03 - Lecture 03

Lecture 3 - The Weapons

THIRD LECTURE. THE WEAPONS.

"And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil. And in those days he did eat nothing: and when they were ended, he afterward hungered. And the devil said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread. And Jesus answered him, saying, It is written, That man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God. And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve. And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee; and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. And Jesus answering, said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. And when the devil had ended all the temptation, he departed. from him for a season."--- Luke 4:1-13.---Read also Matthew 4:1-10; Mark 1:12-13. MY DEAR FRIENDS,

After having been warned by the conflict of Jesus of the conflict that we must expect, and encouraged by His victory to believe that we too may conquer, we must now examine the weapons which He made use of to triumph, and by which we may hope to triumph also in our turn.

Before entering into this part of the sub­ject we should have liked to consider the preparation of Jesus for the conflict It would teach us what we have to do, in order that the tempter may find us prepared for his attacks; and that is half the victory. But the subject enlarges as we go on, and is so vast that it would make this discourse too long. We must confine ourselves to a rapid outline of the principal ideas.

Let us begin by setting aside a servile imi­tation, which substitutes the letter for the spirit. To be conformed to the example of Jesus preparing to conquer in the wilderness, we must not go into the wilderness to avoid temptation; and to be conformed to the example of Jesus fasting forty days, we must not submit ourselves to an annual fast of forty days. By acting in this manner we should not strengthen ourselves against temptations, but rather expose ourselves to them. We must here remember the principle which those who follow Jesus Christ must never lose sight of: to imitate is not to copy.

"Jesus was filled with the Holy Ghost," when He was baptized and praying; (Luke 3:21) this is the secret of His strength.---"Let us pray without ceasing, that we may be filled with the Spirit;" (Ephesians 5:18) for he that is "filled with the Spirit" is also filled with "wisdom, faith, and power·" (Acts 6:3, Acts 6:5, Acts 6:8; see also Acts 11:24)

Jesus has just been proclaimed by God, "His well-beloved Son, in whom He is well pleased." This declaration, while it marks Him for the attacks of the tempter, as we have already seen, strengthens Him for resistance, because it authorizes Him to address God as a Father that heareth always. (John 11:41-42) We want the "Spirit to bear witness with our spirit that we are children of God," (Romans 8:16) His well-beloved children. We shall thus be more exposed to the assaults of the enemy; but we shall also be more capable of resisting him: "Whatso­ever is born of God overcometh the world?" (1 John 5:4)

Jesus is "led by the Holy Ghost" to en­counter temptation, and He does not go into it by His own will; hence His confidence. Wherever God leads, God will guard. We must not seek danger: it cost dear to Peter to have resisted warnings, and forced his way (John 18:1, 1. When Jesus entered into the palace of the high priest, John followed Him, because "he was known unto the high priest;" but Peter remained without. John must go out of the palace expressly, and speak unto her that kept the door, that she might bring Peter in.) into that temptation to which he had been warned that he would yield. Let us do what we can to be spared temptation; but if that cannot be, let us meet it with the liberty of a good conscience, and with the strength which belongs to humility.

Finally, Jesus fasts before, and during the temptation: this fast, of which the devil takes advantage against Jesus, has nevertheless strengthened Jesus to resist the devil. This is because Jesus fasts in praying, and in order to pray the better: His fasting is explained to us by that of Moses, who, on two different occasions, "fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights, and did neither eat bread nor drink water!" (Deuteronomy 9:9, Deuteronomy 9:18) Of this last lesson some have made a bad use, but we have too much neglected it. The use that Jesus Christ made of fasting, and His apostles after Him, reveals to us a means of struggling against temptation, and a means which may be some­times necessary: "This kind can come forth by nothing, but by prayer and fasting." (Mark 9:29) But abstaining from food must form only a part of a more general, a more complete fast, which consists in overcoming the desires of the flesh, and which is never out of season: "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, . . . . and make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." (1 Corinthians 9:27; Romans 13:14; Luke 21:34, &c.) Satan takes advan­tage of the flesh; when the flesh is kept under, he has no hold, and loses his power.

