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ed robust & PA .mid dtw no-irɛcatoo ni zrolquet crushing weakness. There are no victories comparable to victories on the moral arena. Physical and intellectual victories alike grow pale in their presence; and herein lies the peculiar excellence of the triumph of Jesus over the devilthat it was purely moral. The prince of the devils" tested Him as a moral being with all the skill he could, command; but Jesus took no undue advantage of his antago nist. He met him on his own ground, and signally and honourably vanquished him woy sour out mul

-That the devil was anxious to lead Jesus into sin there cannot be the shadow of a doubt. The onset originated with himself; and in the efforts which he put forth to pierce Christ, and cause his fall, he was in dead earnest. On neither side was the combat recorded in this chapter, a mock oner An awful earnestness characterized both the combatants. We are impressed with the ardent desire which possessed Satan to seduce the Son of God from his allegiance to his Father, when we consider the time, selected to put him to the proof. The craft of the wicked one is something wonderful. In some respects he is stupid; in other respects he is amazingly clever. The influence of the body upon the mind is universally acknowledged. Some bodily states are. favourable to the resistance of temptation, and some are not. Now what was Christ's bodily condition when the devil, with his accustomed artfulness, spread his nets before Him? The pangs of hunger were on Him, inasmuch as He had not tasted food for forty days and forty nights previous to the encounter with the devil. He took Jesus when, so far as the body was concerned, He was at the weakest; and it is the more to the honor of Christ that, though unfortunately circumstanced when the tempter threw himself across his path, He drove him from the field. We are further impressed with the anxiety of the devil to get Jesus to stain his holiness when we pass in review the temptations with which he plied Him. It is not wise in us to underrate Satan's power as a tempter. He has quite a genius for tempting intelligent creatures, and that genius has been developed by ages of practice. Men are

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clumsy tempters in comparison with him. As a tempter, he has neither equal nor superior.How admirably he adapted himself to mother Eve! She listened to him, and was ruined in consequence. Praise is due to all who successfully resistiv him, and a world of praise is due to Jesus for the manner in q which He foiled him. Had we been sent to tempt Christ, could we have done it better? The more that we reflect onl the temptations which were brought before Jesus, the more shall we be struck with their strength and subtlety. As if to render them the more powerful, he put a scriptural fave on them. There was no grossness about them! For the occasion he transformed himself into an angel of light" and his doing so shows that his heart was set on deceiving “thef man Christ Jesus," if he possibly could. But for once he was over-matched; Jesus completely baffled him. If ther devil approached Him in a hopeful spirit, we may be sure that he left Him miserably crest-fallen. "Then the devil! leaveth him, and, behold, angols came and ministered unto him." We can imagine him half regretting that he had come quarters with Jesus. Those who are in the habit off winning can ill brook to lose a battle, and the greater the battle the more vexatious is defeat. We are not to supposel that when the devil left Jesus, he left Him for good and all Luke tells us that he left Him" for a season? Satanudast the virtue of perseverance; but the pity is that his perse verance is perseverance in evil. He would, doubtless, return, and try Christ again and again. Toward the close of his life, Jesus made this remark to his disciples," Hereaftér I will wt talk much with you, for the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me." These words prove that the devil kept his eye on Jesus, and never grew weary of assail ing Him. As one who had mastered him, there would be a fascination about Christ which the devil would have difficulty! in resisting. When the devil does not succeed, it is never for the want of trying. What mainly led to his departure, after three distinct attempts to drag Jesus from his moral altitude, was probably the hearing of his name. In his third reply,

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Christ intimated that He knew who it was that was tempting Him; and so soon as as the devil perceived that he was seen through, he judged it good policy to retire for the present, We are apt to conceive of the devil as omnipresent, but this is a a manifest error. There is only one being of whom it can be affirmed that his centre is everywhere — God Tu The devil has a vast number of agents under him, and he may be able to transport himself from place to place with a velocity of which we can form no adequate conception. It does not take the unfallen angels long to come from heaven to earth, and we should fancy that the fallen angels are as swift of wing as they; but however rapid may be his movements, we may be certain that the devil's presence is limited. If it be demanded- Where is Satan not? We answer-He is not in heaven. Long, long ago, he was expelled from it, and never more will he enter it. It is noteworthy that his encounter with Jesus in the lonely desert had a beginning to an end. When he saw that he was losing time, he left Christ

went in some other direction, and sought lower and easier prey. Creature as he is, the devil is, like ourselves, limited all round. In his mischievous peregrinations, he comes and goes as He may see fit.

