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influence the mind and spirit of his willing victim, and led him on from the mere indulgence of avaricious thoughts to the terrible transgression for which no name can be found; then left him to despair, to suicide, and to hell. Ananias and Sapphira were doubly covetousof lucre and of fame; they wanted both to keep their money, and to obtain applause for sacrificing it to the public good. Of this Satan took advantage to fill their hearts with a lie, by which they might hope to accomplish the desired end. But it was to the Holy Ghost that the lie was told, and instantaneous death was the penalty of seeking either to deceive the Lord, or to make Him connive at their guilt.

These instances exhibit the manner of Satan's working, where, but for what is revealed, we might suppose no such agency had existed. It was needful that Eve should be tempted from without, since the image of God yet remained within, and her heart, still holy and obedient, would not have suggested a departure from the path of His commandments. But the idea of numbering Israel-taking a census-in time of peace, and under every favourable circumstance, appears so natural, that we probably should not search beyond the king's desire to know the extent of Israel's population, had not the Holy Spirit expressly told us who provoked him to it. In like manner Job's calamities might be referred to the predatory habits of his Arab neighbours; to the sudden storms and blasts of the desert; and to

the bodily effects often produced by excessive mental suffering; while the erroneous view taken by his three friends was perfectly consistent with those frequently formed by ourselves, concerning others, when we should be loth to imagine that the Devil was prompting us. Judas might have been supposed to perpetrate his unparalleled crime under the impression that his Master would, as he had more than once before done, deliver himself by a miracle from the hands into which he was about to sell him and Ananias with his wife, might have arranged their plan under the impulse of natural vanity combined with love of money. Yet in all these cases we are distinctly told that Satan himself was present to instigate and direct; and many a recollection of our own past lives, now perhaps painful and self-condemnatory, would wring our hearts with anguish and horror if we knew how far the great adversary was concerned in them, and to what extent the will of God was resisted, the cause of Christ injured, and the Holy Ghost grieved, while evil spirits looked on rejoicing. We "give place to the Devil" daily; and nothing more effectually helps him to lead us into this breach of a positive command, than our readiness to forget his continual presence, either personally or by his active ministers; and perhaps to leave out of sight the fact of his very existence.

III.

SATANIC DARING.

THE truth being established that there exist a company of evil spirits, continually employed in resisting the power of God, and stirring up his creatures to rebel against his authority, it is not to be expected that in every instance cited as illustrating this truth, precise mention by name should be made of those who are clearly exhibited in that work. Very many cases may be adduced where such mention is distinctly made; and in tracing others to the same source, we must bear in mind the apostolic warning, “Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted of evil, neither tempteth he any man; but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.” James i. 13, 14. The plan, therefore, of Satan is to watch the indications of our prevailing corruptions, and to provide us with opportunities of gratifying them; that lust when it hath conceived may the more readily

bring forth the sin which, as the enemy well knows, will, when it is finished, bring forth death.

Nor is it to the evil passions alone that he appeals: his daring knows no bounds. Even in the holy nature of the man Christ Jesus, as untainted by original as by actual sin, he could seek for somewhat whereon to build a powerful temptation. He had been incessantly assailing the patient Saviour in the wilderness, during forty days; at the end of which he saw him tortured by the cravings of a hunger, which the termination of his prescribed season of fasting left him at liberty to satisfy. Now it would have been every whit as easy for our Lord, by the putting-forth of his infinite power, to transform a stone into bread, as to multiply five loaves to the satisfying of five thousand people; or out of the stones of the temple to raise up children unto Abraham. The desire for food was natural, lawful; yea, it was a duty to satisfy it, since prolonged abstinence must end in self-murder. We may indulge in guesses and suppositions as to the precise grounds on which the suggestion stood as a temptation of the Devil, but all that we can certainly know is, the fact, that so it was, and that as such it was rejected. Coming as it did in the shape of a proposal merely to satisfy a human want by means of his divine power, we see the deep craftiness of this insidious and perfidious tempter; and learn a solemn lesson of perpetual watchfulness, and careful sifting of whatever is suggested to our minds, whether by outward

circumstances, the counsel of friends, or the seemingly intuitive suggestions of our own minds: for he who assailed the Master will not spare the servant.

Again, the object of our Lord's incarnation was to wrest from Satan the kingship of the world; to cast him out of his possessions, to take the prey from the mighty, and deliver the lawful captive. This was to be accomplished by exceeding bitter sufferings, of which a foretaste was then present, in the pangs of extreme hunger. Humanity shrank from what Deity foreknew, and we have very touching statements from the evangelists, of the anguish that overwhelmed the blessed Jesus on the near approach of the climax of his woes. He was even brought to pray, "O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me!" Matt. xxvi. 39. Yet in all this not a taint of evil existed; it was the innocent shrinking of innocent, holy flesh, from intense tortures. Of this Satan seems to have taken his next advantage; for he exhibited to the divine object of his infernal artifices all the kingdoms of the world, with a reference to his own acknowledged sovereignty over them, and proposed terms on which he would consent to abdicate in favour of his dreaded opponent, so rendering needless the terrific conflict in which the Lord must engage to effect his expulsion by force. This was a most refined temptation: it proposed a single momentary act of homage, in acknowledgment of the existing supremacy of that enthroned rebel and traitor, to be

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