River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1910-01-06

dS SlSu VI lClOI iudLlOH' uClC !"
no intimation that either John or
his disciples or others OF the "Israel-
ties indeed" made use Of it. Moth
ing in the Jewish Law required it.
John objected to our Lords being
baptized, because he was not a
sinner. He was "holy, harmless.
undenied and separate from sin
ners."
Our Lords baptism, therefore, as
intimated in his reply to John, was
a new institution, which he did not
explain at the time, but which, later
| on, he showed was a symbol of his
conservation unto death, not as
sinner, but as a sin-offering. He
thus consecrated as soon as he was
thirty years of age, the legal age a.
which a priest could offer sacrifice
The language of his heart is told us
by St. Paul, "Lo, come, as in the
volume of the Book it is written of
me, to do thy will, o God" (Heb.
1879 There, declares the Apostle,
he began to set aside the typical
sacrifices of the Law Covenant by
beginning the better sacrifices -
the antiques.
In symbol our Lord declares that
his perfect human will and all his
earthly lights and powers were fully
consecrated, even unto death, and
that he was trusting the Fathers
promise that such an obedience
would result in his resurrection
from the dead to the spirit plane
which he left, in order to become
mans Redeemer.
The three temptations experienced
by our Lord illustrated all the temp
tations of his followers as New
Creatures. He was tempted in all
points like as we are, yet without
SIM He was not tempted as a
father, as a mother, as drunkard,
as a gambler-and neither are these
the tests of his 70 lowers. Their
testing is not along those lines,
even as his were r 1T. Proper un-
Outstanding of our Lords three
temptations reveals to us that they
are the same as those by which his
spirit begotten disciples are tested.
Temptation 1. Hungry after his
long fast, our Lords flesh cried out
for nourishment, and the Tempter,
Affecting a kindly interest in his
| welfare, suggested that, having re-
ceived the holy Spirit, he now pos
sessed the power of miracles and
should use it to transform the stones
into food. Our Lord subsequently
used this power in feeding multi
| tudes, but it would have been sinful
for him to use it upon himself-to
sustain the human life which he had
| already consecrated to death,
Obedience to the Divine will is
| paramount every way, and holy
privileges of the Chr cch in spiritual
matters must not b. bartered for
earthly advantage. The wrong
course is symbolicallv prefgured in
Esau's selling his b.rthright for a
mess of pottage. (Heb. 12:l6.)
Every temptation to sacrifice spir-
itual privileges or violate spiritual
responsibilities for the attainment
of earthly advantages would be a
yielding to this form of temptation.
| Temptation II. tits not necessary
to suppose that our Lord went to
Jerusalem and to the pinnacle of the
| Temple in person to experience his
temptation. On the contrary he
was all the while in the wilderness
and went to the HoI City merely
mentally, guided thu e by Satan's
suggestion that he could bring him
self and his glorious mission quickly
to the attention of all the people by
performing a stupendous miracle
by leaping from the pinnacle of the
temple into the chasm below and
then arising unhurt. He could then
explain to the multitude his heavenly
errand and awe them to faith. Satan
supported the ptation with
text of Scripture-"For he shall
give his angels charge over thee, to
keep thee in all thy ways. They
shall bear thee up in their hands,
lest thou dash thy foot against
stone. "-Psa. GILL, IL.
Our Lord promptly discerned the
fallacy of the argument and the mis-
application of the Scripture, which
really belongs to the feet members
of the Body of Christ, which is the
Church, in this very time in which
weare living, when stumbling-blocks
to Christian faith are in the way,
and when God is providing special
light upon his Word and special as