The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1905-06-21
THE PULPIT.
A SCHOLARLY SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. JOHN C.; AGAR
Subject: The First Temptation

SuDJCCC. Ine ElTbG 1cuuPtduohs
Brooklyn, N. Y.-Sunday morning, in
the Church of the New Jerusalem
tSwedenborgian), me pastor. the Rev.
John G. Ager, preached on The First
Temptation" The rext was from Mat
thew iv:1-4: "Then was Jesus led up
into the desert by he spirit, to be
tempted by the devil. And having
tasted forty days and forty nights, He
after that was hungry. And the
tempter came to Him and said, If thou
art the Son Of God speak, in order that
these stones may become loaves. But
He answering said, 1t has been writ
ten. Not by bread alone shall a man
live, but by every word that goeth
forth from the mouth Of God" Mr..
Ager said:
The gospel d. Matthew describes
specifically three temptations Of the
Lord in the wilderness Immediately
after His baptism. The form Of
the narrative suggests at once that
these stories are not history. but are
parallels, which picture the three gen.
eral ways in which fallen humanity
is approached and enticed j. Internal
influences. And when so understood
they become in the fullest sense q
revelation of divine truth to men. And
so understood they suggest at once
that there is some sort Of threefold-
ness in our spiritual experiences. And
when we examine our spiritual ex-
p%eriences carefully we are able to dis
tinguish in our inner life three distinct
planes Of thought and feeling.
Tho arof or 1nwar nf fhpcn fhrpp
planes of life we are all familiar with.
1t includes all thoughts and feelings,
all motives and impulses and appetites
that have reference exclusively to our
life in this world. This we call the
natural man.
Distinctly above this lies what we
call ordinarily the religious life. Its
thoughts and feelings and motives
have primary reference to those inter-
ests that outlive our life in this world.
Its largest and dominant factors are
faith, conviction and duty. Faith
and conviction are beliefs, though be-
liefs have been touched and quickened
by religious emotion. Duty is the con-
duct that belief or faith or conviction
imposes; that is, the dominion Of truth
over the lower impulses and appetites.
Consequently this realm of the life is
predominantly intellectual. Its DOM
inant impulse is love of truth and 10y
atty to truth. It lies distinctly above
the natural man and is called the spir-
itual man.
These two realms Of thought, feeling
and action we al easily distinguish.
They make up the twofold life Of every
man who is honestly trying to live q
true life in the world. But they evil
IDENTIFY do not include the highest spir-
itual possibilities of human life. There
10 another realm Of life clearly set be-
fore us in the divine word, although
few Christians know practically much
about it. 1t is, in fact. the essence Of
all religious life. 1t is the life that is
defined and enjoined in the two great
commandments, to love the Lord our
God with all our heart and soul and
mind and strength, and to love Il
neighbor as ourselves. This means
that the essence Of the heavenly life Is
love and whenever that gains posses
sion of US, faith, conviction and duty
will all be swallowed up In love. We
shall see with the eyes Of love and act
always from the impulse Of love. Love
going upward to God and outward to
nan will be the sole motive power Of
the life. This is the highest state of
man, the highest attainment Of human
nature, and may very properly be
termed distinctively the heavenly or
celestial life.
There are, then, three distinct re-
gions of life in us. The complete man
is a three-storied being. Consequently
there must be a corresponding three
foldness In all our spiritual expert
ences. And it is this distinction that
Is pictured in these three typical tempt
| atoms Of our Lord. The first is q type
Of the temptations that belong to the
lower or natural degree Of the mind,
the second to spiritual and the third
to the celestial or heavenly.
The first temptation is pictured as an
appeal to a physical appetite. After
the forty days. and nights Of fasting
Jesus was hungry and there was moth
ing to satisfy His hunger, and 1t is
suggested by the tempter that He con-
vert into loaves of bread some Of the
stones that covered the ground.
This physical picture has very evi.
IDENTIFY a spiritual meaning, which
deals, not with the mere body and its
cravings, but with the essential man
and his cravings and requirements. 1t
deals with the most universal fact Of
human nature, Which is hunger. From
the merely material activities Of his
physical body up to the highest activ-
ity Of his spiritual nature man Is, in q
| cnnca a mann h11n11n aP h,1noaro And
this Is true because he is merely a re-
cipient; and every minutest vesiGe of
both body and soul is q mouth ciamor-
ing to be fed. But it is only q small
part Of this universal hunger that we
are conscious Of. AS in the body some
Of the more general organs make us
conscious Of their needs when they are
not supplied, while the needs Of the
numberless smaller organs and vesicles
are met by physical processes that we
are wholly unconscious Of, so Of the
UNIVERSAL hunger OF the spirit only q
small part ~ falls within u o n
seriousness. And this is so because the
Lord requires Of US only so much as
He must require Of US to make us
images and likenesseS of Himself. To
be that it is necessary that we should
contribute to our life a certain measure
of activity and effort and cooperation
and reciprocation. And to secure that.
some Of the more external lungers Of
the body and Of the mind appeal to
US strongly enough to prompt us to
such action as is necessary to satisfy
them.
But in our present condition all the
hungers of our natural life are more or