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SERMON VIII.

CHRIST IN THE WILDERNESS.*

ST. MATTHEW, iv. 1.

"Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil."

How strange and wonderful has ever been the victory of faith over the world! How great a mystery the hidden life that dwells in the heart of a Christian has ever been to worldly men! The Saints of God have from time to time "subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword,"1 and in all ways overcome the world. Nothing has been able to withstand them : nothing, however mighty, and however subtle, has availed to separate them from the love of God, in whom they have ever been more than conquerors. And yet, by a mysterious law of God's dealings, they have been made strong out of weakness! "the weakness of God" has proved stronger than men, and "the * Preached on the First Sunday in Lent. 1 Heb. xi. 33, 34.

foolishness of God" wiser than men.2

His cause has

prospered most when it seemed to be failing; and they who trusted in Him have most truly overcome the world, when the world has despised them. The Church has prospered under persecution, and like some lowly plants, flourished most when most trampled under foot. But when the world has favoured her, she has decayed in true spiritual power; and has become weak by corruption and division, when earthly riches have poured in upon her.

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The same may be observed in the individual Christian. St. Paul says of himself, "When I am weak, then am I strong;" and if he must needs glory, he chooses to glory in his infirmities. And again he says, "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are.' And again the same Apostle lays it down as a general rule for the disciples of Christ, "That we must through much tribulation enter into the kingdom of God." Yes, dear brethren, by temptations, by afflictions, by losses, by want, by poverty, by sickness, by trials unnumbered, God gathers out His chosen from the world, and makes them conquerors. When they meekly bow beneath His Almighty Hand, or when they choose the lowest place for His sake, then they are unconsciously exalting themselves 4 1 Cor. i. 27, 28.

21 Cor. i. 25.

5

32 Cor. xii. 10 and 5.
Acts, xiv. 22.

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in the kingdom of heaven. When the world despises them, they need not fear the world, because contempt is sure to drive them to take refuge in that faith which is victory over the world. They have a refuge which the world knows nothing of, and they conquer by retiring. When the troubles of life distract and perplex them, they turn their eyes elsewhere, and gaze into the calm peacefulness of that rest which remaineth for the people of God-just as when a storm goes over the natural world, and all below is unquiet and restless, our minds are soothed and stayed as we gaze upwards into the calm depth of the still blue sky, the type of God's gentle and boundless love. When the world is our enemy, God is our friend; and therefore we are strong against it. When it oppresses, He supports. But because His aid is invisible, and our weakness is most apparent when we are most tried, therefore the victory of faith is a mystery which ever has been inexplicable to worldly men, and ever will be.

On the other hand, when the world flatters and smiles upon us, then we are in danger. Prosperity is the ruin of many souls: "The cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, choke the Word, and it becometh unfruitful." Why does our Saviour say, "Woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation. Woe unto you that are full! for ye shall hunger.... Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of 7 you !" except it be to warn us that our strength lies not in that which the world counts

6 St. Mark, iv. 19.

7 St. Luke, vi. 24-26.

strength, nor our treasure in earthly goods, nor our prosperity in standing well with the world.

Such thoughts as these are naturally suggested, dear brethren, by the sight of Christ our Saviour in the wilderness. He there prefigured the condition in which His Church, herself as a Society, and her members, one by one, should frequently be in this world. He had appointed that the righteous, though "scarcely saved," yet should indeed be saved, not by power, nor by might, but by His spirit. He had designed that their victory should be obtained by weak instruments, made effectual by an unseen power; and therefore it pleased Him to represent in the wilderness this strangely victorious warfare, and make it possible to those who imitate Him; Himself overcoming, once for all, our great enemy, by fasting, by watching, by prayer, by a word. He would per

mit no trials to befal His elect, which He had not first endured Himself; and because He intended them to put to nought the wisdom of the world by the "foolishness" of trusting in the unseen, He used for weapons the despised instruments of loneliness, abstinence, and meditation, and overcame by them.

By His victory, dear brethren, He ensured ours, if we are faithful. As His enduring temptation was a forewarning that we were to be tempted, and was intended to put us on our guard, so His overcoming was a sure pledge of our power to overcome, notwithstanding our seeming and actual weakness. Let us not, therefore, be downcast and faint-hearted, if we are steadfastly in earnest. His weapons and manner of

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engagement are true types of ours; let us, therefore, be prepared to find this world a desert, and wicked men like the wild beasts, destructive companions; let us expect, if we would hold communion with God as Jesus did, that a hard life, and abstinence from luxuries, and loneliness, as it pleases Him to send it, should find their place in this our mortal life. Not that we are to look for this to be our constant portion, unless we are peculiarly favoured and destined for a high place in the kingdom of God.

No blessed be His name, He deals tenderly with His chosen ones, and assimilates them no nearer to the pattern of His sufferings than He knows they will be able to bear. To speak of our lot as if it were at all times, and altogether, like that of Jesus in the wilderness, would be to use words without a meaning. For God has graciously given us kind friends, and many comforts of life. To most of us He has given a home of love and cheerfulness, daily food, daily bright faces, daily looks of kindness. Kind words, kind deeds, kind thoughts; the pleasure of doing good, the pleasure of being thankful; of all these, the sweet solaces of life, we have been graciously granted, each our measure. The blessed Jesus was pleased to take some share in them Himself. Who can say how tender was the love which subsisted between Him and His Virgin Mother, from whose society He seems to have been little separated until He was thirty years of age? But besides this, He was pleased to have one disciple whom He loved with a peculiar affection. He condescended to be ministered to by holy women, whose love for Him was so great, that they sat at His

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