Jesus being thus prepared, let us follow Him in sight of the enemy, and learn the weapons that assured Him the victory. The weapons of Jesus: let us rather say the weapon of Jesus; for He has but one---the Word of God. Tempted three times, He three times repulses the temptation by a simple citation of Scripture, without any de­velopment or commentary. "It is written," this simple word acts upon the tempter like a tremendous discharge of cannon upon an assaulting battalion. "It is written," and the devil withdraws the first time. "It is written," and the devil withdraws a second time. "It is written," and the devil departs for a season. The Word of God is the weapon that Satan fears more than any other; a weapon before which he has always been obliged to give way. It is justly that St. Paul calls it "the sword of the Spirit;j" (Ephesians 6:17) and that St. John, in his Revelation, describes it as "a sharp two-­edged sword coming out of the mouth of the Son of man:" (Revelation 1:16, Revelation 2:16, Revelation 19:15-21; Hebrews 4:12, The Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.") With this "sword of the Spirit" in our hands, our cause will be that of the Spirit himself, and we shall be as su­perior in strength to our adversaries, as the Spirit of God is superior to the Spirit of darkness; without it, on the contrary, aban­doned to ourselves, we shall be as inferior to Him, as human nature is to that of angels. (Ephesians 6:12) Adam fell only because he let go this sword; Jesus triumphed, because nothing can wrest it from His hands. But why is it that the Son of God, instead of encountering the enemy with some new weapon brought down from heaven, whence He came, only arms Himself with ours, that He found in our old world, where Adam had recklessly forgotten it? Because He must be our example: we must learn what this weapon can achieve in our hands by what it achieved in His. Let us then in our turn take it, or rather receive it from Him, newly tempered by His victory, and we shall have nothing to fear. To all the attacks of the adversary let us oppose a simple It is written, and all his efforts wiII be in vain. The devil would draw you again into the world. He sets artfully about his work. He comes close up to you, and insinuates that it is not charitable to keep so completely sepa­rate from the society of men! that it would be easier to win them over to the gospel by joining in their amusements; that you would thus show them that you do not understand religion as hermits do; in short, too much precaution does not become those who wish to harden themselves to Christian virtue, and that to conquer without danger is to triumph without glory. Thus speaks the tempter. If you defend yourself only with your own wis­dom, you wiII be the more easily persuaded, because your natural heart is but too much disposed to agree with his discourse. But if you arm yourself with the Word of God, if you answer with faith: "It is written, Be not conformed to this world," (Romans 12:2) this single word restores order, the adversary is unmasked, and his wiles confounded. The devil will persuade you that the Christian faith is not the only way of salvation. He takes you to some high place in a vast city, to show you the multitude of goers and comers who succeed each other without inter­ruption; then he says, Can you believe that all these are hasting to perdition? Neither your heart nor your reason can accept such a doctrine. And yet the greater number of these people do not believe in Jesus Christ! they certainly do not believe what you and your friends do. Can it be true that the only way to life eternal is the narrow path that you follow? Are not your ideas upon the subject contracted and unworthy of God? Thus reasons the tempter. If you seek resistance only in your own wisdom, you will not hold out long against him, and you will feel after his attack, cold, uncertain, wavering. But if you take in hand the Word of God, if you answer without hesitation: It is written, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father but by me." (John 14:6) The charm is dispelled, "the snare is broken, and you are escaped" from the hand of the treacherous fowler. Or again, the devil desires to rob a faithful minister of Jesus Christ of the power of his preaching. He persuades him not to appear so harsh, not to denounce heresy for such trites, not to make heaven so narrow and sal­vation so difficult, not to cast a gloom over the "glad tidings" of grace by the notion of a devil and a hell. This line of conduct, while it will win the favor of his hearers, will be a means of drawing them more surely to the faith, while it allows him to make a better use of the great gifts with which heaven has endowed him. Such is the advice of the tempter. If to refute him you have recourse only to your own wisdom, you will inevitably fall into the snare, so clever is he at making "good appear evil and evil good, light dark­ness and darkness light!" But if you rest firmly upon the Word of God, if you answer with assurance, It is written, "If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed," (Galatians 1:9) "the strong man" has found one stronger than himself, and all he can do is to abandon in­gloriously the battle-field.

Oh, if we only knew what the Word of God can do even in our hands! If we knew the terror it strikes into our formidable ad­versary, even when he affects before us to scorn it, to make us give it up! If, after having heard him, on the scene of temptation, deride the Word of God, we could (forgive the familiarity) follow him behind the scenes and hear him confess to his accomplices that he is lost if he does not succeed in making this irresistible weapon fall from our hands! if we knew all that, and if, like mighty Eleazar, we held firm "our sword until our weary hand clave unto it!" (2 Samuel 23:10 oh, then we should be invincible, yea, invincible!

But, for the Word of God to have the same power in our hand that it had in that of Jesus, it must be for us all that it was for Him. I know nothing in all the history of humanity, nor in the field of divine revelation, that speaks more clearly than my text in favor of the inspiration of the Scriptures. What! the Son of God, "He that is in the bosom of the Father," and who could so easily find sufficient strength in Himself, prefers borrowing it from a book that He finds in our hands, and draws His strength from the same source that a Joshua, a Samuel, a David (Joshua 1:8; Psalms 1:1-2) drew theirs! What! Jesus Christ, the King of heaven and earth, calls to His aid in this solemn moment Moses His ser­vant, and "He that speaketh from heaven" strengthens Himself against the temptations of hell by the word of him that "speaketh of the earth!" (John 3:31; Hebrews 12:25) And how can we explain this wonderful mystery,---shall I call it?---or this strange subversion, if the word of Moses were not for Jesus the Word of God and not as the word of men, and if He were not fully persuaded that "holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost?" (1 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Peter 1:21) I am not unmindful, my dear friends, (I am speaking especially to young ministers of the Word)---I am not unmindful of the objections to which the inspiration of the Scriptures has given rise, nor of the real obscurity that sur­rounds it: if it sometimes troubles your heart, it has also troubled mine. But at such times I have only had to cast a look upon Jesus glorifying the Scriptures in the wilderness, and I have found that for those who will simply receive His testimony, the most em­barrassing of problems is transformed into a palpable, historical fact, perfectly evident. Jesus certainly was not unaware of the diffi­culties that inspiration gives rise to, and the portion of the Scriptures that He quotes, the Old Testament, is that which offers the most. Did that prevent His having recourse to their testimony with the most entire confidence? What was sufficient for Him, is also sufficient for you: fear not then that the rock upon which your Savior leaned with so much con­fidence in the hour of distress and temptation should give way under you. What is it that gives rise to your doubts about inspiration? Is it the differences in the old manuscripts? These differences were inevitable, without a perpetual miracle, and there were divergences in the days of Jesus for the Old Testament which He quotes three times. Is it the trifling divergences in the sacred authors in the nar­ration of the same event, such as we find between St. Matthew and St. Luke in the history that is the subject of these discourses? [In the quotation of Deuteronomy 8:3, (Matthew 4:4; Luke 4:4) and for the order of the temptations.] There are divergencies of the same kind between books of the Old Testa­ment; for instance, between the Kings and Chronicles. Is it the degree of inspiration? Do you fear that there may be less inspira­tion in the historical books than in the pro­phetic? Jesus always quotes Scripture as an authority that "cannot be broken;" (John x. 35.) and in the portion that we study, the quotations are all from a historical book---Deuteronomy. Finally, are you embarrassed to know what theory you will adopt upon the subject: what is the mode and extent, what part is left to man, does inspiration direct the mind of the sacred author or his pen?---and other ques­tions of a similar nature. Here again, take example of Jesus. Upon all these specula­tive questions He says nothing. But is the question a practical one? Does it concern the confidence with which you may quote the Scriptures, all the Scriptures, and even a word of Scripture? (John 10:35. The quotations of Jesus prove in favor only of the Old Testament. The inspiration of the New Testament has different proofs, which also are founded entirely, though in a different way, upon the authority of Jesus Christ, and no one except the Jews receive the inspiration of the Old Testament, rejecting that of the New Testament). It is impossible to be more explicit, more firm, more positive than He is. Go and do likewise. Quote the Scriptures as Jesus did, and have the theory you please about their inspiration. Jesus takes a more elevated view, freer from earthly influences, than our theology does: let us follow Him upon these heights where we in­hale an atmosphere so pure and so light, and where the vapors with which the earth dims the truth are beneath our feet. ("Eat in peace the bread of the Scriptures, without being troubled by the grain of sand that the millstone may have left in it."---Letter from Bengal to a young theologian.)

