The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-02-22
FIRST SUNDAY OF LENT
 IN MONTGOMERY CHURCHES
The Bad Weather Did Not Prevent Large COngrega. tiOnS From Hearing Strong Sermons
 From Local PulpitS.

Notwithstanding the skies were heavy yesterday. and the atmosphere was damp | and penetrating. the first Sunday of the Lenten season was marked by large at- tendance at the churches of Montgomery. At St. Johns Episcopal Church, on Madison Avenue, morning and evening services were held and the rector, Rev. Edward E. Cobbs, spoke earnestly to tn- terested congregations
 For the morning sermon, MT. Cobbs chose as the lesson the text: Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilder ness to be tempted of the devil"
 He spoke IS follows:
 "In this season of Lent we are to keep continually before ourselves the thought of our own sinfulness and unworthiness. These should be weeks of self-examina- ton, and self-sacrif1ce; weeks when we should loose the heavy burdens and let the oppressed go free; weeks when we should come out of our own selves and our own sorrows and joys. and feel the touch of mighty. pulsing sunering unwise: weeks when We ought to think earnestly of the mystery of life. the mys- tery of iniQuity and mystery of redemp- ton and on the very threshhold of this Lenten season. on the very first Sunday. In the Holy Gospel for the day, we find these words which we have chosen for our thought this morning; words so Ia miliar, so simple, so natural that we have come 70 accept them as having but little meaning and power and truth Tn
 them; and yet in reality they are words upon which We build our Christian hope, and they speak of the mystery of all
 mysteries. and throw some light upon the arkest enigma and the blackest problem in all our human life.
 Yes. they are simple words. natural and familiar; heard so often that they have become almost commonplace; and yet who has ever fathomed their mean ing? who has ever exhausted their
 boundless, ageless. comfort and strength. Then was Jesus led up of the spirit to be tempted of the devil
 How terrible it is. to think that down.
 through the countless generations of the world. all men everywhere have been
 compelled to face this persistent, insdi- ous, personal indictment to sin4all men | have been tempted. What Is this temp
 tation? What is its power? Why, in l world that God created in love, should
 there be found this universal persistent so much misery? so much anguish? so much sin?
 These are deep questions that have brought men down into the bitterness of | anguish and despair! These are the hard, cruel facts upon which many a man has had his faith shipwrecked.
 Men have come to doubt and question | and deny the very existence of good and | of God. Men have come to believe in two Gods--a God of Light and Good
 ness, a God of Darkness and Sin | and that there is increasing warfare and conflict between them for the possession
 of the world. With our hearts sick of our own weakness and failure and sin, wrung 1 by the sight of the wretchedness and ap- | palling sinfulness of the world, with our | minds perpleXing and questioning, and | seeking some explanation for the awful mystery of temptation and sin, struggling
 despairing. doubting.
 Then these simple words fall upon
 our ears and bid the tunult and the rag l ing of our life, be still and calm Then was Jesus led up of the spirit
 into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil"
 No explanation is attempted, no apol-
 ogy made. no inconsistency even hinted
 at. But simply and naturally when the ! time was fulnlled at the very opening of | his public life, Jesus was led up into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil
 T do not know how the spirit led Jesus
 up into that wilderness; I do not know
 in what form the tempter came to Jesus; | I do not know how he made his appeal. l can never know how the fullness nor the terribleness of that bitter and fiery trial
 when the Master met satan; and I do
 not care to know these things; where that wilderness it matters little to
 me; how the tempter came, in what form | is a matter for idle speculation. But what want to know and to cling
 to with all my life, is the simple fact
 that Jesus, Himself. did meet and con-
 quer the arch enemy of the human race. My brethren. blot that truth from the pages of the New Testament, tear it from
 the great heart of mankind. and you have
 made the Christian religion a mockery
 an da curse; you have made the
 Christian men and women of all people.
 most miserable; you have left the world
 in blackness and despair; hurrying on,
 laundering on through indefinite spaces on and on, but ever | til time shall be no more,
 ''rhe temptation of Jesus does not
 make one whit more clear and plain the
 awful mystery of the presence and origin
 of sin. It does not tell us who this evil
 one is. nor from whence he comes. It does not tell us why temptation lies so close, so vigilant, so intimate. so uni
 versal It does not explain why Jesus,
 the sinless one, in the very threshold of
 His life must go out and meet the old