DISCOURSE VI.

THE WEAPON IN CHRIST'S CONFLICT.*

"And Jesus, being full of the Holy Ghost, returned from Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being forty days tempted of the devil," etc.

LUKE, iv. 1-18.

MY DEAR CHRISTIAN FRIENDS,

ADMONISHED by the conflict of Jesus, of the combat which awaits us, assured from his victory that we too can overcome, it remains for us to examine the weapons by which He has conquered, and by which we too can conquer in our turn.

Before entering upon the subject, it would have been pleasing to dwell upon the preparation of Jesus for the conflict. It would have taught us what is requisite in order to be in a position of defence against the attacks of the tempter; and this is half the victory. But our theme expands with its study, and this discourse would be too long: we must confine ourselves to a statement of the main ideas.

Let us, at the outset, cast aside a slavish imitation which substitutes the letter for the spirit. In order to be conformed to the example of Jesus in preparing for his victory, we have no need to go to the desert to get rid of temptation. In order to be conformed to the example of Jesus in fasting forty days, we have no need, every year, to bind ourselves down to a forty days'

* Dr. Monod acknowledges, in a foot note to this sermon, his indebtedness in some of its paragraphs, to the sermon of Krummacher, on this same subject, found in this vol. ume.-TRANSL.

abstinence. By acting thus, we should expose ourselves to temptation, not guard against it. Here we should bear in mind a principle of which the imitator of Christ should never lose sight to imitate is not to copy.

Jesus was "filled with the Holy Ghost," when he was "baptized, and praying." This was the secret of his strength. Let us "pray without ceasing," that we may be "filled with the Holy Ghost;" for he who is "full of the Holy Ghost," is also "full of wisdom, of faith and of power."

Jesus has just been proclaimed by God "his beloved Son, in whom he is well pleased." This character, while it designates him as we have seen, for the tempter's attacks, strengthens him also against them, because it permits him to apply to God as to a "Father who hears him always." We need that "the Spirit should bear witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God," his well beloved children. We shall thereby be the more exposed to the assaults of the enemy; but also the better able to resist him: "Whosoever is born of God overcometh the world."

Jesus is "led by the Spirit" to meet the temptation, and he does not encounter it of his own accord: hence his confidence. Where God is the guide, God is likewise the defence. Let us not court danger. Peter paid dearly for having set at defiance all warnings, and forced his way into the temptation which, he had been told, would overcome him.* Let us do all we can in order that the trial may be spared us. If this cannot be, then we shall meet it with the freedom which springs from a good conscience, and with the strength which accompanies humility.

Finally, Jesus fasts before and during the temptation. This fasting which the devil makes use of against Jesus, gives at the same time new strength to Jesus against the devil. Our Saviour fasts, whilst praying, and in order that he might pray. His

* John xviii. 15, 16. When Jesus enters into the court of the high priest, John follows him, "because he was known of the high priest; " but Peter remains outside. John leaves the court on purpose, and speaks to the door-keeper that Peter may be admitted.

abstinence is explained to us by that of Moses, who, on two occasions, "fell down before the Lord forty days and forty nights, without eating bread or drinking water." An example which has been abused elsewhere, but which we have too much neglected. The use to which both Jesus and his Apostles apply fasting, shows us in that exercise, a means sometimes necessary to wrestle successfully against temptation: "This kind (of spirit) can come forth by nothing but by prayer and fasting." Besides, abstinence from food is connected with an abstinence more general, and always in season, which consists in subduing the flesh and its propensities: "I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection." "Make not provision for the flesh, to fulfill the lusts thereof." Satan has his footing in the flesh when the flesh is bridled, he loses his hold and is powerless.

Jesus being thus prepared, let us follow him to the enemy, and see by what weapons he obtains the victory.

