Great moral problems are suggested by the temptation. Mark does not describe the nature of it, but leaves the imagination and cognate experience of his readers to fill up the spaces, or, having a different object from the other evangelists, he, supposing the details furnished by them well known, contents himself with an epitome. But it is an epitome of a very vivid and pregnant kind. The salient points alluded to by him are -

I. THE PREDISPOSING CAUSE OF IT. The temptation, singularly enough, follows "straightway" upon the baptism, in such a way as to establish the fact of a close connection between the two events; and that Spirit which crowned with its descent the act of obedience is the direct cause of Christ's being tempted. Is not this inconsistent with what we learn of God from the Bible? He is not, we are told, tempted of evil, "neither tempteth he any man."

1. It was necessary to the purpose of Christ's coming into the world that he should be tempted. As a portion, therefore, of his mediatorial experience and perfecting, it was quite fitting that the Spirit, through whom he had come, should lead him forward to each chief point of trial in his career. It is conceivable that one should approach evil from the side of an evil heart already predisposed to yield. But it belongs to the virtue of Christ's position as one tempted that he was led into it by the Spirit. It was - to translate a part of the meaning of this into familiar speech - it was "from the highest motives" that he submitted to temptation.

2. It was not the Spirit that tempted him, but it was through being in the condition induced by the indwelling of the Spirit that he became exposed to temptation in its most terrible forms. It is only as being in a higher spiritual state than that to which one's circumstances correspond that they can be truly said to tempt him. The greatest temptations are revealed in the highest spiritual experience, even as darkness by light. We can never appreciate the power of Satan until we look at him from a state of holiness and devout illumination.

II. THE AGENT OF IT. Mark uses the peculiar word "Satan," instead of "the devil," as in the other Gospels. The choice of this term may have been determined by a desire to emphasize the special character of the devil as "the adversary" whom he was to overthrow, or simply by an instinctive sense that thereby the personality, and the identification of that personality with the historic Satanic principle of revelation, would be made clearer. It was with no secondary being that Jesus wrestled, but with the prince of darkness himself. In such an encounter the conflict must needs be a duel, and even then was it determined beforehand in favor of the Son of God. But the allurements employed were necessarily of the most subtle and grandly representative character. It was a final trial of strength, upon which the future of salvation depended.

III. THE ASSOCIATIONS OF IT. The forty days in the wilderness reminded men of the similar fasts of Moses and Elijah. The wild beasts may have been an unconscious reproduction of the conditions of the Paradisaic temptation. The society of the wilderness was of the most contrastive and representative character: the Spirit - Satan; wild beasts - angels. As to the "wild beasts" (peculiar to Mark), Plumptre says, "In our Lord's time these might include the panther, the bear, the wolf, the hyena, possibly the lion." The implied thought is partly that their presence added to the terrors of the temptation, partly that in his being protected from them there was the fulfillment of the promise in the very psalm which furnished the tempter with his chief weapon, that the true child of God should trample underfoot "the lion and the adder," the "young lion and the dragon" (Psalm 91:13). De Wette considers this to be "a mere pictorial embellishment." Lunge holds that Christ's attitude "is a sovereign and peaceful one towards the beasts: they dare not hurt the Lord of creation, nor do they flee before him. Jesus takes away the curse also from the irrational creation (Romans 8.)." As to the angels, we are not to regard them as assisting him in his conflict with Satan, but succouring him in his exhaustion after it. He holds his court, as it were, on the very battle-field. In token of his victory, heaven pours itself forth in its fairest and best on the spot that but a little before was the ante-chamber of hell. - M.

An awful and mysterious passage in the life of One whose tastes and habits were the very opposite of those of the prophet of the desert — One who loved men and cities, free social intercourse, and scenes of active usefulness. No sooner does Jesus undergo the high consecration of baptism than, instead of stepping forth into public life, He flees to solitude. We cannot unveil the deep mystery of this season of thought and trial. But may we not suppose that when the Spirit descended on Christ, He who had so suffered the limitations of humanity as already to have needed to grow in wisdom and strength, may first have realized, in His human thought, the tremendous import of His mission, and at the same time may first have grasped the superhuman powers with which to work miracles? If so, overwhelmed with the vision before Him, He may well have sought solitude to meditate on His great work, to obtain inward mastery of His own stupendous powers, and to wrestle with and conquer the fearful temptations that would rise up, urging Him to desecrate those powers to selfish purposes.

