VII. pity, as you can to-day, by a real and substantial help SERMON towards the resumption of that lost armour. There are turning-points in every human life, at which the power of evil is for a moment intermitted, and the poor sin-bound soul has a chance, as it were, given it of emancipation. To minister, at such a moment, to that soul's escape, is one of the most heavenly offices to which a human being can be invited. You are invited to that office to-day. You are asked to interpose, as it were, at one of those pauses of temptation, to which may be reverently applied the words heard already at the close of this day's Gospel, Then the devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels came Matt.iv.11. and ministered unto Him. GOSPEL FOR THE FIRST SUNDAY IN LENT. 1 ST. MATTHEW IV. 1-11. THEN Jesus was led up into the wilderness by the Spirit, 2 to be tempted by the devil. And when He had fasted forty 3 days and forty nights, He afterwards hungered. And the tempter drew nigh, and said to Him, If Thou art the Son of 4 God, bid that these stones become loaves. But He answered and said, It is written, Not on bread alone shall man live, but in1 every word going forth through the mouth of God. 5 Then the devil taketh Him to the holy city, and setteth Him 6 on the top of the temple, and saith to Him, If Thou art the Son of God, cast Thyself down for it is written, He shall charge His angels concerning Thee, and on their hands they shall bear Thee, lest at any time Thou strike Thy foot 7 against a stone. Jesus said to him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt2 the Lord thy God. Again the devil 8 taketh Him to a very high mountain, and showeth Him all 9 the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith to Him, All these things will I give Thee, if Thou 10 fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus to him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, The Lord thy God shalt thou worship, and Him only shalt thou serve. 11 Then the devil leaveth Him, and, behold, angels drew nigh and began to minister to Him. 1 That is, in the strength of any word, any command, which God may be pleased to give for the support of life. See the context in Deut. viii. 3. 2 Or, make trial of; i.e. try experiments upon the protecting care of God. SERMON VIII. CHRIST THE STRENGTH OF THE TEMPTED. ST. MATTHEW IV. 1. Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. HEBREWS II. 18. For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted. VIII. I HAVE selected for consideration this evening, in SERMON pursuance of an intention announced last Sunday, that topic which the two verses just read to you jointly embody; Christ, through temptation, the strength of the tempted. Suitable to the season of Lent, which commemorates the forty days of our Lord's own temptation in the wilderness; suitable to the services of this Sunday in particular, on which the Gospel has brought before us the record of that strange and awful, yet, as we believe, most necessary, scene of His trial; is not the subject also seasonable in this further sense; that life itself is for each of us one |