The weapons of Jesus ?-say we rather the weapon, for he has but one; it is the Word of God. Three times tempted, three times he repels the temptation by a simple quotation from the Scriptures, without explanation or comment. 'It is written,”this one expression tells upon the tempter like a tremendous discharge upon an assaulting battalion. "It is written," the devil withdraws for the first time. "It is written," the devil withdraws for the second time. "It is written," the devil gives up the contest. God's word is the weapon which Satan most dreads a weapon before which he has never been able to do aught but succumb. Most justly does Paul call it "the sword of the Spirit ;" and John describes it, in the Revelation, as "a sharp, two-edged sword, proceeding out of the mouth of the Son of man." With that "sword of the Spirit" in our hands, our cause becomes that of the Holy Spirit himself, and we shall

*Rev. i. 16; ii. 16; xix. 15-21; Heb. iv. 12. "The word of God is quick and power

ful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart."

be as superior in strength to our adversary, as is the Spirit of God to the spirit of darkness. Without it, on the contrary, left to ourselves, we shall be as much below him as is man's nature below that of angels. Adam fell, only because he allowed this sword to drop. Jesus triumphs, because no one can wrest it from his hand. But why is it that the Son of God, instead of meeting the enemy with some new sword brought from the heavens whence he came, took up only our own weapon, from that very earth where Adam had, with such cowardice, left it? This is for our example. From what that weapon accomplished in his hand, we must learn what it can do in ours. us, then, take it up in our turn; or rather, let us receive it from him, re-sharpened, as it were, by his victory, and we shall have nothing to fear. To all the adversary's attacks let us oppose a simple "it is written," and we shall render vain his every endeavor.

Let

The devil would entangle you again in the snares of the world. He proceeds with consummate skill in this attempt. Insinuating himself into your company, he represents to you that it is scarcely compatible with charity that you should keep yourself so distant from the society of men; that a better way to win them over to the Gospel, would be to frequent their social meetings, thus showing them that your religion is not that of anchorites; lastly, that too many precautions do not become him who would grow strong in Christian virtue, and that there is no glory in a triumph obtained without peril. Thus speaks the tempter. If you only resist by your own understanding, you will be the more easily convinced, in proportion as your natural heart is but too much inclined to his suggestions. But you take up God's Word, if you answer in faith: It is written, "Be not conformed to this world "—this one quotation puts everything in its true place; the adversary is unmasked, and his malice confounded.

if

The devil would make you disbelieve that Christian faith is the only way to salvation. He takes you to some large square

in a great city, and pointing out to you the multitudes passing to and fro without intermission, he says: Can you really think that all these are on the road to perdition? Neither your understanding nor your heart can respond to such a doctrine. And yet, for the most part, these people do not believe in Jesus Christ; at least, their faith is not yours, not that of those like you. Is it true, then, that the only path to life everlasting is the little track in which you go? Are not your ideas on this subject narrow and unworthy of God? Thus argues the tempter. If you resist him only with your own wisdom, you will not hold out long against him; you will return from the fight uncertain, trembling, and spiritless. But if, taking up the Word of God, you unhesitatingly reply: It is written, "I am the way, the truth, and the life; no man cometh unto the Father, but by me the spell is destroyed," the snare is broken, and you are escaped" out of the hand of the perfidious fowler.

Once more, the devil wishes to take away from a faithful minister of Jesus Christ, all the vitality of his preaching. He recommends him not to be so inflexible, not to cry out "heresy " for such trifles, not to make heaven so inaccessible and salvation so difficult, and not to throw gloom over the goodness of grace by imaginations of a devil and a hell. This new course, by gaining him the good-will of all his hearers, will enable him to bring them more surely to the faith, and turn to a more profitable account the precious gifts which heaven has bestowed upon him. Thus advises the tempter. If you consult nothing but your own light to refute him, you must needs fall into the snare; so skillful is he to make good appear evil and evil good— to make light seem darkness and darkness light! But if you rest upon God's word, if you answer with assurance: It is written, "If any man preach any other Gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed "—the " strong man" has found a "stronger" than himself, and he has only to quit with consternation the field of battle.

Oh! if we did but know what the Word of God can effect