There is no essential difference between the devil and ourselves, constitutionally viewed. His character may be worse, but his nature is much the same... We are liable to become discouraged in the use of means, and this is equally true of Satan. He is not unconquerable, and firm resistance causes him to lose heart, and flee. The discovery that, hungry though He was, Jesus was armed at all points, had a discouraging effect; and in this mood he naturally bethought him of flight. We cannot doubt but that he departed with reluctance. Still it clear to him that there was not the slightest chance of success, and entertaining this idea, he suddenly withdrew. It may be that fear had to do with his drawing off, for with all his boldness he is at bottom a coward. His fighting against God is no proof that God is not with him an object of dread. T no apostle James assures us that

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the "devils believe (that there is one God) and tremble;" and when he thus expressed himself, he surely did not mean to exclude the "Prince of this world." There is such a thing as getting rid of the devil. By steadily resisting him we may so dishearten, and even frighten him, as to make him flee. He must either conquer or run. Jesus withstood him as the rock the dashing wave; and what happened? He retired from the contest with all possible speed. Then the devil' leaceth him." How differently Satan would have acted had Jesus yielded to his malign influence! He waxes bold in proportion as we yield to him. The leaving of Satan was complimentary to Christ. It showed that the devil felt himself beaten out and out. Had Jesus perceptibly given in had there been the smallest amount of wavering, or even a show of yielding, we may depend on it that Satan would have continued the combat. The least measure of success inspirits him, and leads him to play his best. He left because it was plain that, morally considered, Christ was on his guard and sound to the core. He had extracted the fiercest darts is well stocked quiver contained, and shot them as skilfully! as he could, but all was to no purpose. He might as well have aimed them at the sun or the mountain's rocky brow. They fell short of the mark. They glanced off the moral armour in which Jesus stood encased, and dropt harmless at his feet. With the shield of faith held before Him, Christ quenched them utterly, as the sea quenches the sparks that alight upon it from the steam-vessels that plough its surface. There was no course open, therefore, to the hellish archer but to turn round and quit the field. His sharpest, surest arrows had failed, and there was no use in fitting inferior ones to the string. To have emptied his quiver would have rendered his defeat only the more galling. Hence, when Jesus said, "Get" thee behind me Satan," he did as he was bidden, and it is not surprising that he beat an ignominious retreat, mat an

Some of our readers may be ready to ask:"What interest have we in the devil?" In reply, we have to say: if it does not concern us to know about the devil, how comes he to

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19i, ofw sect have so prominent a place in the Scriptures? Hardly have we turned a page of the Bible, till we are introduced to him ; but, letting that pass have te no interest in knowing that in the encounter between Jesus and the devil, the former came off victor? Is it not most delightful and assuring to 10think of Jesus as the conqueror of Satan? Which left 2 the devil or Jesus?! "Let Matthew inform us " Then the devil," &c.We might be pitied were the devil the master Joof the universe. With what cruelty and caprice he would dogovern! Strong, and cunning, and active, and malignant as to the devil is, the friends of Christ have nothing to fear from aishim Jesus can bruise him under their feet. He conquered him when on earth for Himself, and he can conquer him for his followers! Suppose that the devil had triumphed when of he and Christy came into collision, what then or Mankind a would be without a Saviour. The commission of one sin would have incapacitated Jesus for making atonement for the world's guilt; so that the reading of this clause Then, the devil teaveth Him," should heighten our admiration of Christ, increase our confidence in Him, and thrill us with bjoy! It is most consoling to realize that when Satan came to Him, he found nothing in Him of which to take hold, or on which to rest an accusation; and let us not f forget that it was in our nature that Jesus fought with, and overcame the archapostate. We are prone at times to apologise for the fall of ana" our own falls into sin; and at such

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moments it is well bear in mind that Jésus on His human side, he sustained defeat. Jesus is our bolexample, and when we sin, we should not dream of excusing bnourselves. We can drive the devil before us, and we should, sin imitation of Christ. He was in all points tempted like alas we are, yet without sin; and this is how it should be with ST. Blame ever attaches to us when the devil gets,, the advantage of us, else why are we commanded, to resist the 10 devil, and dertified that if we do, he will flee ? I candidly Ife confess, that when I call to mind Christ's victory over the devil in the wilderness, I have no heart to frame excuses for

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