child of God pass through gloom, and strife, and tribulation, because the Lord Jesus likes to hear His little child pray, and sigh, and continue doing so, and to see him walking trustfully by His side over the raging billows. This gives Him joy. This, however, we may not say directly to these dead souls; they would think we mocked them; for they themselves see in it nothing beautiful which could delight their Lord. But the Lord truly sees it, and He will see it.

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Ofttimes the Lord suffers his little children to be tempted and brought into straits, in order that the hidden life within may be displayed, not so much to himself, as to their brethren and ourselves. So he shows to us an Abraham's faith a Job's patience; a Moses's love; an Elijah's zeal; a Canaanitish woman's humility and fervor, in order that we may praise his power, which is so mighty in the weak children of men. But are we desponding, and disposed to think that such saints might all reach heaven, while with us it will be otherwise? Then he sets before our eyes, here a David, and there a Simon Peter-grapes which, in the press of trial, yielded not wine merely, but also bitter drops of sin from their hearts. Such a sight makes us pluck up courage, especially when we learn that Simon was nevertheless called a rock; and David a man after God's own heart.

And so has it often happened, that those men whose sanctity has shone out with peculiar splendor, and who have enjoyed extraordinary esteem in the world, have at last, under the buffetings of the tempest, been stripped and blasted and compelled to display their weakness and frailty, and miserable sinfulness. Yea, with all their bright sanctity, and glorious activity for God -to lose themselves like a little rivulet in the sand: they who were once such noble streams, that, compared with what they were, it would be difficult longer to recognize them. And this the Lord permits in order that all idolizing of mortal men may be prevented, grace preserved in its proper splendor, and the honor given to Him alone, to whom alone it is due.

As a rule, the object of those temptations to which we are exposed, is to bring before our view what is in us, and to keep us properly humbled in the dust. We mortals become pious far too lightly; bat Jesus seeks sinners. We are righteous all too soon; but the Lord is after the unrighteous. We are swift to soar; but Jesus wants to see us in the depths. Therefore does he suffer the devil, at times, to create a little stir in the sink of our corrupt hearts, in order that the vile odor may mount and strike our senses; and the hideous viper-brood which nestled quiet and unseen at the bottom, may rise to the top, and sprawl about on the surface before our eyes. Therefore does he occasionally permit the evil one to scare up the swarm of rebellious thoughts and desires, which were lying dormant in the inner chamber of our souls, and set them in motion, in order that we may know all that the temple of God still harbors, and be constrained to forego all our boasting and pride. For this cause is it that he allows the accuser, now and then, to take us by surprise, and startle our slumbering passions as by the trump of doom.

Ah! how astonished are we then to find that they are still there these old hateful companions-whom, as we fondly hoped, we had long since swept away with the besom of our pious excises, and so made our home perfectly clean. But now, alas! it is quite otherwise. Then the dear bride sees all the fair cosmetics fade away from her cheek, and she becomes again as at first, an Ethiopian, black and without beauty, and renews her former repentance—but also loves again with her early love—for thus will the bridegroom have it. Now under the feet of the high-climbing saint, the topmost round in the ladder of sanctity suddenly gives way, and, alas! he stands no more even on the lowest, but lies beneath, utterly prostrate, and is a poor wretch, Now the proud peasuch as, perhaps, he never was before. cock sees his brilliant train suddenly drop to the earth; his glitter passes away like a mist; the creature that boasted begins to sneak becomes naked and bare, slinks ashamed into a cor

ner, and comes, at last, to rejoice with all his heart that Another will bestow on him the wedding garment-that a cross stands on Golgotha, and that on the throne there sits a queen, who is called not righteousness-but grace-grace.

DISCOURSE IX.

THE OBJECT AND AGENT IN THE TEMPTATION.

"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil," etc.-MATT. iv. 1-11.

We have learned the chief cause why God employs the devil among His children. The question now is, why did God ordain that Jesus our Lord should be tempted. And here, at the outset, we protest most solemnly against that degrading view and teaching, which unshrinkingly asserts that Jesus was placed in the fiery ordeal in order that He, in battle and strife, struggling and praying, might overcome and slay those sins which He had carried in His own flesh-and in His own members. No, we can listen to nothing of this sort respecting our Saviour. That He appeared in the form of sinful flesh-this we know; but yet only in form, not in sinful flesh itself-and though like us in all things, yet was there one point excepted—namely sin. God be praised that on this subject the divine word does not leave us in doubt. With the perfect sinlessness and purity of our Mediator, stands or falls the whole structure of our evangelic hopes. Had the white linen of His innocence been stained with the smallest particle of unholy desire and emotion-could any one but prove this-then might the church be shut-the Bible burned confidence cast away-and despair only reign. For then would Jesus not be our Saviour-and His ransom not be available and sufficient.

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The temptations of Jesus were in their design far different from those which we are wont to experience. He endured them, not for Himself, but for us and in our stead. They were a part of His mediatorial sufferings. We saw Adam tempted by the serpent, and wantonly giving up the ship to the eddying vortex of his allurements. But the second Adam repairs the evil by exposing Himself to a still severer assault; breaking the lance of the foe-completely overcoming the accuser, and rendering to the Father a perfect obedience. Adam had by disobedience become the prey of Satan, and the second Adam drinks for him the curse, and descends from His throne of majesty into the society of evil spirits-into the very pool of hell.

Unexampled humiliation! The Almighty God touched by the murderous hands of Satan-the Sovereign of the universe hissed at on every side by the old serpent-the only Holy One beleaguered by the powers of darkness, and the Lord of hosts a football for accursed angels of hell-caught up by them-snatched away-carried off and tempted, and urged by them to the most shameful things! What a horrible position for the Son of God! more horrible and monstrous than we can conceive; for we by nature stand much nearer Satan who is our father. To us who carry his likeness, his blackness is not so hateful, not so repulsive, as it must be to Him who dwells in light, and is Himself nothing but light: Verily, no trivial suffering must it have been for Him to be compelled so to dwell among friends! But down into this very pool-this abyss-must the Son of God descend. So must the floods of Belial terrify Him, in order that payment may be made for the gigantic guilt which we have heaped up. And under such oppositions and hindrances must He alonedeserted of help-through battle and strife-execute the Father's will, in order that with His own brilliant, spotless obedience, He might cover the disobedience of Adam and his seed in the sight of God.

Another object of the temptations of Jesus was this: that He might become our sympathizing High Priest. This, indeed,