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hunger. What possible harm or danger could there be in satisfying the pangs of hunger so? Had not God rained down manna in the desert? Had not Elijah been miraculously fed by ravens? The real temptation lay in using for Himself the powers that had been given Him to use for man. In Jordan He stood where sinful men had stood. He was baptized in Jordan that He might show His brotherhood. He did not stand above John on the bank, He went and stood beside John in the river. And here, at the very outset of His ministry, Jesus is tempted to snap the bond of brotherhood, and to supply His private needs in ways that were impossible for man. May we not all be tempted in ways like that? When a man is tempted to a selfish life, or to use for himself alone the graces and the means that have been given him in trust for others, then is the Tempter whispering to him, as he spake to Jesus in the wilderness. And whenever a man denies himself, and sacrifices something for a brother, he is sharing in the victory of Christ.

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HE second temptation was of a different kind. The devil taketh Him up into the Holy City, and setteth Him on a pinnacle of the Temple, and saith, 'If Thou be the Son of God, cast Thyself down, for it is written, He shall give His angels charge concerning Thee.' Now, what was it that made Jesus shun this test? Firstly, there was His clear and instant certainty that such an act was not trusting, but tempting, God. Jesus was man, and in the needs and in the sorrows of life He would have ample room for showing how He trusted. But to devise experiments, and leave the path of duty, for the sole purpose of putting God to proof, was to declare the weakness of His faith and not its strength. Then, toohow would Messiah come? We know the kind of coming which the Jews expected. It was to be something startling and dramatic, as in a flash of glory from the Temple. Was it not, then, part of Christ's temptation to lower His

aims to common expectation? Was it not suggested to Him to renounce His quiet way and to yield to the expectation of the crowd? It was a temptation to be untrue to self; and being so, to be untrue to God.

HEN comes the third temptation-that of the kingdoms and the glory of them. And we feel the magnificence of this temptation; it was a tribute to the royalty of Jesus. For smaller men, smaller temptations serve. A little thing may tempt a little heart. But in Christ Jesus the Tempter knows the king—and therefore He is tempted with the kingdoms. Now, do you see the power of that temptation? It was these very kingdoms Christ had come to win. Through service, and suffering, and blood, and death, every knee was to bow to Him, and every tongue confess. Then comes the devil with his swift suggestion. He throws himself into line with Jesus' hope. He whispers to Him that there is an easier way than Calvary for winning the dominion of the world. Then Jesus said, 'Get thee behind Me, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve.' Then the devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came and ministered unto Him.

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SEVENTH SUNDAY

Morning

ABRAM'S VISION

Passage to be read: Gen. xv. 1-18.

BRAHAM had now returned from his battle with

the Northern Kings, and as he settled down again into his shepherd-life, and returned to the peace and quiet of his days, we can understand with what commingled feelings he would look back on that valiant campaign. True, he had been successful in his fighting; he had driven these northern confederates before him; but was Chedorlaomer likely to sit still under such an indignity as that? The most powerful chieftains in the land were now Abraham's enemies, and some day they would seek a wild revenge. Such thoughts would be present to the lonely exile; he would feel how precarious and insecure his foothold was; it is often in the hours that follow our noble victories that we are oppressed by the burdens of reaction; and it was then that God spake to Abraham in a vision, and said, ' Fear not, Abram, I am thy shield.' Do you mark how timely that assurance was? Do you see how it chimed with the distress of Abraham ? It was the very word he needed in his darkness if he was to be roused into brave activity again. Abraham was learning what we all come to learn, that the message of God meets our peculiar need, that the revelation of the passing hour is the revelation for which the hour calls. When we are in darkness Jehovah is our light; when surrounded by foes,-' Fear not, I am thy shield.'

BUT Abraham had still one plea to proffer there was

no sound of childish laughter in his house. God had been good to him; He had never failed him yet, but ten years had passed and Abraham had no heir. It was the pride of the Jew to see children round his table, it was in them he found his hope of immortality; and what was the promise of Canaan worth to Abraham, if none should follow him to hold the land? So oftentimes, just because one thing is lacking, all that a man possesses may seem vain. There may be melodies innumerable in the lute, but one little rift may silence all the music. Just as the powers which the eye possesses, of seeing ocean and loch and sunset and morning sky, may all be marred, and spoiled in their happy exercise, by the lodging of one tiny particle of dust, so one small grievance may fret a man's whole nature, and take the joy from all his large activities, and mingle itself with all he is and does, till the glory of his whole circuit has been dimmed. There can be little doubt that it was so with Abraham. 'What wilt Thou give me, seeing I go childless?'-what is the use of all the rest to me, if the one desire of my heart is baffled? We see how deep the disappointment was by the instinctive nature of the cry. Then God took Abraham into the silent night, He pointed to the thousand thousand stars; He said to him, 'It was I who made these to shine, and as the stars of heaven shall thy seed be.' And spite of the ten years of hope deferred, and spite of all seeming impossibility, Abraham cried, 'Lord, I believe; help Thou mine unbelief,' and his faith was counted to him for righteousness.

THEN Abraham asked for a sign of his inheritance,

and God was pleased to stoop down and give him one. God entered into a covenant with Abraham by means of a ritual that was well understood. To-day, if two men are entering into contract, they write it down on parchment, and then seal it. But in those early

days there would be little penmanship, and bargains were ratified by sign and symbol. One symbol was the taking of certain beasts, cutting them in halves, and laying the halves opposite each other on the ground; then down the narrow lane between these portions, slowly and solemnly the contracting parties walked. They meant that if they proved false to their bond, let them meet the same fate as these dissevered limbs; nor could they look on these bleeding and mangled halves, that so lately had known the mystery of life, without feeling how in union there was safety, and how in separation there was death. Such was the symbolism which God stooped down to use in ratifying His covenant with Abraham. Abraham was commanded to kill and halve the beasts, and he did so in the hours of early morning. Then all day long, while the sun rose and sank, and while the birds wheeled over him in the hope of carrion, Abraham watched for the goings of his God. Then fell the night, and a deep sleep came on Abraham, but in his sleep he still saw the sundered creatures. And lo! between them there moved a burning lamp, and beside the lamp a smoking furnace. What was the lamp? It was the light of God; it was the vision of the brightness of His glory. What was the smoking furnace? Was it not Abraham, and Abraham's seed with their dark yet fiery trials? Did not Israel come to regard their years in Egypt as the time when they were in the furnace of iron' (Deut. iv. 20)? So Abraham knew that the covenant was ratified. The word of God was sealed, and could not fail. I think when he woke he must have cried, like Jacob, 'This is none other than the gate of heaven.'

OW

Now let us note three lessons in this vision; and first, increase of knowledge brings increase of sorrow. When the sun went down, we read, a horror, even a great darkness, fell on Abraham (v. 12). When he first started

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