Ah! when the devil comes to instill into your minds some of those subtle doubts that he always has in reserve against the inspira­tion of the Scriptures, simply send him to Jesus: Why didst thou not say that to my Master, when He repulsed thee in the wilder­ness by that Word, which today appears to thee so weak and so uncertain? Carry thy objections to Him; and when they have staggered Him, they may stagger me too.

Jesus makes use of no other weapon than the Word of God; but this weapon, how does He handle it? Let us study each of the three quotations He borrows from the Scriptures. In this way His example, which has revealed to us the power of the Word of God, will also teach us in what manner we ought to make use of it.

After forty days and forty nights spent in the wilderness Jesus feels hungered, which ap­pears to have been spared to Him during His fast. All here is supernatural. It is then that the devil draws near and begins to attack Him. We have had an opportunity elsewhere of contemplating the three temptations of the wilderness, in what may be called their out­ward aspect, I mean to say, in the objects to which they refer; "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life." We will now consider their inward aspect. I so call the sentiment by which the devil hoped to make the Lord fall, and which, properly speaking, constitutes the spirit of the temp­tation. Considered in this point of view, the first is a temptation to mistrust, the second a temptation to infidelity, and the third a temp­tation to presumption. The devil begins thus: "If thou art the Son of God, command that this stone become bread." The time was certainly well chosen, and the temptation subtle. The tempter tries to make Jesus turn to His own personal advantage the divine power He possesses as Messiah, if indeed He is the Messiah, of which, perhaps, Satan will also endeavor to make Him doubt. It is as if he had said, Make use of the means you possess to supply your wants, since God, whom you call your Father, seems to have forgotten you. If Jesus had given heed to this proposal, which covered so much perfidy under such benevolent ap­pearances, He would have gone aside from the path marked out by God, for having doubted God; He would have made use of His power, as Satan had used his, for His personal satisfaction; and the work of redemp­tion would have been ruined from the very basis. So He repulses the enemy without hesitation, [Jesus who here refuses to use His divine power to procure what was necessary for Himself, uses it elsewhere to procure for others’ luxuries, (John 2:1-11)} by giving him for sole answer this testimony of the Scriptures: "Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live." This quotation may perhaps ap­pear to you strange, and little appropriate to the circumstance; but you will no longer think so when you have penetrated further into the meaning of it.

It is taken in Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy 8:3) from the history of the people of Israel in the wilder­ness. Remark that the other two answers of Jesus Christ to the tempter are borrowed from the same history, in the same book. Whence comes it that Jesus, with the whole field of Scripture open before Him, should confine Himself to this place as to an impregnable for­tress when the enemy is before Him? It is because he sees a secret affinity between him­self, the Son of God, preparing the foundation of His kingdom by forty days of fasting and temptation in the wilderness of Judea; and Israel, that other Son of God, (Hosea 9:2) prepared for the conquest of Canaan, by forty years of privations and trials in the great wilderness of Arabia. Israel, which is presented as a type of the Church of the New Testament, is also of Jesus, the head of that Church, in whom it is personified; it is for this reason that Jesus learns and strengthens Himself by what is written for Israel. Admirable connectivity of the Scriptures! Marvelous unity of spirit in the two testaments!

"And he humbled thee, and suffered thee to hunger," said Moses to the people of Israel; "but he fed thee with manna, which thou knewest not, neither did thy fathers know; that he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord doth man live;" or, as our text has it, "by every word of God." Though bread is the usual means by which God sustains man, it is not the only one that He has at His disposal. For the secret of the nutritious virtue resides, not in the bread, but in the Word of God, from whence alone proceeds all virtue and all blessing. Bread becomes assimilated with the substance of our body, only because that word said in the beginning, " I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth to you it shall be for meat; (Genesis 1:29) and if, instead of pronouncing this blessing upon wheat, the same word had been spoken to wood or stone, the wood or stone would nourish us as well as wheat; and this would not be more surprising than the wood sweetening the streams of Mara, (Exodus 15:23, Exodus 15:25) or the rock supplying Israel with water for their thirst. (Exodus 17:1-6; 1 Corinthians 10:4.) Without the Word of God bread itself would be without nourishment, and men would eat without being satisfied; (Haggai 1:6) but with­out bread, the Word of God can sustain whom He will, as He will. God made this evident in Moses and his companions, by feeding them forty years with manna, which ceased the day they put their foot upon culti­vated ground. (Joshua 5:12) And still more, the Word of God Can support man’s body without bread, without manna, without any outward visible means whatever. Moses, at two different times, lived forty days upon Mount Sinai, and "did neither eat bread nor drink water." (Deuteronomy 9:9, Deuteronomy 9:18)

Elijah, too, marches forty days, without eat­ing or drinking, towards the same mountain, across the same wilderness. Jesus, in His turn, led by the will of His Father, into a desert where He had nothing, was so marve­lously sustained during His fast of forty days that He did not even suffer from hunger. He will reckon upon Him who brought Him into the wilderness to sustain His life in the wilderness. Nothing remains but the choice of the means, which He willingly abandons to paternal wisdom, having learned from Moses that "man doth not live by bread only, but by every word of God." As soon as this word of Scripture, taken in its true and pro­found meaning, is pronounced, all the efforts of the enemy are overturned and his first attack annihilated. My dear friends, whenever the tempter persuades you to doubt of God’s assistance, because ordinary means seem to fail, answer like Jesus: "Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word of God."

