THE LOCAL PREACHERS' OWN BOOK. 61 3. Look not behind thee, to reason with the devil. Whenever a sinner is about to forsake his sins, the devil will be sure to oppose him. He is then acting in character. He is represented as a "roaring lion, going about seeking whom he may devour;" and if his suggestions be listened to, he will most assuredly deter us from our purpose till he gets us to his own place. Then listen not to him; resist the devil and escape for your lives, "neither stay in all the plain,” 1. Of carnal security. In this plain too many are staying. The state of those triflers is admirably set forth by our Lord in the parable of the Sower. These are the thorny ground hearers of the Word. They, as well as others, hear: but "the cares of this world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lust of other things, choke the Word, and it becometh unfruitful." How many are there who feel their very souls melted like wax when under the Word, and make resolutions that they will escape with their lives! But, alas! they again enter into the world, and suffer anxious care to get fast hold of them; the carnal mind gets deeper and deeper root within them; their good impressions wear off, and in consequence of not escaping promptly, thousands, it is to be feared, have died in this plain. 2. Of desire. Good desires are good things, and like every other good and perfect gift, they come from above. They are given with a design to induce us to be diligent in seeking after the thing desired. We feel a want of something to satisfy the cravings of our immortal spirits. We are made sensible that nothing in this world will afford that satisfaction, but we see, by the light imparted to us by the Spirit of God, that there is spiritual provision made which is every way adequate to that purpose, and we feel a desire to enjoy it; but if we content ourselves with seeing its adaptation and excellency, without feeling its efficacy; if we rest in desire, without experience, we are staying in the plain, and if we tarry we shall surely perish. Jesus Christ did not redeem our souls with a faint desire; he laboured, suffered and died; and if we intend to reign with him in glory, we must run with patience the race that is set before us. 3. Of procrastination. Oh, what numbers are staying here! They are neglecting this great salvation, and put ting it off to some future period. What Felix said to St. Paul, they have the audacity to say to the Spirit of God: "Go thy way for this time, when I have a convenient season I will call for thee." Oh, the folly and danger of these triflers! Know ye not that the Scripture saith, "Behold now is the accepted time, behold now is the day of salvation!" 4. Stay not in the plain of good resolution. In this plain, too, there are numbers of lingerers. Good resolutions, if they be not put into practice, will no more save the soul than good desires. It is to be feared there have been many who have resolved, and re-resolved, and have still lived and died the same. O thou of little Art thou afraid to Dost thou imagine 5. Of despondency and unbelief. faith, wherefore dost thou doubt?" escape to the arms of thy Saviour? that thou art so great a sinner that he will not receive thee? Come, be of good cheer, he calleth thee! Do not despair, for if the Lord were not willing to save thee, he would not have given thee those good desires. Away, away to the Lord, thou burdened and heavy laden one, and he will give thee rest! Hear what he says:-" Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast out." III. An exhortation. thou be consumed." "Escape to the mountain, lest 1. Lot made his escape, and although he was favoured with a retreat at a place nearer than "the mountain," in that place he was safe. And those who flee to Christ find a place of safety. The obstinately impenitent are constantly exposed, they are always in danger; and when the day of wrath cometh they will have no hiding-place; but "the name of the Lord is a strong tower, the righteous runneth into it, and is safe." 2. Those who escape to Jesus Christ shall find rest. The wicked cannot rest, they are like the troubled sea, whose waters continually cast up mire and dirt; but the soul that reclines upon the atonement and mediation of Christ, enjoys a sacred, calm, tranquil rest. 3. And those who escape to Christ are blessed with peace. "There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked;" but those who believe in Christ, with the heart unto righteousness, being justified by faith, have peace with God; THE LOCAL PREACHERS' OWN BOOK. 63 theirs is that kingdom of God which consists of "righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost;" and "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep their hearts and minds, through Christ Jesus." If you desire safety, rest and peace, be persuaded to " mountain." AN AWFUL CONFLICT. escape to the Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness, to be tempted of the devil. THE life of Christ, as recorded by the evangelists, is the most interesting and affecting narrative that ever was written. Its intrinsic worth and superior excellency will appear, if we consider that it is the production of the unerring pen of inspiration, employed in drawing the portrait of the only perfect being that ever lived in the world; and that it does not, like many professed memoirs, contain merely a detail of the opinions of his biographers concerning him, but a faithful account of his own words and