When in my shadowy hours I pierce the hidden heart of
hopes and fears, They change into immortal joys or end in immemorial tears. Moytura's battle still endures and in this human heart of
mine The golden sun powers with the might of demon darkness
intertwine.
I think that every teardrop shed still flows from Balor's eye
of doom. And gazing on his ageless grief my heart is filled with ageless
gloom : I close my ever-weary eyes and in my bitter spirit brood And am at one in vast despair with all the demon multitude.
But in the lightning flash of hope I feel the sun-god's fiery
sling Has smote the horror in the heart where clouds of demon
glooms take wing, I shake my heavy fears aside and seize the flaming sword ol
will I am of Dana's race divine and know I am immortal still.'
> Buskin, Quf.m o/the Air, § 68. » A. E., Hie Divine Visicm, 76.
102 THE CONFLICT OF THE AGES
III.
The End of the Conflict.
The victor comes in Jesus of Nazareth. "On the morrow John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world." Jesus of Nazareth has come as man's representative and redeemer to atone for the sins of the world. But first. He is Jesus of Nazareth. He is a man. Before He begins His work of atone- ment, before He takes upon Him the redemption of the world, He must fight His own man's battle. To every man upon this earth that battle comes. It comes to Jesus also. Therefore before the public ministry begins, before He begins to heal the sick or raise the dead or preach the gospel to the poor, " the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil"
i. His Temptation as a Man.
This is the place of the Temptation in the Wilderness. Jesus is a man, and He must face the foe whom every man has to face. He must fight the battle which every man has to fight. And He must win. If He does not win, how can He atone for the sins of the world ? If as a man He does not win His own man's battle, why, then. He has His own sins to reckon with, and how can He even come forward as the Eedeemer of the race ? Jesus must fight and Jesus must win, just as we all have to fight, but not one of us has won. That is the place of the Temptation, And that is why the Temptation in the Wilderness is recorded. It is every man's Temptation. It may be spread over our life; it could not have been spread over the life of Jesus, otherwise He could not have begun His atonement till His life was at an end; but it is the same temptation that comes to every man. It is the temptation that came to Eve. Point for point the temptations of Eve and the temptations of Jesus correspond. Eve's temptations were three ; so were the temptations of Jesus. Eve's temptations assailed the body, the mind, and the spiiit; 80 did the temptations of Jesus.
1. The First Temptation. — The first temptation was a bodily temptation. She "saw chat the tree was good for food." "H
GENESIS III. 15 103
thou art the Son of God, command this stone that it be made bread." There is the difference, certainly, that Eve was not hungry, while Jesus was. The sin of Eve was the greater that she sinned not through the cravings of hunger, but merely through the longing for forbidden, or it might be daintier, food. But though the temptation was more intense for Jesus, it did not differ from Eve's essentially. It was the desire for food. It was the longing to satisfy a bodily appetite. And it does not matter how imperious that appetite may be, it is not to be satisfied unlawfully. Eve saw that she had the opportunity of satisfying it, Jesus saw that He had the power. Eve was tempted to satisfy it by using an opportunity which God had not given her, Jesus by using a power which had been given Him for another purpose. It does not matter essentially whether it is to avoid starvation or merely for greater luxury, we sin with Eve if we seize an opportunity or take advantage of our position to do that for our body or outward estate which God has commanded us not to do.
2, The Second Temptation. — The second temptation was to the mind. " And that it was a delight to the eyes " — thus the temptation came to Eve. He "showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time" — thus it came to Jesus. Now the temptation to the mind does not come to every one. It does not come to those who are absorbed in the things of the body. The three temptations came to Eve because Eve is typical of the whole human race. And the three temptations came to Jesus, because He is typical also, and because He resisted them all. The temptation to the mind is higher ; it is a nobler temptation than the temptation to the body. There are those to whom the fragrance or beauty of the apple makes irresistible appeal, who would never be driven to do wrong merely in order to have it to eat. It is a subtler temptation also. We are willing to starve that we may hear good music or give ourselves a scientific education. And we cannot perceive that we are falling before a temptation. But music or science may be pursued for purely selfish ends. In their pursuit, too, some nearer duty may be neglected. And the fall is often obvious enough : a doubtful companionship, such as music sometimes