You have hitherto laboriously earned your bread and that of your family; but suddenly work fails, you lose your strength, and all your customary resources are cut off. This is an opportunity of which the devil will not fail to take advantage. He would not dare to pro­pose to you to rob, or to steal; but he will say, Has thy God and Father no better fare for thee than the stones and brambles amongst which He leaves thee to vegetate? Well, since He abandons thee, help thyself, and fear not to go a little out of the beaten track, and provide for thy wants by some of those expedients about which you are too scrupulous. Engage in this speculation, try the brilliant chances of gambling, be less difficult in the choice of friends, flatter with­out any qualms of conscience those whose protection is so necessary: "Say to this stone to become bread." Answer him: "Man doth not live by bread only, but by every word of God." "The God whom I serve is able to deliver me," and He will deliver me; but "Whatever He may do," (Daniel 3:17-18) I will not forsake His paths; and even were I to die of hunger, I will "abstain from all appearance of evil." The nourishment of your soul gives cause for similar temptations, that you will repulse in the same spirit. You feel yourself shut up in a spiritual solitude; obliged to sojourn in a place where your "soul longeth, even panteth for the courts of the Lord" (Psalms 84:1-5) and the com­munion of His people; bound to a position, to associates, where all tends to hinder your "growth in grace:" for you, the road to sanc­tification is thick-set with temptations and hindrances. But this solitude is prepared by God for you; it is God who chose this posi­tion for you, and you can change it only by neglecting imperative duties; and these as­sociates are those of your natural family, for which God has commanded you to pro­vide, at the risk of "denying the faith, and being worse than an infidel!" (1 Timothy 5:8) In such moments the devil will say, It is not time to provide for the deliverance of thy soul? put a stop at any price to a state of things that makes Christian life impossible: "Say to this stone that it become bread." Answer him: "Man doth not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." The blessing comes from God alone, and this blessing does not depend upon. any human condition. I am where God wills, that suffices me. He who "turneth a fruitful land into barrenness, and the water-springs into dry ground," (Psalms 107:33-35) is He that can also turn the most terrible tempta­tions into precious means of grace: He is able to keep me in all my ways, excepting in those of disobedience.

You are a servant of God. By visible dis­pensations of the Lord you have been placed at the head of a Church in which singular blessings have not ceased confirming your vocation. But this Church is poor, and you are yourself poor, and you know not when you begin the year how you shall be able to meet the expenses that each of the 365 days which compose it require. Dear brother, you are truly in the wilderness, but in a wilder­ness into which God has led you as by the hand. The devil then says to you: The God that you serve so faithfully forsakes you. What has He done to calm your natural anxiety, though you have been praying for yourself and your family for so many years? Why do you delay? Leave so ungrateful a place, seek some other that will give thee thy "bread and thy water, thy wool and thy flax, thine oil and thy drink." (Hosea 2:5) "Say to this stone to become bread." Answer him: "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word of God." God, upright with those that are upright, (Psalms 18:25-26) has resources ready for all my wants: wherever He has sent me hitherto, He has never left me to want anything. [When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said: nothing, (Luke 22:25)] As long as I believe that this is the place that He has assigned me, I will remain, "and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord." (Lamentations 3:26)

Answer thus, my friends, and God will come to your aid. Many of your brethren have been tried as you are: they waited for the Lord; and now that God has "shown them the salvation promised to him that ordereth his conversation aright," (Psalms 1:1-6. Psalms 23:1-6) they would not exchange for all the gold of the world the salutary lessons they reaped in their distress. The first temptation vanquished, vanquished by the Word of God, the devil has recourse to another. "And the devil taking him up into a high mountain, showed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. ‘And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomso­ever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine.’ " How did this mysterious scene come to pass ? We know not. I have already said: I receive the narrative of my text with the simplicity of a child; and without seeking to penetrate into "the secret things that belong unto the Lord our God," I go straight to "those which are revealed, and which belong to us and to our children." There is much to be learned here of the wiles of the adversary, and of what we must do to escape from them.

What must we think of this expression of Satan: "All this is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it?" It is a mixture of truth and falsehood, which generally char­acterizes the seductions of the adversary: for if all were true, "the father of lies" would not find his reckoning; and if all were false, his aim would be too evident. It is but too true that Satan exercises in the world an immense empire, which he derives from sin, and which he places at the service of sin. He usurped it in Eden, where, not satisfied with taking possession of the mind of man, that king of the earth, we see him taking the place of the King of heaven himself, as the object of man’s obedience. We need only look around us to perceive the fatal influence that the enemy has acquired over us: history, politics, sciences, arts, literature, all varieties of beauty and glory, bear too evident witness to the truth of it. The Scriptures call Satan "the prince of this world," (John 12:31) so great is his power; and even "the god of this world," (2 Corinthians 4:4) so much is he worshipped. But this power of Satan, as he is obliged to confess himself, has "been delivered to him." Now, as it has "been delivered to him," it cannot be absolute: it is exercised under the control of God, who makes it subservient to the final accomplishment of His own purposes; and if Satan is the prince of this world, God alone is "the most High who ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will." (Daniel 4:17) And, again, having been "delivered to him," this power is not eternal: it will be taken from him when sin, upon which alone it rests, shall be abolished; and it is to abolish sin that the Messiah came, "to de­stroy the works of the devil," and to set up a kingdom upon the ruins, "that shall never be destroyed." (Daniel 2:44) What Satan here dares to attribute to himself, what he affects to offer to the Son of God, belongs in reality to this Son, to whom the Father has promised "the heathen for inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession." (Psalms 2:8)

However that maybe, Satan offers to Jesus what he can dispose of, and perhaps, also what he cannot dispose of. He shows him "all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them." All the pride of power, the show of riches, the splendor of luxury, the vanity of honors, the seduction of pleasures, and all that world­ly pomp which excites so ardently the desires of men; and then says to him, "All shall be thine," with only this condition, "if thou wilt worship me." Instead of waiting and conquering the inheritance promised by the Father, to receive it from the hands of Satan, rendering him the homage which is due to God alone: this is the spirit of the second temptation. There is something more revolt­ing in it even than in the first: this condition attached to the empire of the world is nothing less than a pact with the devil. And Jesus upon hearing this impious proposition, for a moment forgets the serenity that character­izes His resistance (Jude 1:9) and, for the first time calling Satan by his name, repulses him with holy indignation: "Get thee behind me, Satan! for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." This quotation immediately puts a stop to the efforts of the enemy, and a second time sends him away vanquished.