I. CHRIST WAS TEMPTED. He was not only tested as by a touchstone, but by the more searching ordeal of a direct persuasion to evil. In all there is a lower as well as a higher nature, a self-interest as well as a conscience of duty. If Christ was tempted, it follows that(1) no innocence and no strength can make a soul unassailable by temptation, and(2) to feel the force of temptation is no proof of guilty compliance.

II. Christ was tempted BY SATAN. Temptation arises from without as well as from our own hearts. This is why the purest mind is liable to it.

III. Christ was tempted AT THE COMMENCEMENT OF HIS MISSION. The greatest obstacles often beset the first steps of a new course — in attempting a new work, in first attacking a bad habit, in entering on the Christian life. This tests genuineness and teaches humility, self-diffidence, and reliance on God. It is a great thing to begin the Christian campaign with a victory in the first battle.

IV. Christ was tempted WHEN UNDER HIGH SPIRITUAL INFLUENCES. "The Spirit driveth Him."

1. God permits, nay, requires, us to pass through the fire of temptation.

2. Great spiritual elation is often followed by deep depression.

3. New endowments bring new dangers. They who stand highest are in danger of falling lowest.

V. Christ was tempted IN THE WILDERNESS.

1. John found the desert the best scene for his life and work, Christ found it a region of evil influences. As one man's paradise may be the purgatory of another, so the haven of refuge of one may be his brother's most dangerous snare.

2. Christ was tempter in a solitary place. We cannot escape temptation by fleeing from the world; we carry the world with us to our retreat.

(W. F. Adeney, M. A.)

This wilderness has been identified, by the voice of tradition, in the Greek and Latin Churches, as that wild and lonely region between Jerusalem and the Dead Sea, called in modern geography, Quarantania. It is an extensive plateau, elevated to a considerable height above the plain of Jericho and the west bank of the Jordan; and hence the literal accuracy of the expression in St. Matthew, that Jesus was "led up" into the wilderness. Travellers have described it as a barren, sterile waste of painful whiteness, shut in on the west by a ridge of grey limestone hills, moulded into every conceivable shape; while on the east the view is closed by the gigantic wall of the Moab mountains, appearing very near at hand, but in reality a long way off, the deception being caused by the nature of the intervening ground, which possesses no marked features, no difference of colour on which to fix the eye for the purpose of forming an estimate of distance. Over this vast expanse of upland country there are signs of vegetation only in two or three places, where winter torrents have scooped out a channel for themselves, and stimulate year after year into brief existence narrow strips of verdure along their banks. The monotony of the landscape and the uniformity of its colouring are varied only when the glaring afternoon sun projects the shadows of the ghostly rocks across the plain, or, at rare intervals, when a snowy cloud, that seems as if born of the hills themselves, sails across the deep blue sky and casts down on the desolate scene the cool dark mantle of its shade. A more dreary and lonely scene it is impossible to imagine.

(H. Macmillan, LL. D.)

Here we learn that God is our Leader into all things which are good for our souls, and that even temptation may be good for us. The same Holy Spirit who led Jesus into the wilderness leads us thither too.

1. Christ went into a desert to make expiation for the sins which are committed in society.

2. He went to endure fasting for man's luxury; to suffer want for man's extravagance.

3. He went into the wilderness immediately after His baptism, teaching us thereby that those who are baptized should die from sin and rise again unto righteousness.

4. It is absolutely necessary for us all sometimes to stand aside from the busy crowd, and to seek quiet and retirement for prayer and self-examination, without which our spiritual life must grow feebler and fainter till it dies.

(H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M. A.)

Note that it was immediately after His baptism our Lord was led into the wilderness to be tempted. Satan, like a pirate, sets on a ship that is richly laden; so when a soul hath beer laden with spiritual comforts, now the devil will be shooting at him to rob him of all. The devil envies to see a soul feasted with spiritual joy. Joseph's parti-coloured coat made his brethren envy him and plot against him. After David had the good news of the pardon of his sin (which must needs fill with consolation), Satan presently tempted him to a new sin in numbering the people; and so all his comfort leaked out and was spilt.

(T. Watson.)

