minding him," Forasmuch as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind" (1 Pet. iv. 1). How is it that the path which He walked is so unlike to ours? His so rough and strait, ours so wide and easy? Must there not be something in the ordinary standard of a Christian life which will not endure in the day of trial? Is there not much which makes even death fearful, and which must therefore make judgment horrible? If a sharp fit of sickness startles Christians, how will they with no better preparation bear the midnight cry, or hear the sound of the trumpet as it waxes louder and louder?

And as this subject will thus yield us both motives and measures for obedience, so too will it supply us with directions for the due resisting of temptation. For this end, doubtless, was its history recorded in the Scriptures; for this end, in great measure, was it suffered by the Lord.

"Tentari se passus est Imperator, ut doceret militem dimicare."*

* S. Aug., Serm. li. 2. vol. v. p. 283.

"Pati te docuit, et patiendo te docuit.”* A broad light is thrown by it on every part of temptation. We see the need of watching alway. No height of piety is a sufficient safeguard against danger. He who dared to molest with his accursed frauds the very Lord of Glory when the brightness of His majesty was veiled in our humanity, will not fear to assault any of His followers. We must therefore be prepared for conflict: not merely, as the easy scepticism of the day will readily admit, with the principle of evil, but with an actually living, subtile, and most powerful enemy. If this temptation teaches us one single lesson, surely it is this. The principle of evil can mean nothing else than our own inward inclinations to it. By this our Master could not have been tempted, for He had within no evil inclination : either, therefore, He could not be tempted, or it must be by a spirit external to himself, and having, therefore, truly a separate existence. It is, therefore, a most explicit comment on the written word of caution, "be

* S. Aug., Serm. cclxxxiv. 5. vol. v. p. 1144.

sober, be vigilant; for your great adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."

But more than this; we see the sort of wiles against which we must watch-that the evil which seems farthest off is oftentimes the nighest. The fast of forty days had surely shewn the absolute dominion with which the flesh was curbed in Him to whom the tempter came; yet is his first temptation a suggestion that He should turn the stones around Him into bread. And who that has watched over himself has not known times when the sharpness of some maintained fast has been directly followed by the enticing frauds of carnal imaginations, or the severity of some difficult sacrifice succeeded by an intruding train of earthly and selfseeking thoughts?

We see, too, with how prompt a readiness the forms of temptation are exchanged. It is not one, and then rest. From sensuality and doubt, how easily did Satan turn to presumption, and from that pass over to the baits of earthly glory, as instruments where

with to beguile that human heart which only was for ever proof against his snares! And so, when we have resisted the coarser temptations of sensuality, or a thirst for worldly advancement, how readily do selfapplauding thoughts spring up to poison the purged soil of the heart; or, when we have shut out the louder solicitations of evil, are we drawn unawares, and, if need be, by the very words of holy writ, into an attempt to worship God in some new way, and so to approach his altar with the abominable of fering of a party-zeal or self-taught service!

And so, all through the struggle, how full of teaching is our blessed Lord's example! With what a perfect patience did He endure the struggle to the end; not as we are wont to do, fretting under it, and peevishly longing for the "rest of the garner, "* while it is God's will that we should still be "planted in the field!" And yet, with this entire patience, how prompt was His resistance, never yielding for a moment to that which He endured to the end! How directly was the

*" Alia est agri conditio, alia quies horrei."-S. AUG. Y

sword of the Spirit raised against each following temptation, and how did it pierce through the fraud! "Behold," says St. Augustine," the Prince of martyrs setting forth an example of contention! . . . . For what cause did He suffer Himself to be tempted, but that He might teach us how to resist the tempter? The world promises its fleshly pleasure; reply to it, But God is more to be desired. The world promises its honours; .. tell it, That God's kingdom is more glorious far. The world promises unhallowed knowledge; reply to it, That only the truth of God is infallible." Let this one thought of God meet every seduction of the tempter, and they will all fall down before it.

And but once more: As in this tempta

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"Adtendite martyrum Ducem exemplorum certamina proponentem. . . . . Quare se permisit tentari, nisi ut doceret resistere tentatori? Promittit mundus carnalem voluptatem; responde illi, Delectabilior est Deus. Promittit mundus honores; responde illi, Altius est omnibus regnum Dei. Promittit mundus superfluas vel damnabiles curiositates; responde illi, Sola non errat veritas Dei." Id., Serm. cclxxxiv. 5.

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