Here things are so evident, the proposal of Satan so abominable, and the answer of Jesus so simple, that any explanation would be superfluous; not so the application. However horrible the temptation may seem, all the children of God are exposed to it; and how­ever simple the answer, we are far from being always ready to find it. There is no one amongst us to whom an alliance with Satan has not been offered more than once. I call by this name that tacit stipulation by which a man engages himself to serve the God of this world, in order to obtain the favor of the world; by which a Christian perhaps con­sents to render homage to Satan in his im­patience to obtain "the honor that comes from men," instead of seeking by faith "the honor that cometh from God only." Let us seek some examples borrowed from the ex­perience of youth. The most ordinary form under which Satan proposes his fearful alliance, is the desire of riches. A young man moral, perhaps even pious, has just entered into his commercial life. The hope of making a brilliant fortune takes possession of his mind; but how can he realize this hope? Amongst other means he is offered one that is common in the world, but which is not exempt from sin; lying, de­ceiving, wronging a friend, giving rise to a law­suit, dividing families, neglecting the service of God, infringing upon the Lord’s day. It is the devil who whispers, "All this shall be thine if thou wilt worship me." How few fortunes are accumulated without similar con­cessions made to Satan! Answer him, my dear young brother, "Get thee behind me, Satan! for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." Let Satan keep all the advantages he offers you, since it is at such a price. Do not seek to obtain from Satan the vain appearance of an honor that God will give you in reality, if you are faithful. Even here below the bless­ing must come from God: "Godliness is pro­fitable. unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come."

Sometimes an alliance with Satan is dis­guised under a project of marriage. A young person was walking faithfully in the ways of the Lord; by her fervent and lowly piety she was an example to her companions, an honor to the Church, and a pattern to the world. Her hand is asked by a young man possessing desirable qualifications, fortune, rank, intellect, loving, and perhaps loved---but a stranger to God---and to whom she cannot be united without danger for her faith. It is Satan who whispers, "All shall be thine if thou wilt worship me." See what a brilliant fortune is prepared for you: what honors, what happi­ness, what love! Wouldst thou be deprived of all this?---and why?---for the melancholy satisfaction of leading a sad and gloomy life? Keep thy faith, thou canst keep it, only keep it hidden in thy heart; and belong to the world whilst thou art in it. How shall a feeble child resist such a maneuver of the ad­versary, so treacherously contrived? By this simple word, "Get thee behind me, Satan! for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." Ah, my young sister, answer him thus, and you are victorious. And "the grace of the Lord is sufficient for you." Go, and gently place at the foot of His cross all the plans of happiness that your poor heart has been com­bining; and you will find in His love an ample compensation for all your sacrifices.

Even the sanctuary is not always a sure retreat from the offers of alliance with Satan. A young minister, enriched with the finest gifts of God, enters into the service of the Church; he may aspire to the glory of this world: to the praise of men, to the highest and most influential places; but, in order to attain this lofty position, he must accept the doctrines of the age, or accommodate his faith to the world’s futility, or take part in its frivolous pleasures, or join with it against the people of God. Here, again, Satan says: "All shall be thine if thou wilt fall down and worship me." How many young ministers have yielded to this temptation? How many who, like Demas, have forsaken the brethren, "having loved this present world?" (2 Timothy 4:10) How many who "have believed on Jesus but do not confess him, because they love the praise of men more than the praise of God?" (John 12:42-43) Oh, my young friends, be faithful, be unmovable. Answer: "Get thee behind me, Satan! for it is written: Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve." "If you seek to please men, you will not be servants of Christ." Confess Jesus Christ as your God, His Word for your rule, and His people for your people; and "when the chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away!" (1 Peter 5:4)

Twice vanquished, Satan makes a last effort, for which, we may foresee, he will col­lect all his wiles and all his expedients. "And he brought him to Jerusalem, and set him on a pinnacle of the Temple, and said unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee. And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." To enter fully into the spirit of this tempta­tion, we must place it in opposition with the first, with which the contrast is manifest. The tempter had in vain sought to make Jesus doubt His Father: this means, to which he usually has recourse at first, and which had but too well succeeded with Eve, had failed when brought to bear on the unmovable confidence of Jesus in the assistance of God. The tempter then conceives the hope of seducing Him through this very confidence, but through this confidence perverted. He "transforms himself into an angel of light;" he surrounds himself with holy things; he takes Him into the holy city, and sets Him upon a pinnacle of the Temple, and en­courages Him by the holy Word of God to cast Himself down without fear from the top of it, to give the wondering crowd a striking proof of who He is by the miracle of the promised protection. But is this hazardous feat, proposed by Satan, necessary? Is it willed of God? Does it offer the requisite conditions in order that the promise of the 91st Psalm should be applicable? If Jesus were to give way to the suggestions of the tempter, He would, without any warrant to it, im­plicate the faithfulness of His Father, He would make the Word of God an amusement, rather than a protection; He would create a peril for the frivolous satisfaction of provok­ing the deliverance; and if this deliverance should fail, He would expose the glory of God by His blind and presumptuous confi­dence, as much as He would have served it by a humble and obedient faith. So, without hesitation, Jesus answers His treacherous adviser: "It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." (Deuteronomy 6:16)