I. THAT THEY COME TO THE BEST OF MEN.

1. To test the work and progress of their moral character.

2. To impart to moral character new traits of beauty.

II. THAT THEY OFTEN FOLLOW TIMES OF HAPPY COMMUNION WITH GOD.

1. These altered conditions of soul are often sudden.

2. They are disciplinary.

3. They are unwelcome.

III. THAT THEY MARK IMPORTANT CRISES IN THE SPIRITUAL HISTORY OF THE GOOD.

1. They aid self-interpretation.

2. They give insight into the problem of sin.

3. They afford an opportunity of asserting moral supremacy.

IV. THAT THEY ARE FREQUENTLY FOLLOWED BY THE SOOTHING MINISTRIES OF HEAVEN.

1. These ministries are angelic.

2. They are personal.

3. They are opportune.

4. They are soothing.Lessons:

1. That temptation should not cause us to depreciate the worth of our moral character.

2. That temptation should increase our knowledge of self, and enhance the progress of our being.

3. That the devotions of the good should prepare them for struggle with evil.

4. That solitude is no safeguard against temptation.

5. That heavenly ministries are at the disposal of a tempted, but prayerful, soul.

6. That man has the power to resist the strongest opposition of hell.

(Joseph S. Exell, M. A.)

It was not a vision but an actual occur. fence between a personal Saviour and a personal devil.

I. THE CIRCUMSTANCES.

1. The time. After His baptism. Before His public ministry.

2. The place. It was solitary, dreary, dangerous.

3. The Divine agency. Appointed and regulated by God.

4. Angelic ministrations.

II. THE DETAILS.

1. To the use of unlawful means of extrication from difficulties.

2. To presumption on Divine support under self-sought dangers.

3. To spiritual idolatry.

III. ITS USES.

1. It tried His character as a man and as a Mediator.

2. It showed His power to overcome the devil.

3. It qualified Him to sympathize with His people.

IV. ITS LESSONS.

1. From the contrast between the issues of the temptation in paradise and of that in the wilderness.

2. From the instrument which was used in repelling the temptation. The sword of the Spirit.

3. From the hopes it inspires of victory over all our enemies.

(Various.)

From the baptism He went up, as it were, towards God as the "Beloved Son;" but from the temptation He comes earthward as the Son of Man. The Jordan lies on the heavenly, the wilderness on the earthly, side of Christ. There is a "river," but there is no wilderness, in heaven.

(Dr. Parker.)

I. Christ, having received the Spirit, EVER AFTER LIVED UNDER HIS IMMEDIATE GUIDANCE.

1. Everything that Christ said and did expressed the mind of the Spirit. In this respect He is an example.

2. The intensity with which Christ acted is expressed by the word "driveth."

3. The Spirit, as a leader, often takes into the wilderness,

II. Christ having been formally anointed to His offices, PREPARES HIMSELF BY FASTING AND PRAYER FOR HIS WORK. It was after Christ bad spent forty days in this employment that He was tempted. He afterwards acted in the same manner. Our example.

III. CHRIST HAVING RETIRED INTO THE WILDERNESS, HE ALLOWED HIMSELF TO BE TEMPTED OF THE DEVIL.

IV. The temptation of Christ FOLLOWED CLOSE UPON THE ENJOYMENT OF THE HIGHEST RELIGIOUS PRIVILEGES.

V. Christ was tempted IN A PLACE INTO WHICH THE SPIRIT HAD LED HIM.

VI. It is stated that Christ, during His stay in the wilderness, WAS WITH THE WILD BEASTS.

VII. On this and other occasions ANGELS MINISTERED TO CHRIST.

(Expository Outlines.)

I. SATAN, THE PRINCE OF DEVILS. Numbers of his agents. His apostasy, and ruin of man. His power on earth, a kingdom. Organized. Long almost undisputed.

II. CHRIST CAME TO DISPUTE HIS AUTHORITY. Took an affecting view of human vassalage.

III. SATAN, AWARE OF HIS ADVENT, UNDERTOOK TO CONDUCT HIS TEMPTATION. Made His life an incessant conflict.

IV. THE DEFEAT OF SATAN QUITE RECONCILABLE WITH HIS PRESENT PREVALENCE.

V. Called a spirit, TO EXCITE OUR VIGILANCE. An unclean spirit, to awaken our antipathy. His influence over the heart, great. But only exercised with our consent.

