temple, and so save Himself, probably from sorrow, poverty, persecution,
and the death on the cross, He answers out of Scripture as any other Jew
would have done. "It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy
God." He says nothing--this is most important--of His being the eternal
Son of God. He keeps that in the background. There the fact was; but He
veiled the glory of His godhead, that He might assert the rights of His
manhood, and shew that mere man, by the help of the Spirit of God, could
obey God, and keep His commandments.

I say these last words with all diffidence and humility, and trusting
that the Lord will pardon any mistake which I may make about His Divine
Words. I only say them because wiser men than I have often taken the
same view already. Of course there is more, far more, in this wonderful
saying than we can understand, or ever will understand. But this I think
is plain--that our Lord determined to behave as any and every other man
ought to have done in His place; in order to shew all God's children the
example of perfect humility and perfect obedience to God.

But again, the devil asked our Lord to fall down and worship him. Now
how could that be a temptation to pride? Surely that was asking our Lord
to do anything but a proud action, rather the most humiliating and most
base of all actions. My friends, it seems to me that if our Lord had
fallen down and worshipped the evil spirit, He would have given way to
the spirit of pride utterly and boundlessly; and I will tell you why.

The devil wanted our Lord to do evil that good might come. It would have
been a blessing, that all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of man
should be our Lord's,--the very blessing for this poor earth which He
came to buy, and which He bought with His own precious blood. And here
the devil offered Him the very prize for which He came down on earth,