Let us not always say "Spite of this flesh to-day I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole ! " As the bird wings and sings, Let us cry "All good things Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!"2
' E. L. Hicks. ' B. Browning.
ST. MARK 53
IV.
The Wild Beasts.
*• He was with the wild beasts."
When our Lord was in the wilderness, He was not only tempted of Satan, but, as the evangelist takes pains to tell us. He "was with the wild beasts." How far was He in danger from them ? How far was He conscious of them ? What share did they have in His great temptation ? The fact that their presence is noted forbids us to regard Him as entirely indifferent to them. During the day they might be neither seen nor heard.
The sun ariseth, they gather themselves together, And lay down in their dens.
But—
Thou makest darkness, and it is night:
Wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth
Faint, shadowy forms pass by, gleams of otherwise unperceived light are focussed and reflected from strangely luminous eyes, stealthy movements may be just detected by the strained ear, and the night trembles with distant bowlings, or is perhaps startled by the hideous shriek of some jackal close at hand. How was He who had been driven of the Spirit into the wilderness affected by these sounds and sights ? Did He think of these " wild beasts " as imperilling His safety, as we should probably have done had we, unhoused, unguarded, without companions, been spending the hours of darkness in the desert wastes ?
^ What were they ? In referring to Kuser Hajla, near Jericho, Tristram says : " In its gorge we found a fine clump of date palms, — one old tree, and several younger ones clustered round it, apparently unknown to recent travellers, who state that the last palm tree has lately perished from the plains of Jericho. Near these palm trees, in the thick cover, we came upon the lair of a leopard or cheetah, with a well-beaten path, and the broad, round, unmistakable footmarks quite fresh, and evidently not more than a few hours old. However, the beast was not at
54 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
home for us. Doubtless it was one of these that M. de Saulcy took for the footprints of a lion. But inasmuch as there is no trace of the lion having occurred in modern times, while the others are familiar and common, we must be quite content with the leopard. Everywhere around us were the fresh traces of beasts of every kind; for two days ago a great portion of the plain had been overflowed. The wild boar had been rooting and treading on aU sides; the jackals had been hunting in packs over the soft oozy slime; the solitary wolf had been prowling about ; and many foxes bad singly been beating the district for game. The hyena, too, had taken his nocturnal ramble in search of carcases. None of these, however, could we see." ^ When in the Wady Hamam, again, in the district of Gennesaret, he says : " We never met with so many wild animals as on one of these days. First of all, a wild boar got out of some scrub close to us, as we were ascending the valley. Then a deer was started below ; ran up the chff, and wound along the ledge, passing close to us. Then a large ichneumon almost crossed my feet, and ran into a cleft ; and while endeavouring to trace him, I was amazed to see a brown Syrian bear clumsily but rapidly clamber down the rocks and cross the ravine. While working the ropes above, we could see the gazelles tripping lightly at the bottom of the valley, quite out of reach and sight of our companions at the foot of the cliff. Mr. Lowne, who was below, saw an otter, which came out of the water and stood and looked at him for a minute with surprise."*
IT In Eome, in the catacomb of S. Callixtus, there is a painting of Orpheus, and round him are depicted the wild beasts, tamed and hushed to listen while he plays. Though the representation is an uncommon one, it is generally agreed on all sides that its subject is really our Blessed Lord. The assumption is that the artist, though on every side of him there were evidences of what following Christ meant, though perhaps in his ears was still ringing the cry " The Christians to the lions," was so possessed with the idea of the love and protecting power of Him whom he owned as his Lord, that he painted Him as sitting unharmed though surrounded by wild beasts. His thoughts possibly went back to the old days when he had himself stood among the howling mob who, on a " Eoman Holiday," had seen some poor Christian writhing in utter isolation in the midst of the amphitheatre during that awful moment before the beasts were let loose upon their victims ; and now, not knowing how soon his own turn might come to experience the same ordeal, he depicted for his own en- couragement Christ sitting among the wild beasts. A writer in ^ Tristram, TJie Land of Israel, 245. * Ibid., 451.