What is tempting God? And why would Jesus have tempted God by casting Himself down from the pinnacle of the Temple? To "tempt God," or to "prove God," (Psalms 95:9. "Your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my work." The word ‘prove’, which means properly speaking try, explains the word tempt which precedes it. The meaning of this verse is: your fathers wished to put my power to the trial, I made them feel it, but in exercising it against them. See also Isaiah 7:12; Acts 5:9) is, as the simple meaning of the words indicate, to try God, and thus put His faithfulness to the test; whereas faith reckons simply upon God, and rests upon His faithfulness as upon an unmovable rock. Faith says: "Hath God said, and shall he not do it?" And it re­quires no other pledge of His promise than the promise itself. He who tempts God holds quite another language. Will God do it? Can God do it? Then, led by the wish of clearing up his doubts, he prescribes certain conditions that he expects God to accept before he can rest upon His promise. The Israelites" tempted the Lord" at Rephidim by asking for water to drink, and asking in such a spirit that they would judge by the way in which their request was answered, "whether the Lord were amongst them or not." (Exodus 17:2-7) They tempt Him again at Kibroth­hattaavah, by asking for other food, and say­ing: "Behold, he smote the rock that the waters gushed out, and the streams over­flowed; can he give bread also? Can he provide flesh for his people?" (Psalms 78:18-20; Numbers 11:1-35) Though under different forms, the same spirit appears in the Christian Church. The new disciples who opposed the apostles in the council or Jerusalem" tempted God," by wishing to put a yoke upon the neck of the newly-converted Gentiles which they themselves had not been able to bear, (Acts 15:10) and by doing so they seemed to require of God an extraordinary display of grace which they had no right to expect. This conduct is the more reprehensible, be­cause if, when thus challenged, it should please the Lord to refuse the conditions that have been prescribed to Him, His character or His word will seem to be in fault: false confidence and distrust, presumption and un­belief, are near akin; the principle and the results are much the same. Jesus would have tempted God had He cast Himself down from the pinnacle of the temple. For having no reason to authorize such an action, having neither commandment nor necessity, He could not say God will guard me; but at most, Will God guard me? Will He carry me safe to the ground? I will try. Had He but once spoken such a word, He was vanquished; but His refusal and the quota­tion of Scripture: "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God," disconcerts the adversary’s plan, and puts him to flight for the third and last time. . My brethren, Satan can tempt us too, to tempt God. Examples are not wanting; the only difficulty is in the choice of them.

"The silver is mine and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of hosts." In every enterprise undertaken for God’s glory, and carried on in His Spirit, we may expect that the Lord will send us the necessary resources. He will not confound our faith. But without this faith, the fairest works of Christian piety and charity would have been arrested in their very begin­nings. The Frankes, the Cotolingos, the Marie Callams, would have· failed in their mission. But take heed, not to throw yourself rashly into the first path that seems to open before you, under the pretext of faith in God. Here, again, the suggestions of Satan will not be wanting. He will sometimes per­suade you to take for an inspiration of God’s Spirit, a plan, which, notwithstanding its fair appearances, will tend less to His glory than to yours; sometimes for the execution of a plan approved by God, he will tempt you into expenses that are not authorized by necessity, nor conformable with evangelical simplicity; sometimes he will tempt you to anticipate impatiently upon the time of God, and thus disturb the slow, but sure progress by which He loves to assure the success of a good cause, while He exercises the humility of the instrument. What hast thou to fear, man of little faith, he will say? Go on, in the name of the Lord; give, promise, buy, build, do all that thy hand findeth to do. If thou art a child of God, confide in thy Father; "cast thyself down from hence." Listen to him, and you will find yourself insensibly drawn into obligations that you cannot meet. Thus the gospel will be compromised in the eyes of the world; who will say, on seeing your plans incomplete, "This man began to build, but he was not able to finish;" and you may fall into pecuniary difficulties that will break your heart if they do not shake your faith. Prevent so great an evil by walking scrupulously with God, tempering the liberty of Christ by the prudence of Christ; going out of the beaten path only to answer to a manifest calling, or to obey a certain impulse of the Spirit; this is the secret of prayer. Beyond this, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God;" there is your answer and your peace.

Fathers and mothers, it is you that will furnish my second example; lend an at­tentive ear. The time is come, you think, for you to send your son or your daughter to a distance from home, to take advantage of the resources offered by public institutions, to complete their instruction, or to form their mind and character; upon what principles do you act in the choice of that second family you are going to give your child in exchange for his own? If you give the "one thing needful" the first place; you will find the truth of that promise: "seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you." But if, too much absorbed by the glory that comes from men, you seek, above all, for your son, the means of distinguishing himself in the world, and for your daughter, the means of pleasing in the world; if you place them for years where the name of Jesus Christ is neither honored nor loved, nor even known, perhaps; if you abandon that innocent mind, that confiding soul to the influence of a blind and inflexible proselytism, which your im­prudence seems to have disarmed of its scruples; if, indeed, that were true, what would you have done but "tempt God?" The secret voice that then whispers: Are not the advantages of a brilliant education worth some sacrifices? And besides, cannot God preserve my child from the contagion of error, or the seduction of example? Is there no other way of drawing him to religion than pursuing him with the Bible? What is this voice but that which said to Jesus, "Cast thy­self down from hence?"---and what other answer have you to give than that of Jesus, "Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God."

