The Pulpit Commentary — Matthew — Volume 1 — Section 134

evangelist. 2. Following <Jhrist. Multitudes felt the spell rf his presence, and were drawn to him with an enthusiasm of devotion. In too many cases this was but a superficial, temporary movement. It is possible to follow Christ by outward action in Church-life, and not to be his true disciples inwardly. The inward following is just the very heart and essence of Christianity. A Christian is not one who merely believes certain things about Christ, but one who also follows him.-W. F. A. Ver. !.-The preliminaries of the ordeal temptations of Je3us Christ, The baptism of water, to which Jesus Christ had submitted in obedience to the human nature which he had assumed, and to the couditions under which he had assumed it, is now succeeded by the more significant, far more intrinsic, inward baptism of temptation. Let us here consider- !. WHAT THIB BAPTISM OF TEMPTATION REALLY MEANS AND .A.MOUNTS TO. Jt means a.testing, practical investigation into (1) the moral direction of a man's will; and (2) the strength of it in that direction. The present associations of the word and the thing temptation in the minds of ·us all are perhaps almost without exception of an unfavourable kind. It arises from the fact that temptation in the original example of it, and in the infinite majority of all cases from that time to the present, issued in disaster. Our way, therefore, is both to dread it for ourselves, and to attach a bad name to it. But if the issue of the original temptation had been the opposite of what. it was, and had the amazing majority of all succeeding cases taken pattern of it, we can easily imagine how the mere utterance of the word would have availed to strike a. Joyous key-note; and the word itself been the watchword of noble endeav_our and enthusiastic effort. Till Jesus, however, the word knew no association of this kind. It is, then, in this sense tha.t Jesus and temptation are brought into relation. Bis mora.l bent and the strength of it a.re to be as really and as fairly tested as were those of the first Adam. Nor is it less evident that, while the temptation-test of the first Adam was presented to him in the simplest possible form, and when he was no way "a- hungred," that of the second Adam is described in brief in that threefold form which stands for all the rest as regards its matter, and with every accompanying circumstauce of aggravation. II. AT WHOSE INSTANCE THE DATE OF IT WAB DETERMINED. Though Jesns was always moved by the Holy Spirit, yet it is here with distinct emphasis saicl, "He was .J.ed by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." In tha.t dimmest background of time to which the garden of Eden belongs, it is at present impos11ible to institute comparison between the age of Adam and that of Christ on the days of their temptation respectively; but it may be held that there is a ripe time, an exact time, in the life of every man, known to the Spirit and appropriated by the Spirit, for the critical-temptation of life. It is true that we cannot say that temptation is, except in a few cases, the final, deciding one, so far as time is concerned; but perhaps oftener than men think it is to solemn truth the crucial one, the one on which hinge many succeeding victories, each ma.de easier, or disgraceful defeats, each less regretted and less striven e.ga.inst. Surely it is legitimate and real source of comfort for all those who seek the right, and would do faithfully the battle with the tempter, to have thia view of the time and occasion of the battle put before them on such high authority, that they are adapted and timed of the Spirit. It may also well be observed here that so surely as the Spirit led, so meekly Jesus followed. He followed without resistance, without murmur, and without shrinking, so far as his own couflict or humiliation in meeting such an enemy was concerned. Calm submission before conflict, stea,lfast determination to encounter the enemy in the path of our life, and unfaltering trust in the Stro;nger than self,-these are the omens that go before the successful as well as the valiant spiritual wa.rrior, III. THE PLACE OF THE TEMPTATION. It can scarcely be sustained that the "wilderness" (described here by the same word as in vers. 1 and 3 of the previous chapter) denotes absolutely desert tracts of country. It must probably mean the same as in the former chapter, the thinly inhabited and vaster pastoral stretches of country. '!'here can be no doubt, however, that some point is to be understood as made in this kind of scene or theatre being appointed for Christ's.temptation. In the world's actual life the occasion of temptation abounds in the crowd and in the solitary place. It is 124 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MAT'fHEW. (oit. rv.1-25.