actions. It may also be adduced as a beauty and excellency in this narrative, that it contains no extraneous matter: every thing which is written in the gospels concerning Christ is so necessary, that no part can be dispensed with without doing violence to the whole. And on the other hand, it is complete it contains every thing that is necessary to answer the purposes for which it was intended, viz. to give us such a description of its Divine subject, as would convince us that he is both able and willing to save mankind from the power of sin and death. Hence every circumstance mentioned there is of the highest importance. The events which took place previously to the Saviour's birth, the place where he was born, his genealogy, offices, life, death, resurrection, ascension and intercession, all are of infinite weight. Some of those circumstances show the exact fulfilment of prophecy, and the manifold wisdom of God; others prove the Saviour's Divinity and Godhead; others substantiate the doctrine of the atonement; others serve as examples for our imitation; and all are for our edification and profit. 64 THE LOCAL PREACHERS' OWN BOOK. Amongst the various incidents of our Saviour's life, there are few more interesting, remarkable and instructive, than his temptation by the devil; in contemplating which event, we will consider, 1. The time when he was tempted. II. The scene of the conflict. III. The attack, and IV. The consequences. I. The time when Jesus was tempted. 1. After his baptism, when he had been declared to be the Son of God with power. After he had spent nearly thirty years in comparative obscurity in Galilee, he came to the river Jordan, unto John the Baptist, to receive the ordinance of baptism, that he might publicly and solemnly enter upon his prophetic office by being washed according to the law of the priests, Exod. xxix, 4; and also that he might, by baptism, be initiated into the Christian church, as he had been into the Jewish church, by circumcision : hereby teaching us to fulfil all righteousness" And being baptized," he went up straightway out of the water; and, lo! the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him. And, lo! a voice from heaven, saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased!" And when he had been thus publicly acknowledged by Jehovah to be his Son, he was almost immediately tempted of the devil. We may observe here, that the devil pursues a similar plan with the followers of Christ, as to the season of temptation, to that which he adopted in regard to Jesus himself. As soon as they feel that they are born from above, that they are baptized with the Holy Ghost and with fire, and have received the Spirit of adoption, then cometh the devil to attempt to take away their evidence, and to shake their confidence. 2. Jesus was tempted just after he had received the strongest tokens of his Father's approbation; and when the disciples of Christ feel unusually blest; when they experience that they have sweet fellowship with the Father, and with the Son, through the Spirit; when their "peace flows as a river, and their righteousness as the waves of the sea; and when "the whole Trinity descends into their faithful hearts;" then cometh the devil, to strive to discompose their minds, and to disturb their peace. 3. Jesus Christ was about to preach his own gospel of peace and good-will towards men, when he was attacked by the tempter. And often when the love of Christ has constrained his disciples to preach to their fellow-sinners the everlasting gospel; when they have been made quite sensible of their call to the ministry, and of their duty to engage in the work of the Lord, the devil has overwhelmed them with manifold temptations to keep them from their purpose, and thus to prevent them from calling" sinners to repentance." II. The scene of the conflict. 1. Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness. The Son of God was led from the fruitful banks of the Jordan into the wilderness, from the water of baptism to the fire of temptation. The wilderness was a secluded place, remarkable only for its solitude and sterility. Nothing was here to be seen but huge rocks and a dreary desart― no purling stream, no fragrant shrub. No pleasant sound was there to fall upon the Saviour's ear, no tuneful bird. no human voice, nothing save the howling of wild beasts and the hissing of serpents. To this solitary spot was the Lord driven by the Spirit, to contemplate the great work he was about to accomplish, and to be tempted of the devil. 2. The wilderness was strikingly expressive of the state of the world when compared with Paradise. The first Adam was introduced into the garden of Eden, where there was every thing pleasing to the senses, and congenial to the frame : : every thing in the animal and vegetable world conspired to fill him with delight. But before the second Adam were presented all the awful effects of the fall. The great change which nature had undergone was dreadfully apparent in all the horrors of the wilderness, and the still more lamentable state of the moral world was the sole cause of the Saviour's sufferings, and was in the wilderness the subject of his contemplation and the reason of his conflict. 3. And how descriptive was this wilderness of each individual human heart! The hardness of the rocks and the poverty of the soil were striking emblems of the callousness, cruelty and ingratitude of the human heart, of its evil productions and moral sterility. |