Alas! how many parents I could name who now shed bitter tears over the sin and folly with which they reckoned upon God to guard their children in the midst of perils to which they exposed them without consulting God’s will! At another time, perhaps, the tempter will persuade you to frequent company that you cannot altogether approve, because God can guard you against its influence; or to waste your time in frivolous, if not pernicious read­ing, because God can defend you against its, contagion; or to listen to teachers who an­nounce strange doctrines, because God can close your heart to the seduction of their dis­courses. These are only so many varieties of the same counsel to Jesus: "Cast thyself down from hence;" and to each your only answer should be, "It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." In the perils to which it may please God to expose you, be firm and unmovable; but never seek to create them for yourself; never put God to the test; never compromise His glory; and if ever placed upon a pinnacle of the temple, do not cast yourself headlong down, but descend quietly and humbly the stairs of the building. But there is in this last temptation a feature that deserves particular attention: the use that Satan makes of the Scriptures. He has seen that by them, Jesus has re­pulsed him twice: and he forms the audacious plan of turning against his conqueror that sword of the Spirit of which he has just felt the irresistible power. Marvelous art of the tempter, who makes everything serve his purposes, and arming himself against us with what belongs to us, he seeks to weaken us by our own strength, as God on the contrary strengthens us by our very weakness! "Cast thyself down from hence; for it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee; in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." In what consists the perfidy of this quotation? Some have answered that Satan has mali­ciously altered the passage he cites. The Psalmist says, "He will give his angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy ways;" and these last words that the tempter omits show that we can only reckon upon the promised help if we keep in the path marked out for our vocation. This remark appears to me sub­tle; if it were well founded Jesus would proba­bly have commenced by restoring the muti­lated text to its true signification. No, Satan does not alter the passage he cites, but he makes a false application of it. The help promised in the 41st Psalm has evident con­ditions from which Jesus would deviate by casting Himself down from the height of the temple: God upholds those of His children who find themselves inevitably exposed to danger, and not those who run into it of their own free will, and without any necessity. But this restriction not being formally expressed by the Psalmist, how can Jesus prove that such was the true meaning of the Holy Ghost? Can it be by appealing to reason or natural feeling? No, but by appealing to Scripture. Jesus does not answer: the inter­pretation which thou givest to this passage of Scripture cannot be the right one, because it is too peculiar; but He answers, The mean­ing thou givest to this passage cannot be the true one, because it is in contradiction with another passage. This intention of the Lord is still more manifest in the narration of St Matthew, who adds to that of St Luke the word also, which is very significative in this place: "It is also written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." This is very instructive. There are in the Bible, which is written, not by philosophers for philosophers, but by ordinary men for ordinary men---there are some parts which require explanation, and which, for want of being rightly understood, may furnish the tempter with arms against us: these expla­nations must be sought, not according to human wisdom, but in other passages of Scripture. For if human wisdom were al­lowed to control the Scriptures, where would be the limit at which it must stop? We should soon see one rejecting all belief in the existence of the devil as opposed to reason; another would reject that of eternal con­demnation as wounding his feelings; a third would conceal that of the atonement beneath casuistry which stifles it; and thus there would remain no positive faith, because there would be no longer any divine authority. The Scriptures can be controlled only by the Scriptures, and to one it is written, nothing substantial can be opposed but---" it is also written."

Satan sees a Christian diligently occupied about his salvation, praying without ceasing, meditating in the Scriptures day and night, and watching to avoid the world’s contamination. He has sought in vain to draw him away from prayer, to make him doubt the Word of God, to inspire him with the love of the world. He now takes his Bible in his hand, (you know that he has one,) and begins to preach in this way: Ah, my friend, what a burden do you take upon yourself! Is it necessary to run yourself out of breath to serve God? To see you is enough to be dis­gusted with piety. I can show you a much more convenient way, and quite as orthodox; for, after all, your sanctification is the work of God, not yours. A little more liberty; follow the bent of your heart, and leave the rest to God. It is written, "It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." (Php 2:13) Yes, indeed, follow the bent of your heart, and the devil will be more tranquil about you. I believe that easily. . . . Ah! my brother, answer to "this holy Satan," as Luther somewhere calls him. It is also written, "Work out your own salva­tion with fear and trembling." "Strive to enter in at the strait gate." (Php 2:12; Luke 13:24)

Satan wishes to induce a minister of the gospel whose powerful preaching prevails against the "gates of hell" to be less faithful. He has in vain sought to stop him in his holy work by discouragement, by vainglory, by the enmity of the world. He then has recourse to the Scriptures, and says: Man of God, why do you take so much trouble about the spiritual nourishment you must give to your flock? Can you not find good, holy, salutary advice to give without wearing your­self out over your Bible and other books? Go to work more easily. Reckon upon the facility God has given you for speaking. Abandon yourself to the Holy Spirit, and say the things that He will suggest. In this way you will honor the Lord better without taking account of the time thus gained for His service. It is written, "It shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the Spirit of your Father which speaketh in you." (Matthew 10:19-20) There, my friends, is a snare agreeably spread for your natural indolence: if you fan into it, it is to be feared that your preaching will be blighted, as has been that of many servants of God who, under different pretexts, dis­pensed with all laborious work 2 Samuel 24:24) to speak extemporaneously without effort. But here is your safety. Answer: It is written, "Give attendance to reading, to exhortation, to doc­trine. Neglect not the gift that is in thee. Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doc­trine, for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee." (1 Timothy 4:13-16)

After the same manner, for all the other scriptural temptations of Satan. Beware of the devil’s exegesis, and combat it simply by Scripture itself. What may be awanting in one place you will find in another, as if those only were judged worthy to penetrate into the profound meaning of it who take the pains to draw together and reconcile the various les­sons it contains. If it is written "that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law," it is also written: "Faith, if it hath not works, is dead." If it is written: "Neither be ye called master; for one is your master, even Christ," it is also written: "Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit your­selves." If it is written: "Your heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of all these things," it is also written: "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you." If it is written: "I am persuaded that nothing can separate me from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord," it is also written: "Blessed is the man that feareth alway!" If it is written: "Unto the pure all things are pure," it is also written: "Abstain from all appearance of evil." .

You have seen, my dear brethren, by the example of Jesus, answering to the threefold attack of the tempter, the use that you ought to make of the Scriptures against temptation. But to follow His example, you must know, the Scriptures like Jesus. Be not surprised if I speak of the knowledge Jesus had of the Scriptures; for, we cannot sufficiently repeat it; though He was the Son of God, Jesus was also the Son of man, and it was as the Son of man that He triumphed in the wilderness. How familiar the Scriptures must be to one who quotes them so appropriately and adapts them so exactly to the infinite variety of hu­man temptations! Jesus moves and feels at home in the Scriptures with as much ease as we move and find our way in a town that we have known from our youth, that we can cross and re-cross and find our way, and of which every street, every place, every house, is engraved in our memory. It is thus that you ought to know the Scriptures. It is not by near abouts that you can hope to combat suc­cessfully the enemy: the more precise you are in the use of the Scriptures, the stronger you will be. How do you know that there is not, for the special temptation that besets you, a special declaration of the Holy Spirit, which no other can entirely replace? it is important to discover it. The Scriptures should be for you a great storehouse, so well known to you that you can immediately put your hand upon the weapon you may require to defend yourself, or like a pharmacy in such good order that you can in an instant find the remedy necessary to cure you. You can­not have your Bible always before your eyes: you must carry it in your heart, if you will have it never fail you. But for that, what a study of the Scriptures!---what constant per­usal!---what profound meditation! Well, all that is no more than God himself has pre­scribed: "Blessed is the man whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates in it day and night!" "This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth, but thou shalt meditate therein day and night." (Psalms 1:2; Joshua 1:8) All this is no more than what all the holy men proposed for our imitation have done: "Oh how I love thy law! it is my meditation all the day . . . . At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee, because of thy righteous judgments. Mine eyes prevent the night watches that I might meditate in thy word." (Psalms 119:62, Psalms 119:97, Psalms 119:148) All this is not more than the example given us by our own fathers till the days of the desert and of martyrdom; those old faithful witnesses of whom it might be said that if the Bible were to be lost, the recollections of some of them, put together, would be suffi­cient to write it over again. . . . . To what a state, Oh my God, are we fallen! ---what ignor­ance of the Scriptures in our people!---what ignorance of the Scriptures in our pastors!­ Lord, restore unto us the days of old!

