep him out.
He is well prepared to resist tempta-
lion who is full of the Holy Spirit.
He will be victor over temptations
who has sincere desire to do the will