1 W. L. Walker, The True Christ, 51.
2 G. H. Morrison, Flood-Tide, 212. ST. MARK. — 2
i8 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
living relations with a living person, rather than in the adoption of opinions or of habits ? that under it the believer is, not the man who maintains the doctrine of the Trinity, or holds " justification by faith," but the man who has " come to " Christ, and " abides in " Him ? ^
IT I think it is the keeping of all the parts of Christian truth in due connection with and subordination to the central truth that makes some High Churchmen so "evangelical." People expect to hear them talk of nothing but the Church and the Priesthood and the Sacraments, and they find that there is one subject which towers above them all, and gives life to all. First, and before all, or rather in and through all, they preach Christ. That is Apostolic preaching — for the first Christians, it has been said, did not believe in Christianity, they believed in Christ. ^
0 Jesu, better than Thy gifts Art Thou Thine only Self to us!
Palm branch its triumph, harp uplifts Its triumph-note melodious:
But what are such to such as we ?
0 Jesu, better than Thy saints Art Thou Thine only Self to us!
The heart faints and the spirit faints For only Thee all-Glorious,
For Thee, 0 only Lord, for Thee.^
» T. D. Bernard.
' A. L. Moore, The Message of the Gospel, p. 23.
8 C. G. Rossetti.
The Temptation.
Literature.
Bamford (A, J.), Things that are Made, 129. Barrett (G. S.), The Temptation of Christ, 45.
Brooks (Phillips), Sermons for the Principal Festivals and Fasts of the Church Year, 130. „ „ The Spiritual Man, 47.
Davidson (A. B.), Waiting upon God, 109. Dods (M.), Christ and Man, 1. Fairbairn (A. M.), Studies in the Life of Christ, 80. Gordon (S. D.), Quiet Talks about the Tem/pter. Gore (C), Dissertations on Siobjects connected with the Incwrnation, 21. Hall (A. C. A.), The Example of our Lord, 59.
„ „ GhrisVs Temptation and Ours, 29.
Hicks (E. L.), Addresses on the Temptation, 1. Hodges (G.), The Human Nature of the Saints, 61. Jerdan (C), Gospel Milk and Honey, 342. Knight (H. J. C), The Temptation of our Lord. Latham (H.), Pastor Pastorwm, 112. Matheson (G.), Leaves for Quiet Moments, 99. „ „ Times of Retirement, 68.
„ „ Voices of the Spirit, 97.
Nicoll (W. E.), Ten-Minute Sermons, 65.
Palmer (A. S.), The Motherhood of God, 33.
Pearse (M. G.), The Gospel for the Day, 60.
Kawnsley (L. R.), The Temptations of our Lord, 1, 55.
Ross (G. A. J.), The Universality of Jesus, 85.
Smith (G. A.), The Forgiveness of Sins, 61.
Stewart (A. M.), The Temptation of Jesus, 17.
Trench (R. C), Studies in the Gospels, 1.
Vaughan (D. J.), The Present Trial of Faith, 174.
Whyte (A.), The Walk, Conversation, and Character of Jesus C/iiist our Lord, 105 .
Wright (T. H.), The Shrine of Faith, 89.
Christian World Pulpit, xliii. 69 (Rae) ; Ixix. 139 (Brunskill).
Expositor, 6th Ser., i. 193 (Whitefoord).
The Temptation.
And straightway the Spirit driveth him forth into the v/ilderness. And he was in the wilderness forty days tempted of Satan ; and he was with the wild beasts ; and the angels ministered unto him.— i. 12, 13.
These two verses contain St. Mark's account of the temptation of Jesus. He does not describe the three separate acts of temptation which are given both in St. Matthew and in St. Luke. But he has some features of his own. They are expressed in the words " immediately," " driven," " wild beasts."
Altogether St. Mark's description of the Temptation contains five parts, which may be considered in order —
1. The Driving of the Spirit.
2. The Wilderness.
3. Satan.
4. The Wild Beasts.
5. The Ministering Angels.
I.
The Driving of the Spirit.
"And straightway the Spirit driveth lilra."
Our classical scholars have a recognised rule that they observe as often as they are engaged upon an ancient manuscript. The rule is to this effect : that the more difficult any reading is, the more likely it is to be the true reading. Now each of the three evangelists, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, has his own peculiar reading in the way he narrates to us the manner of our Lord's entrance upon His time of temptation. And since that threefold variation of theirs allows, and indeed
22 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
invites me to take my free choice among those three readings of theirs, I have no hesitation, for my part, in preferring the reading of Mark before the other two. For if his reading is at first sight the most difficult to receive, afterwards it becomes the most lifelike, the most arresting, the most suggestive, of the three offered readings. And all that goes to prove to me that Mark's reading is the true and original reading, and that the other two readings have, so to speak, been toned down from it. "And immediately the Spirit driveth him into the wilderness." ^
i. Steaightway.
1. "Immediately" (or "straightway," R.V.) is one of St. Mark's great words. He uses it forty- one times, while St. Matthew uses it nineteen times, and St. Luke only seven times. Matthew here uses " then," Luke simply " and." Each Evangelist, however, has some word of connection.