But, after all, that knowledge of the Scrip­tures by which they may be kept in memory from beginning to end, is not what it is most important to imitate in Jesus. What makes Him overcome by the Scriptures is not that He knows the words by heart, but that He understands the sense and spirit of them. The Bible contains the maxims of the kingdom of heaven, but those maxims clothed in a ter­restrial form; and he only can understand them who knows how to separate the divine thoughts from the human envelope that covers them. This is what Jesus does in my text; He does not keep to the surface of the book, He discovers "the thoughts and intents (Hebrews 4:12) of what "is written." As a proof of this I only require the first of His three quotations: "Man shall not live by bread only, but by every word of God." Acknowledge that, had you been tempted like the Lord, it is not by this passage that you would have thought of defending yourself, and that it might have passed before your eyes many times without your having discovered what Jesus found in it. You would have seen the marvelous fact of the manna granted to the Israelites instead of bread; you would have seen a pledge of hope for a people placed in a situation similar to theirs, if such a situation could ever be again found; you would finally have seen an en­couraging testimony of the love of God for His creatures, and of His faithfulness towards His people: but there your exegesis would be at a stand, enchained by history and by miracle. How much more penetrating is that of Jesus! He dives to the very bottom, and finds His way to the secret thoughts of the Holy Ghost; and beyond the history, the miracle, and all that is passing, He discovers this general and permanent principle: all power resides in the Word of God, which is not limited to the means it generally makes use of. At this depth the temptation of Israel and that of Jesus meet, if we may so speak, underground and by the root; so that the word of Moses, interpreted by Jesus Christ, applies as well to the second as to the first; I may say more---it applies equally to the temptations of the children of God in all ages. And yet, remark this well, this ap­plication, however extended and diversified, of the word of Moses, has nothing forced nor arbitrary; there is not even either allegory or double meaning; nothing but the profound conception of the Holy Spirit, as found in the profound language of Scripture, as true in the foundation as in the expression. This, my dear friends, is the exegesis of Jesus Christ; spiritual, substantial exegesis, equally acces­sible to the learned and to the unlearned, as attractive for the intellect as it is nourishing for the soul. Beside this, how superficial and cold is our ordinary exegesis, even when the most learned and the most conscientious! It is be­cause ours is entangled with what is of the earth, earthy, while the other rises to the thoughts of heaven. What a glorious book would the Bible be, alas! and how new if studied in this spirit! The Bible, allow me the expression, is heaven-spoken, but this heaven must be dis­engaged from the word that shades, while it reveals it. And this is what Jesus Christ teaches us. But no commentary can give us this exegesis; we must seek it upon our knees, saying to God, "Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law." Then we shall receive the witness of God within us; then what is written in the heart corresponds too exactly with what is written in the book, for the same Spirit not to be recognized in both. The Bible we said is heaven-spoken---the Bible thus accepted would be heaven seen, felt, lived.

We have now, my dear brethren, arrived at the limit we proposed. Three successive Sundays I have spoken to you of the temp­tation of Jesus in the wilderness: it is not too much for a subject so vast and so instructive. For my part, I shall recall to mind with a deep feeling of gratitude these three weeks, during which I have been constantly contem­plating the conflict my Savior sustained, the victory He won, and the weapon by which He conquered. I have found in this con­templation something particularly solemn and salutary; and I hope, through God’s faithfulness, that it has not been without a blessing either for myself or for you. Return often into the wilderness. Whenever the number and the greatness of the temptations to which you are exposed seem ready to overwhelm you, remember Jesus tempted like as you are in all things. Whenever you may be in doubt as to the possibility of resist­ing, remember Jesus bruising Satan under His feet, and who has promised to bruise him under yours. Finally, whenever you are uncertain as to the means you must employ to vanquish, remember Jesus warding off with that single weapon, the sword of the Holy Spirit, the attacks of the adversary and forcing him to retreat. And you, my future fellow-laborers, I will not quit this subject without giving you a special exhortation that I recommend to your most serious attention. The temptation of Jesus is placed between the end of His personal preparation and the commencement of His public life. There is for you a similar time: the interval between the end of your studies and the beginning of your ministry. Take care of this interval: it may influence the remainder of your ministerial career. Devote it to a spiritual retreat; spend it with Jesus combating in His solitude: and when you enter the Church let it be as a man coming out from the wilderness---and not from the world: if you a full of recollections of the world, if you have been inhaling the corrupt atmosphere of vanities and pleasures, you are not fit for the service of Jesus Christ. From the wilderness and not from Nazareth: if you are under the dominion of family affections, if you place, the first line in the choice of a place a father or a mother, a wife or a child, you are not for the service of Jesus Christ. From the wilderness, and not from the academy: if you are still covered with the dust of deep study, if your faith and your knowledge come merely from books, you are not fit for the service of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ must have servants weaned from the world, free of creature engagements, nourished by the teaching of the Holy Ghost. Be men of the wilderness, or be not men of the Church. Amen.