Rnd dirC1ct\y t.o ,fosus. Bntb l1carers wore <lonbtle~s rrgimled in the paternal communl• cation. Now, when we consider e.11 that Jesus hnd undertaken In accepting bnptism, he Furely bf\d a right to this essnrance, that as a Son he WI\B well-pleflsing in all bis con~ecrRt.('d life to the Father. It was upon this he fell back lu the lonely crisie of bi■ hiFtory (John XYi. 32). It was the only consolation left to him. And n similar assur- ance may be looked for by us if we are trying to follow in the footsteps of our Lord, Jt will in our case be a matter of free grace, nnd not of strict right; but it will In cou- eequence be all the more precious, Most likely we shall have lonely hours when we shall be d,•sertoo. by supposed friends, nnd be put upon our mettle as to our faith In the ever-present Father; but e.t such times the assure.nee that our conduct has been pleasiug in some measure to tbe Father, and that ho sympathizes with us in our work, will be the greatcst earthly consolation. If, in studying to show ourselves approved unto God, we are denied every other approval, we C9.n feel the Divine to be all-sufficient I III. 'WnAT ARE WI!: TO LEARN FROM THE INTERPOSED GENEALOGY? JesUB had jnst been assured of his Son~hip, according to St. Luke's history, and now the evange- list interpos<'.~ between the baptism and the temptation the gene!l.logy of his human nature, carrying it upwards, step by step, to God. The course taken is the reverse of Matthew'&. Writing for Jews, Matthew simply stuts with Abraham and descends to Joseph, the reputed father of Christ, and so fulfils all Jewish demands. But Luke, writing for e. wider Greek-speaking nuclience, begins with Jesus, the all-important Person, passes to Heli, Mary's father, and then upwards, step by step, past Abraham to Adam, nnd from Adam to God. Is it not to make out, in the first place, a wider relation for Jesus than Jewish prejudice would afford; to show, in fact, that be 'is related by blood to the whole buma.n family, and contemplates in the broadest spirit its salvation? In the second place, does the genealogy not clearly imply a direct relation between human nature and God? Man wns made at first in the Divine image. This fact affords the basis and the key to the Incarnation. The Divine can unite with the human, since the human was originally the image of the Divine. This relation to GoJ, this spark of Di'l·inity within human nature, constitutes even still man's chief glory. "'According to the gospel of the Spirit, Adam is the son of God; according to the gospel of the senses, man is the son of an atom. . . , If the former prove to be the true rlescent of me.a, then we nre capable of religion, and we live in some personM relation- ship to a Being higher than ourselves, from whom we came." 1 We accept, with Luke, as truth the Divine "descent of man," whatever analogies may be marle out between man and the beasts. It is surely evidence of our degradation that this Divine descent. should be called in question, and its demonstrations disregarded. In the third place, we have to notice that some of Christ's ancestors were not very creditable-the" bar sinister" enters once or twice, e.s in the case of 'l'hsmar and of Rahab; yet this only ~hows that he owed nothing to his pedigree, but was willing to be related to all kinds uf people that he might become their Saviour.1 Let UB, then, rejoice in the relation tbus established between the eternal Son of God and the human race; and may that. Divine image, implanted in the race at first, have its glorious renewal in our individual experiA'lce !-R. M. E.
EXPOSITION, any of the scenes of the publio ministry CHAPTER IV. related by the evangelists. Ven. 1-13.-TW!: TDI.PTATIOlf. It iB related at some length by SS. Mat- The consecration of otll' Lord in his bap- thew and Luke, with very slight difference tism was irumcdis.tely followed by what is of detail, the principal one being the order known as his temptation. It iB, perhaps, the in which the three great temptations oc- moet mysterioWI and least underetood of curred. In St, Mark the notice of thi1
1 • The ReligioW! Feeling,' by Dr. New111an Smyth, p. 9. 1 Cf. ArnJt'11 'Lebon Jt1su,' t1rsLcr thuil, H. 0, 10, mr. rv. t-«.] TIIE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO B'l'. LUKE.