The Washington herald., 1922-10-14
Personal Devil Tempted
Christ, Declares Bryan
Actual Experience Cannot Be Explained Away
As Poetry or Allegory of Bible,
Says Commoner.

No chapter Of the Bible holds
who strive to lead godly lives than
Luke's graphic account OF the
devils bold effort to lead the Sa-
vior astray.
No moro dramatic situation is to
be found in all the Bible, and none
more human in the lesson 1t brings
TO every man.
After He was baptized by John
and received the manifestation OF
divine approval, Christ was led by
the Spirit into the wilderness.
where he remained for forty days
preparing Himself for the work He
was about to undertake. Here He
was tempted Of the devil-an actual
experience which cannot BE- eK-
planned away as poetry or allegory.
The lesson that this fourth chap
ter of Luke, and the same chapter
in Matthew. hold for us naturally
divides itself into two parts. one
dealing with the tempter and the
other with the temptations.
Is there a personal devil:
Bible passages leave no doubt of
It. Nothing is more clearly stated
or more repeatedly emphasized
than that there is a personal devil
invisible. but present and active.
Christ's Testimony.
Christ says: I beheld Satan fall
as lightning from heaven"
In Job we read: And the Lord
said unto Satan. Whence comest
thou? Then Satan answered the
Lord. and said, From going to and
fro in the earth. and from walking
up and down in it" &.
Moses tells us that in the form of
serpent the devil tempted Eve.
Satan Is represented as presump-
tuous. proud, powerful. wicked. ma
Ilignant. subtle, deceitful, fierce and
cruel. He is described as the
prince of the power of the air" and
the prince of this world"
Luke tells us that Satan entered
into Judas-this is the explanation
OF the betrayal Of Christ. John
also brings this indictment against
the devil: And supper being End
cd. the devil having now put into
the heart OF Judas Iscariot, Simon's
son. to betray Him"
The wicked are described as the
children Of the devil" as turning
aside after" him, as doing the lusts
Of the devil, and being possessed
by. hindered by. deceived by. en-
SHARED and troubled by the devil.
These references are sufficient to
show that the devil is not an i'm
aginary person or a hgure of speech
or a symbol OF evil.
God Tempts No Man.
Rut the existence Of devil Is
proven by individual experiences as
well as by quotations from Holy
Writ.
Who has not been made aware Of
his presenc:.
Whisperings come to man from
without: they do not come from
God-"neither tcmpteth he any
mainland they do not emanate
from the Cgo-the man himself.
They come from the outside and are
at war with Gods plans and with
Gcd's purposes. The struEg!~ be
tween the better self and the devil
is Titanic and continuing.
Even so consecrated a lifs as
Paurs could not rid itself of Sa-
tan's hated presence. In his dis
tress he cried out. When 7 would
do good. evil is present with me-"
If one who suffered shipwreck,
was beaten with stripes and threat
ened with death must continually
be buffeted by this liar and father
Of lies, what hope have those of
lesser faith and devotion Of travel
ing beyond the devils power to an
noy and TO harass?
LUX tells us that this brazen and
impudent enemy of all good dared
to approach the sinless Savior and
to test Him with the greatest of
| temptations that can be placed be-
! fore man. 1t is consolation for
us to know that Christ was in all
points tempted like as we are" and
that He has promised that His
strength shall be sufficisnt to us in
| the hours OF trial.
The First Temptation.
| There are many weak points in
mans amor; he has many easily be-
setting sins. The devil selected
three points of attack on Christ and
each time the Savior answered in
the language Of the Bible
The first temptation was ad-
dressed to His physical needs after
| forty days of fasting and it was
strengthened by an appeal to