plead the covenant of God while you disregard its conditions; you a.re not to appro- priate promises that in no way apply to your character or conduct. CoNoLunmo REMARKS. 1. The battle of life is largely a battlef<Yr dai1y bread. In far northern regions it is extremely difficult; in the tropics it is exceedingly easy. It bas been well remarked that neither extreme has conduced much to the world's progress; it is_ fo~ the most !?art _the ~"'!ellers in the temperate zones, where labour for the support of hfe 1s only ordmanly d1fficult--equally removed from the extremes of severity and facility, that have helped onward the march of civilization, of science, of art; in a word, human improvement and human culture. 2. As we are to watch as well as pray to avoid temptation, so we are to labour as well as pray for daily bread-labouring as if all depended on our work, praying as though work formed no factor in the process. 3. The first temptation tended to carnal appetite and distrust of Providence; the last, to ambition and proud presumption on the Father's protection. The first presupposes want; the last, abundance. The frst teaches a lesson to the poor; the last, to the rich. And just as the wilderness was suitable to the first, so the world-famed city was a proper place for the last; for Jerusalem was the glory of Palestine, the pride of all the land, while " the temple was the glory of J erusalern, the pinnacle the highest point of the temple." 4. Observe the extremes in Satan's temptations-the first was to despair and to distrust in Providence ; the last, to pride and presumption. The tenor of the final suggestion was," Cast thyself down. If thou art supported by his providence, thou wilt be sustained by his protection. Cast thyself down. When people see thee fling thyself from the high precipice and receive no hurt, all men will then own thy God- head and acknowledge thy Divine commission. Jerusalem and the Jews will acknow- ledge it and admit thou art more than man-even ' the Messenger of the covenant,' coming suddenly and sublimely to his temple. The work of Messiahship shall be facilitated and shortened; while every one will be at once convinced of thy claims. Besides, when, or where, or how, could a better opportunity be had for declaring publicly and powerfully thy glory and thy Godhead, thy dignity and design?" And yet the arch-tempter was signally foiled anJ. the Saviour gloriously victorious. He bruised Satan's head; and in Christ and through Christ we-even we shall, by Divine grace, be enabled to bruise Satan, and that speedily, under our feet. 5. Satan, having com- pleted every temptation, that is, every typical form of temptation, as though all tempta- tions are resolvable into one of the three," departed from him," but only for a season, or rather until an opportunity (~XP• 1Ca1poii), that is to say, until another opportunity should occur or some new opportunity present itself, either by way of suffering or situation- negative endurance or positive enticement. 6. Angels ministered to him. The necessity for this arose from the desert district in which he found himself. The statement in St. Mark's narrative that "he was with the wild beasts" is generally understood to imply that the region was wild in the extreme, desolate, and full of terrors, like Virgil's "Vitam in sylvis inter deserta ferarum lustra domosque traho;" may it not rnther, or also, assign a reason for the ministering of angels mentioned in the nex.t clause, as rendered abso- lutely necessary from the total absence of all human help and distance from all the resources of civilized life? INTERVAL. Between the temptation, according to St. Mark's brief record, and our Lord's Galilean ministry many things had taken place, as we learn from the evangelist John. Into that interval a Judaian ministry of rather uncertain duration and of much importance must be interjected. We are dependent entirely on the fourth Gospel for the narrative of that ministry. But, though unrecorded by the synoptists, it is never- theless implied and referred to by them. CONNECTING LINKS. In the intervening period the following circumstances transpired: -1. The testimony of the Baptist to Jesus, already referred to; the adhesion of two of John's disciples to Jesus, .Andrew bringing his brother Simon to him; our Lord's return to Galilee, where Philip findeth Nathanael and bringeth him to Jesus; the marriage in Cana.. 2. Our Lord's first Passover at Jerusalem as the Son of God, the Messiah promised to the fathers, together with the expulsion of the traders; his discourse with Nicodemus, who came to him by night; his leaving Jerusalem, but remaining some time longer in Judrea; further, a final testimony of the Baptist; his setting out for Galilee after John's imprisonment; his discourse with the woman of Samaria at Ja.cob's well, n~ar Sychar, as he passed through Samaria on his way to Galilee; his return to Cana 68 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK, [ou, L 1-45.
and cure of the nobleman's son at Capemaum; his rejection at Nazareth and settled abode at Capernaum.-J. J. G.