VI. THE PERIOD OF HIS REIGN LIMITED.

(J. Harris, D. D.)

I. ITS PERILS. Eve was tempted when she was alone; the suicide succumbs when he is pushed with the last degree of loneliness; the darkest thoughts of the conspirator becloud the mind when he has most deeply cut the social bond; when man is alone he loses the check of comparison with others; he miscalculates his force, and deems too little the antagonism that force may excite.

II. ITS ADVANTAGES. The risks of solitude are in proportion to its value. Man cannot reach his full stature in the market place or in association with the excited throng. The desert was to Christ a holy place after the initial battle. In the first instance He was led up into it to be tempted; but often afterwards to be comforted.

(Ecce Deus.)

Some people see nothing in the world but the wilderness, the devil, and the wild beasts. Resist these temptations, and thou wilt find it full of angels.

(R. Glover.)

The number forty seems to have had a special mystical meaning. Nine instances in the Bible of events which occurred for forty days or years.

1. The Flood.

2. Bodies embalmed forty days before burial.

3. Israel's wanderings.

4. Goliath's defiance of Israel.

5. Elijah fasted.

6. Ezekiel bore the iniquity of Judah.

7. Repentance of Nineveh.

8. Our Lord's temptation.

9. Interval between resurrection and ascension.

(H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M. A.)

The word temptation has three meanings in the Bible.

1. A trial of our faith, to bring out some hidden virtue. Thus Abraham was tempted of God.

2. A provoking to anger. Thus we tempt God (Psalm 95:9; Psalm 106:14). So we say of a provoking person that he has a trying temper.

3. A leading into sin. Thus we are tempted of the devil.

(H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M. A.)

? —

1. To strengthen our faith. The unused limb becomes weak and tender; the neglected instrument of music gets out of tune; the untouched weapon loses its keen edge. So, many a man knows nothing of self-denial until God tries him by a great sorrow.

2. To bring out latent good qualities.

3. To make us watchful. We must prove our armour. We must learn our weak points.

4. That He may one day give us our reward (James 1:12).

(H. J. Wilmot Buxton, M. A.)

Did Christ, then, merely suffer in the wilderness as any other man has done? Suffering is a question of nature. The educated man suffers more than the uneducated man; the poet probably suffers more than the mathematician; the commanding officer suffers more in a defeat than the common soldier. The more life, the more suffering: the billows of sorrow being in proportion to the volume of our manhood. Now Jesus Christ was not merely a man, He was Man; and by the very compass of His manhood, He suffered more than any mortal can endure. The storm may pass as fiercely over the shallow lake as over the Atlantic, but by its very volume the latter is more terribly shaken. No other man had come with Christ's ideas; in no other man was the element of self so entirely abnegated; no other man had offered such opposition to diabolic rule; all these circumstances combine to render Christ's temptation unique, yet not one of them puts Christ so far away as to prevent us finding in His temptation unfailing solace and strength.

(Joseph Parker, D. D.)

No sooner was Christ out of the water of baptism than He is thrust into the fire of temptation. So David, after his anointing, was hunted as a partridge upon the mountains. Israel is no sooner out of Egypt than Pharaoh pursues them. Hezekiah had no sooner left that solemn passover than Sennacherib comes up against him. St. Paul is assaulted with vile temptations after the abundance of his revelations; and Christ teaches us, after forgiveness of sins, to look for temptations, and to pray against them. While Jacob would be Laban's drudge and packhorse, all was well; but when once he began to flee, he makes after him with all his might. All was quiet enough at Ephesus before St. Paul came thither; but then "there arose no small stir about 'the way.'" All the while our Saviour lay in His father's shop, and meddled only with carpenter's chips, the devil troubled Him not; but now that He is to enter more publicly upon His office of mediatorship, the tempter pierceth His tender soul with many sorrows by solicitation to sin.

(John Trapp.)

The lion is said to be boldest in the storm. His roar, it is said, never sounds so loud as in the pauses of the thunder; and when the lightning flashes, brightest are the flashes of his cruel eye. Even so he who goeth about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, often seizes the hour of nature's greatest distress to assault us with his fiercest temptations. He tempted Job when he was bowed down with grief. He tempted Peter when he was weary with watching and heart broken with sorrow. And here, too, he tempts Jesus Christ when He is faint with hunger.

(T. Guthrie, D. D.)

