I.

THE LEADING INTO THE WILDERNESS.

TOGETHER with the consecration and anointing of our Lord to the mediatorial office by the water of the Jordan, and the baptism of the Holy Ghost, did Jesus receive from heaven the divine testimony that he was the only begotten Son of God in whom the Father was well pleased. (Matt. iii. 16, 17.)

The Sonship of our Lord, and his essential unity with the Father, appear to have been to him, in the days of his flesh, more an object of faith than of sight, perception, or feeling. At moments, at least, he could, in such a manner, conceal his Godhead from his view, and hide it in the back ground, that he apprehended it only in simple faith on the bare word of the Father.

It was not for the disciples only, but for himself also, that the voice was heard on different occasions from heaven, "This is my beloved Son"-for himself, to strengthen his faith, which, sometimes, as for instance, when he was forsaken of the Father on the Cross, was bare and simple trust in the Father's love, without any sensible experience of that endearing relationship. (Matt. xxvii. 46.)

Consecrated and divinely invested with his priestly office, Jesus immediately hastened into the depths of

the wilderness. He who led him, was, according to the evangelists, the Holy Ghost. (Verse 1. Mark

i. 12.)

Was the Saviour aware for what led him into the wilderness?

purpose the Spirit Perhaps only in part; the great and special cause the Father may have concealed from him. We learn also from our own experience, that it is not always the will of the Holy Ghost to make known to us beforehand his designs in leading

us.

He not unfrequently conducts us in entire darkness. We are conscious of his inward call," Arise, and depart to such a place, or in such circumstances, or at such a time." We ask, "why? for what purpose?" but receive no answer. The command is only given yet louder, and with more urgency in our heart, “Go, haste, delay not." We inquire again, what can be the meaning of this internal impulse, but it remains a mystery. We must proceed in darkness, and should we object, the probability is a tumult in the conscience, and a bitter feeling of the divine displeasure in our soul. We must go, we are obliged, and not till afterwards is made known to us the reason. (John xiii. 7.) Here, Philip finds a chamberlain who has been awaiting his exposition of the Scriptures, (Acts viii. 27.) and there, Elijah meets a widow, whose soul he should enrich with heavenly treasure. (1 Kings xvii. 10.) At one place a disconsolate brother cries to us, even when yet we are a great way off, "Ah, you come to me as an angel sent from God;" and in another place it is made manifest to us, in a different way, wherefore the Spirit hath called and sent us: either the sun arises upon our path, and all becomes clear and bright around us, or

the Spirit gives us some slight intimations of his purpose; but all beyond this, and that which is most important, he keeps back, hidden from our eyes.

One says, I must retire to my chamber to pray, or go to such a house to succour and assist an afflicted brother, or to a particular place to render some special service; but of all that which is designed for us in such places, more than the service, assistance, or prayerthat we shall wrestle with God, (Gen. xxxii. 24.) or become humble and contrite in spirit, (Isaiah lvii. 15; Ixvi. 2.) or pass through the purifying furnace, (Mal. iii. 3. Isai. xlviii. 10.) or meet the hosts of Mahanaim, (Gen. xxxii. 1, 2.) or whatever it may be--of all this no mention has been made to us. It shall become known to us hereafter in the way of experience.

It seems to have been thus with our Saviour. He went into the wilderness half in light and half in darkness. Perhaps he knew only generally, that he must go into the wilderness to fast, suffer want, and endure hardship, and in the depths of extreme humiliation and poverty enter upon the work of his priesthood. So much the Spirit unfolded to him, but the severe, the fearful temptation which awaited him appears, according to the counsel of the Father, to have been carefully hidden from his view. The unexpectedness of the assault would add severity to the conflict, that the triumph might be the greater and more glorious.

II.

THE FAST.

JESUS went into the wilderness to fast. So far extended his light at that time, and yet farther to its great design, its mysterious signification. Was not then the fast of Jesus in the special plan of him who led him into the wilderness? By all means. That he should be so tried was according to the purpose of God, but only a part of it.

Do you ask, then, on what account it was necessary that Jesus should fast, and why in such a dreadful solitude so painfully, so long-forty days and forty nights? In reply, I would remark, that it was of a very different description from that of Moses on Mount Sinai, and other saints.

The fast of Jesus was something more than a devotional exercise and preparation for the priestly office, it was an initiatory work of sacrifice. The key, not only of the temptation, but of the fast of our Lord, is to be found behind the gate of a lost paradise. It is an expiation for Adam's eating of the forbidden tree, (Gen. iii. 6.) an atonement for his guilt, a satisfying passion.

Did the progenitor of the human race dwell in the

happy plains of paradise? We behold the second Adam in the desolate wilderness. Did the first man, who was of the earth, earthy, (1 Cor. xv. 47.) live amidst lovely trees and delicious fruits in the garden of Eden? The second man, who is the Lord from heaven, must endure hunger in a wilderness, amid stones and rank weeds, where not an ear of corn grew to relieve the extreme necessity of his nature. Did our forefather enjoy the most delightful communion with God and the holy angels, and the society of his spotless wife? Jesus, on the contrary, was banished into the most gloomy desert; he was with the wild beasts, as Mark informs us, (Mark i. 13.) and with the old serpent, with Satan and his angels. O, how great the contrast! But thus it was ordained of God.

Our Surety and Representative, by fasting and suffering want in the dreary and inhospitable wilderness, made atonement in the sinner's stead, for the sinful presumption with which Adam, in the face of an express divine warning and threat, stretched forth his hand to the fruit of the forbidden tree. This he did for his people, and they have no farther atonement to make to all eternity.

But you by whom the everlasting satisfaction of the Lamb of God is not estimated aright; you see in the circumstances of our Lord in the wilderness, a true portrait of your own coming destiny. Thus must you ever dwell in the eternal wilderness, and when you are an hungered, they shall thrust a stone into your mouth instead of bread; and when you shall suffer thirst, you must swallow flames instead of water, and you shall live as though among wild beasts and hissing