would but make his own kingdom a worldly kingdom, so the devil has often fulfilled that promise in the case of those who have yielded to his temptation. But his gifts have proved to be satanic gifts indeed. As long as the Church insisted on the spirituality of Christ's kingdom, while as yet her ministers went forth without purse or sword, preaching that kingdom which is not eating and Rom. xiv, 17. drinking, but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost, so long was the Church comparatively pure in doctrine and in practice. But when her success began to arrest the attention of the rulers of this world, and they saw that her influence was to be courted, and when she yielded to their seductive proffers of aid, then a tide of impurity began to set in which, ere long, submerged her in all manner of filth and abomination. The most ominous day the Church ever saw was the day when Constantine the Great, having renounced heathenism, at least in part, proclaimed himself the imperial patron of Christianity and defender of the faith. That alliance of Church and State set back the Church for centuries, and to this day she is reeling beneath the satanic stab she then received. Alas! the devil is still plying the Church with this same temptation of the mountain, turning our opportunities into our perils. And when he thus tempts us, what are we to do? Precisely as Jesus did. Say to the tempter: "I Isaiah xxxi, 1. will not go down to Egypt for help, or stay on horses; I will not trust in chariots because they are many, or in horsemen because they are very

strong. O Jehovah, my God, it is nothing with 2 Chron. xiv, 11.

Psalm lx, 12.

thee to help, whether with many or with them. that have no strength; help me, O Lord my God, for I rely on thee, and in thy name I go against this multitude. Through God I shall do valiantly, for he it is who shall tread down my adversaries. I will worship the Lord my God, and him alone will I serve." This, then, is the great lesson of the Psalm cxviii, 9. mountain: It is better to trust in Jehovah than to put confidence in princes. Spirituality is the vanquisher of Satan.

Thirdly, the victorious Jesus is our exemplar and cheer. In all points tempted like as we are, in all points he also conquered, even as by his strength we also may conquer. For, be it remembered (and the point is of so supreme moment in our study of the temptation of the Divine Man that I must give it the emphasis of iteration), Jesus conquered as a man, winning his victory in the sphere of his human nature. To say that he was tempted as man, but that he conquered as God, is to rob the story of the temptation of its meaning and inspiration. Divine, indeed, he most certainly was, but it was not the Divinity which conquered; what the Divinity did was to give infinite worth to the victory which the humanity had won. Tempted as man, and as man triumphant-this it is which gives to the story of the temptation its moral and its immortal power; this is the inspiring cheer of victory which the Church for eighteen centuries has been echoing back to wilderness and pinnacle and mountain. And observe, also, the simple weapon with which the Son of man conquered; it was the Excalibar of a threefold scriptural citation, drawn from the

armory of the Church's oldest book, the arsenal of Deut. vi, 13, 16; the Pentateuch. A simple citation from the Word

of Truth vanquishes the father of lies. Enough

viii, 3.

to say, "It is written," and he will fly. The Eph. vi, 17. sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God.

Personal Appeal. Luke xi, 21, 22.

Lastly, make peace with the victorious Jesus. A He it is, and he only, who is stronger than the strong man fully armed, and can come upon him, and bind him, and take from him his whole armor wherein he trusted, and divide his spoils. Come, then, within the glorious circle of the Divine Man. Fall down and worship him who vanquished Satan. Then shall thy Father also spread a table for thee in the wilderness, and give his angels charge over thee, and from an exceeding high mountain, even a heavenly, thou shalt survey a kingdom and a glory which shall indeed be thine when all the kingdoms of this world and the glory of them shall have melted into eternal space. Listen then to the Divine Man: "He that overcometh, I will give Rev. iii, 21. to him to sit down with me in my throne, as I also overcame, and am sat down with my Father

in his throne."

O God, merciful Father, who despisest not the sighing Collect. of a contrite heart, nor the desire of such as are sorrowful; Mercifully assist our prayers which we make before thee in all our troubles and adversities, whensoever they oppress us; and graciously hear us, that those evils which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man worketh against us, may, by thy good providence, be brought to nought; that we thy servants, being hurt by no persecutions, may evermore give thanks unto thee in thy holy Church; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.