If sleep came upon Him, we may be sure it was not of long continuance. The enemy knows too well the effect of broken rest to allow slumber to be enjoyed. A fresh howl of the wolf, or yell of the hyena would be employed to startle the weary sufferer.

During this long and dreary period, in addition to all such miseries, there was the entire absence of food. "He did eat nothing!" None of the natural support by which men recruit their strength; no diet such as He was accustomed to was then allowed to Him. There were no stores of food and drink to which He could have recourse, no willing and loyal hands to supply the King with nutriment, no birds of the air to bring Him sustenance. The desert furnished nothing

save stones.

The forty days of this treatment affected the frame of our blessed Lord. "He was afterwards an hungered." The bodily exhaustion, and the apparent abandonment by God of His. beloved Son, were but a prelude to the more direct attacks of the adver

sary.

History tells us of various nations in which the young warrior is made to undergo painful and severe trial of his courage and fortitude, ushered in by fasts, vigils, and solitude. It was thus that Jesus, the Lord of all, was made to pass through these preliminary distresses previous to the commencement of His earthly service, in order that His fidelity to His Father might be clearly developed, and the stedfastness of His faith in Him fully tried and proved by the severity of this fearful ordeal.

The tempter having thus far carried out his scheme, now makes his personal appearance. The narrative leads to the inference that it was in the guise of a

* Once again we read of His hunger, which He desired to appease by the unripe fruit of the fig tree, but there was none; and once of His being thirsty on the cross. Fatigue too is noticed in John iv. 6.

friend, probably as "an angel of light." After long isolation a friend is peculiarly welcome; and if he comes with words of commiseration, and of suggestion how present sorrow and trouble may be removed, we know how his value is enhanced.

Satan perceives the condition and circumstances in which Jesus was placed, and offers immediate relief.— "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread!" Nothing could be more opportune than such counsel, none more calculated to win its way to the heart.

Of the actual fact on which the advice was founded, Satan was well aware. Luke iv. 34-41 shows us that he knew Jesus of Nazareth to be the Christ, the Son of God, the Holy One of God; and fully admitting this, he now intimates that nothing can be so suitable as to relieve His immediate wants by the exercise of His divine power. He who created the world (John i. 3) and its inhabitants (Col. i. 16), and who upholds all things (Heb. i. 3), need not hesitate to supply Himself with what is so necessary, so indispensable as food. The merely changing a few of the stones lying around would presently be done, involving neither delay nor trouble. And since to all appearance no one cared for Him, it was evident He was to employ His own resources. Moreover it was the wilderness where no eye could see what He might think fit to do!

Jesus, full of the Holy Ghost, sees the nature of this advice, well knowing the character of him who gives it. The insidious subtlety of the enemy, though it might succeed with Eve, is detected and resisted by the Holy One of God.

Whereas Eve, surrounded with everything she could desire, and having no excuse for disobedience, could not refrain from one solitary article of diet; Jesus having tasted nothing for forty days, and having all power in His own hands, prefers to remain depending on His Father, as long as His Father sees fit to keep

Him without sustenance, and until His Father is pleased to bestow it upon Him!

And how does He meet the tempter? Is there any line of guidance for one circumstanced as He was? Any rule of action for the Son of God destitute of nourishment for forty days? Does He reason upon natural proprieties, necessities? Does He allege that He must keep Himself from starvation? that to change stone into bread would be doing no harm to anyone?

There is an old book, much talked about, but seldom examined; much honoured in sentiment, but in practice too often despised. A book of such ancient date that its enactments are considered obsolete. A book about certain statements in which Pharisees, Sadducees, scribes and lawyers can discuss and dispute; but which one and all agree is entirely inferior to their own opinions and traditions.

This book contained the orders of God for the guidance of His people Israel. Jesus, as a servant of the circumcision (Rom. xv. 8), feels that by the orders and principles issued by His God and Father it becomes Him to abide. Kings were to write a copy of this book (Deut. xvii. 18), in order that they of all others might be acquainted with the commands of the Most High, and Jesus, the King of Israel, speaks of Himself as meditating therein all the day. (Psalm cxix. 97.) To the injunctions issued therein He now in this emergency recurs, and with the promptitude which thorough acquaintance with them alone could confer.

How often are our poor hearts and minds led astray by the wiles of the adversary, judging, as we are in the habit of doing, that the light of reason, common sense, and rectitude of purpose will secure us from mistakes! It was not so with Jesus. With Him the sole and sufficient reply was, "It is written!"

The written and declared enactment of God was to Him the sole rule of life. Whatever the Father had been pleased to establish, His Son so fully accepts and

obeys, that though the fast may yet be prolonged indefinitely with all its distress, the Son still looks to Him for deliverance, and to Him alone. And though possessing all power even to transmute stones into bread, yet neither on this occasion nor on any other did He use that power to supply His own personal wants.

The piece of money that the fish was made to give up was no exception, for the Lord as a Son having first established His freedom from liability to be taxed for the maintenance of His Father's house, submits to the taxation to prevent the authorities being stumbled by His refusing. Amidst all the frivolous excuses which we are prone to use to escape conformity to the commands of our God, how brightly does the conduct of the Holy One shine out in contrast!

There is no reason to conclude that Satan limited his endeavour to one attempt. Indeed from the second and third temptations being told in a different order by Matthew and Luke, there is some reason to infer that they were more than once repeated. Yet on each attempt the unvarying answer was, "It is written."

Moreover each day and even each hour of the forty days' fast was a trial of the faith; as likewise each night passed in the wilderness. And Satan well knows the efficacy of reiterated temptations. Though we may resist once and again, yet by degrees the firmness of resistance relaxes till we at length too often succumb. To be continued.

THE CHURCH OF THYATIRA.

PART I.

THE progress of evil is very rapid, and if sin of any kind be allowed or excused in an assembly of Christians, it quickly spreads, and in process of time will probably so permeate the whole body that it becomes well-nigh impossible to deal with it in a godly manner. This is one secret of the decay of churches, which

were once a pattern of all holy conversation and godliness; and this has been one great cause of all the corruptions and evil, whether in life or doctrine, which have disgraced the professed people of God, and have brought dishonour and shame upon His holy and blessed

name.

It is not enough to gather together as the redeemed of God to serve and worship Him, but when thus gathered we must be careful to maintain that holy wall of separation from evil which God has enjoined. If the wall be broken down, or breaches in it are unheeded and allowed to remain unrepaired, the result must be most disastrous. The enemy will creep in under various guises, and taking up his abode within the holy precincts of the Church will seduce God's servants from their allegiance unto Him, and breed and foster all kinds of disobedience.

Israel was commanded to remove the unclean outside the camp; and now the Lord's command to His people respecting such is this-"Put away from among yourselves that wicked person."

Holiness becomes His house for ever. Nothing that 66 defileth, or worketh abomination, or maketh a lie" will be permitted to enter into the holy city, the heavenly Jerusalem; and all such should be carefully excluded from the Church of God upon earth.

There is a "within" spoken of by God, even in this world of sin and wickedness; a sacred enclosure set apart by God, the care of which is in great measure committed to His people.

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In boundless grace He has made Himself responsible for the eternal safety of every one of His redeemed. All such are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation, ready to be revealed in the last time." They are the sheep of whom the Lord Jesus says "I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any pluck them out of my hand.” But while this is true of