Satan will lie in wait for the Christian in his time of weakness, even as the wild beasts do at the water side for the cattle coming to drink. Nay, when having resisted manfully, the Christian has driven off the enemy, he should look well that he be not wounded by the vanquished foe, who often makes a Parthian retreat.

(J. G. Pilkington.)

It is when a child of God is fullest of grace; when he has been declared to be a "son," even a "beloved son" of God; when he has made a public profession of Christianity, that he is most of all exposed to temptation. It seems strange, at first thought, that it should be so; but a little reflection dissipates the strangeness. Let me try to illustrate this. A toolmaker, I suppose, has finished an instrument, but it is not yet sent forth. Why Because he has not "tested" it. Well! Enter we his workshop. You look in and observe the process. Your first impression is, he is going to break it. But it is not so. Testing is not an injury. The perfect weapon comes out the stronger, and receives the stamp that will carry it over the world. Even so the testing and trying of the Christian is not an injury. He who has formed the believer for Himself is not going to break or destroy the work, the beautiful work of His own hands. He is purifying, fitting, fashioning, polishing. Carry this along with you, and you will understand how it comes about that at the very moment of your being "full" of the Holy Ghost, at the very moment of your announced sonship, you are most violently assailed.

(A. B. Grosart, D. D.)

I.SONSHIP DOES NOT EXEMPT FROM TEMPTATION.

II.TEMPTATION DOES NOT INVALIDATE SONSHIP.

III.TEMPTATION, RIGHTLY CONSIDERED, MAKES SONSHIP A LIFE AND POWER.

(J. Parker, D. D.)

Adam yielded; Christ overcame. Adam's sin contains all the sin of his children; Christ's victory contains all the victories of His people. There was the vice of all sinning in the one, and there was the virtue of all conquering in the other, When we sin we go down to that sin by the same steps which Adam trod, and when we foil the tempter, we do so with the same weapons that Christ wielded.

(Dean Vaughan.)

Man is like iron fresh from the mine. The worker of the rude metal will thrust a crude bar of it into the blazing furnace, and turn it hither and thither in the glowing fires, and then lay it on the anvil, and beat it with innumerable blows, and crush it between inexorable rollers, and plunge it into the smothering charcoal, and turn and thrust and temper it, till at length it is no longer the hard, brittle, half earthy material, but something different — tougher, stronger, purer, and more valuable. He does this that the worthless may become useful, and that iron ore may be converted into steel.

(S. Greg.)

At one o'clock precisely on the 25th of June, 1807, two boats put off from opposite banks of the Niemen, at the little town of Tilsit. They rowed towards a raft in the middle of the river. Out of each stepped a single individual, and the two met in a small wooden apartment on the raft, while cannon thundered from either shore, and the shout of the great armies on either side drowned the roar of artillery. The two persons were the Emperors Napoleon and Alexander, met to arrange the destinies of the human race. But how vastly more important the interview of the text; in the persons employed in it, in the nature of the transaction, in the result.

(T. Collins.)

Satan would convert Christ; darkness would blot out the light, or throw at least a shadow on its brightness; foulness would cast a stain on the white robe of purity; evil would triumph over good. But no I Light is stronger than darkness; good than evil. The Son looks up to the Father, and in that Divine strength casts the evil one behind Him, and is left alone on the field, more than conqueror.

(S. Greg.)

Sinlessness is negative, holiness is positive; and it was requisite that the "second Adam," like the first, should encounter the devil before His sinlessness could unfold into holiness.

(J. C. Jones.)

Run with the wind and you hardly know it is blowing. Run against it, and you are convinced of the existence of a resisting medium, and in direct proportion to the speed with which you run, will be your consciousness of the force by which you are opposed. Thus as long as you run with the devil and promptly do his behests, you may be inclined to deny his existence; disobey him, and you will be made painfully aware of his presence, and his endeavours to thwart all your efforts after good.

(J. C. Jones.)

