The citizen. (Honesdale, Pa.) 1908-1914, 1910-01-07

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| OF Christ, to become an itinerant
preacher of the gospel He proclaimed,
fully persuaded in his own mind that
his Master was what He claimed to
,e, the King OF the Jews. Hence,
he gospel OF Matthew is full of refer
snces to the Old Testament, the Jew
sh scriptures, 65 passages being quot
"a from the prophecy and the hope Of
;5yael. The genealogy Of Christ he
races back to King David to show
hat he has the right to sit as David's
son upon David's throne. Thus we
End the word kingdom Sc times in
his gospel the phrase, 1.-The kingdom
Of heaven" 32 times, and nowhere
else in the New Testament. Matthew,
all the way through sets forth
the fact that This is Jesus. the king
of the Jews. We have seen the her
aid OF the king in John the Baptist.
Notice now, the inauguration of the
king.
inaugural Ceremony.
Monarchs are inducted into office
by solemn ceremonies, and from the
moment when they are invested with
the purple they break away from the
old life and all things become new.
| Baptism was an ordinance of God, in
troductory to the new dispensation,
and as such Jesus submitted to it. And
while, in His case, it was not an act
expressive of confession of sin, it was
His investiture with the awful dignity
of the Messiah, ceremony in which
the opening heavens and the De-
scending Spirit bore witness to the
divine approval and conservation. For
the people, baptism was the symbol
of their separation from sin and conse-
Grafton to God: in His case it was the
symbol of separation from His hither-
to private life and the assumption OF
his royalty as Messiah-King. John
had opened the door of the new king
dom. From the wilderness of sin the
people had focked into it. Now from
the seclusion Of thirty years of prepar-
alton Jesus entered it as both King
and Priest. Here is where He took
up His royal prerogatives. Here He
received the seal of His mission the
! fullness Of power by the Holy Spirit
And here the proclamation is made in
reverberating thunder from the open
ed heavens, This is My Beloved Son,
in whom l am well pleased"
The King Tested.
No sooner was the King inaugural
! ed than He was tested as to His king
ly qualities. 1t must be shown to all
the ages that He reigned by divine
right, that He was holy, harmless, un-
| deliled, separate from sinners. Or.
| as the Scripture puts, Then was
| Jesus led up of the spirit into the
! wilderness to be tempted of the devil"
Whatever else is involved in those
words, It is pretty certain that dur
! ing that forty days, two kingdoms met
| in inexorable warfare and at its close
/ Christ stood forth the conqueror over
every possible temptation that can ap.
| peal to man.
Three-Fod Temptation.
Lyman Abbott sums up the tempta-
tions: The temptation was three-fold
and 1t took place in regular progress
sion. The first appealed to the body;
the second to love of admiration; the
| third to love of power. The first was
to mere bodily appetite; the second
| to a more honorable desire for fame I;
| the third to a noble ambition pervert-
ed. The first called for an act miracu.
lous; the second for one ostentatious
and presumptuous; the third for one
blasphemously wicked. The first was
disguised as an appeal to reason the
second was speciously an appeal to
! the Scriptures the third was bold and
naked revelation of Satan. The first
was the most deceptive; the second
the most plausible; the third the most
audacious. In the first Satan tried to
mslead by hiding the sin, in the sec,
of the greater good to be accomplished
by 1t; in the third. to compensate for
sin by promised reward.
The First Adam and the Second.
1t is interesting to trace in Christ's
temptation, a perfect anology to the
temptation in the Garden of Eden
There, as here. the appeal was made
to the lust OF the flesh, the lust OF the
eyes, and the pride OF life. The ap
peal was first 10 appetite. Eve saw
that the tree was good for food. The
appeal was next to the aesthetic ma
ture. She saw that Il was pleasant Ia
the eyes. And thirdly, the appeal was
to spiritual pride. She saw that the
tree Was 10 be desired to make one
wise. In the hrst instance the attack
succeeded; In the second II failed
The first Adam fell in a garden; the
second Adam was . victor in a wilder
ness: Adam Tia hsot was conquered
in . eards. An4 nsae II q wilder
mesa; AsazR. the sSsRA. conquered in
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