The Evening statesman. [volume] (Walla Walla, Wash.) 1903-1910, 1905-06-26
THE TEMPTATION OF jesus
SERMON PREACHED BY REV. AUS
TIN RICE At THE cONGRE-
GATIONAL CHURCH
Outline Of the Subject Of Discourse Is
Interpreted by Millions Poem,
"Paradise Regained."

| Sunday night Rev. Austin Rice de-
livered to a large congregation SER
mon on THE Temptation of Jesus" as
interpreted by Millions Paradise Re-
! gained" The text was taken from
Luke 4:12: And Jesus answering,
said unto him: 1T is written thou
shalt not tempt the Lord, thy Cod"
] In part Rev. Rice said:
| Paradise Reginald was written by
John Milton about the year 1865, when
the poet was poor and blind, and fast
ageing. The lofty ideals of Cromwell
and the reverence for public law and
freedom for which the Puritans strug-
! gled had been replaced by the corrupt
and base reign of Charles II.
THE poem opens with a prayer for
divine aid, and then introduces three
scenes. In the first satan reports to
the council of fallen angels the ap-
pearance of his mortal foe, the Mes
sian. Next we are taken to heaven and
see the interest with which God and
the holy angels behold the coming
struggle, while there is revealed to us
the purpose of Jesus to win his king
dom not by brute force, but by patient
submission to the will of God AMI
| through weapons OF truth.
THE first temptation: Satan dis
gused as a rustic approaches the Son
of God in the wilderness, hints that He
has lost His way in the wilderness,
and bids Him turn stones into bread
! that both the Messiah and the hungry
woodsman may have food. Jesus an
swers:
"'Thinkest thou such force in bread?
Is it not written
Man live not by bread only, but each
! word
Proceeding from the mouth of God,
| who fed
Our fathers here with manna?'
THE temptation of hunger is pre-
scented in a second and more elaborate
form and from this satan leads the
way to the temptation of the king
doms Of tine world, gradually ascending
from the attractiveness of his allure
ments. Wealth, glory, the thrones of
Parthia, Rome and Athens are refused
| by the Savior. The passages in which
he pictures the armies of Parthia go
ing forth to conquest and the grandeur
! Of Rome are marvels of poetic beauty.
A most remarkable feature is the man.
| ner in which Christ exposes the hid
den folly and sin of each temptation.
Of wealth, sought as the means to a
selfish ambition or Indulgence, He
speaks thus:
"Extol not riches then, the toll of
fools,
|
snare, more apt
| To slacken virtue and abate her edge
Than prompt her to do ought to
merit praise;
and concerning glory he declares:
This is true glory and renown,
when God
Looking on the earth with approba-
| ton marks
| The Just Man. Thus did He Job
l seek not mine, but His
Who sent me. And thereby witness
whence 1 am.
They who advance His glory, not
| their own
Them He himself to glory will ad-
| vance,
| The poem closes with the temptation
of Jesus upon the pinnacle of the tenn
pie, when our Lord stands unmoved,
| but
"'Satan smitten with amazement
fell
I'm the temptation as we see it
through this grand masterpiece of
John Milton there are four lessons:
The importance of lofty conceptions
of Christ, who is the center of the
moral universe. Our theology needs
the lofty and majestic outlook which
Milton gives. Again, we learn that
temptations repeated themselves and
came with increasing allurement. It
is important that youth be taught to
see beneath the allurement of worldly