Is this only one of those graphic touches which this vivid writer so often gives us? Was it a forcible way of describing a total absence of human sympathy? No doubt it served this purpose, but this was not all. When we recognise the correspondence between this and Adam's temptation, our thoughts fly at once to Paradise, and we remember that he too was with the wild beasts, and that God had given him dominion over them, and that during the brief duration of his innocence he must have exercised it unfearing and unfeared. And we fancy we can see in this short but pregnant sentence a hint that He who came to inaugurate an era of restoration, and bring back the times of man's innocence, was not unmindful of the lower creatures and their subjection to vanity. It was a promise of what should one day come to pass when broken harmonies should be restored, and the prediction in Job 5:23, receive its fulfilment. It matters little that we can point to no evidence of its accomplishment as yet, because with the Lord a thousand years are but as one day, and one day as a thousand years. There is no question that the hope was created, and that it laid hold upon the mind of the early Christians, in support of which we have the testimony of the Catacombs, where our Lord is so frequently represented in the character of Orpheus attracting wild animals of divers kinds by the sound of his lyre. The same was perpetuated by later legends, which made the surpassing goodness of St. Francis throw a spell of mysterious influence, not only over his fellow creatures, but over birds of the air and beasts of the field.

(H. M. Luckock, D. D.)

Before the fall Adam dwelt with the beasts on terms of closest friendship; but on the entrance of evil man grew cruel and beasts grew fiercer. But when Christ appeared, free from the taint of sin, the old relationship revived. The disturbed harmony of Eden was restored in the wilderness. Goodness is an unrivalled tamer of the animal creation, and Christ's sojourn with savage beasts is an infallible pledge of the millennium.

(J. C. Jones.)

There are many who deny the existence of any spiritual beings save God and man. The wide universe is to them a solitary land, without inhabitants. There is but one filled with living creatures. It is the earth on which we move; and we, who have from century to century crawled from birth to death, and fretted out our little lives upon this speck of stardust which sparkles amid a million, million others upon the mighty plain of infinite space, we are the only living spirits. There is something pitiable in this impertinence. It is a drop of dew in the lonely cup of a gentian, which imagines itself to be all the water in the universe. It is the summer midge which has never left its forest pool, dreaming that it and its companions are the only living creatures in earth or air. There is no proof of the existence of other beings than ourselves, but there is also no proof of the contrary. Apart from revelation, we can think about the subject as we please. But it does seem incredible that we alone should represent in the universe the image of God; and if in one solitary star another race of beings dwell, if we concede the existence of a single spirit other than ourselves, we have allowed the principle. The angelic world of which the Bible speaks is possible to faith.

(Stopford Brooke.)

Little is said [in the Bible] of angels. They are like the constellations in space; there is light enough to reveal, to show that they are; but more is needed to reveal all their nature and functions.

(Henry Batchelor.)

Their airy and gentle coming may well be compared to the glory of colours flung by the sun upon the morning clouds, that seem to be born just where they appear. Like a beam of light striking through some orifice, they shine upon Zacharias in the temple. As the morning light finds the flowers, so they found the mother of Jesus; and their message fell on her, pure as dewdrops on the lily. To the shepherds' eyes, they filled the midnight arch like auroral beams of light; but not as silently, for they sang more marvellously than when the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy. They communed with the Saviour in His glory of transfiguration, sustained Him in the anguish of the garden, watched Him at the tomb; and as they thronged the earth at His coming, so they seem to have hovered in the air in multitudes at the hour of His ascension. Beautiful as they seem, they are never mere poetical adornments. The occasions of their appearing are grand, the reasons weighty, and their demeanour suggests and befits the highest conception of superior beings. Their very coming and going is not with earthly movement. They are suddenly seen in the air, as one sees white clouds round out from the blue sky in a summer's day, that melt back even while one looks upon them. We could not imagine Christ's history without angelic love. The sun without clouds of silver and gold, the morning on the fields without dew-diamonds, but not the Saviour without His angels.

(H. W. Beecher.)

I have ever with me invisible friends and enemies. The consideration of mine enemies shall keep me from security, and make me fearful of doing aught to advantage them. The consideration of my spiritual friends shall comfort me against the terror of the other; shall remedy my solitariness; shall make me wary of doing aught indecently; grieving me rather that I have ever heretofore made them turn away their eyes for shame of that whereof I have not been ashamed; that I have no more enjoyed their society; that I have been no more affected with their presence. What, though I see them not? I believe them. I were no Christian if my faith were not as sure as my sense.

(Bp. Hall.)

It would require the tongue of angels themselves to recite all that we owe to these benign and vigilant guardians. They watch by the cradle of the newborn babe, and spread their celestial wings round the tottering steps of infancy. If the path of life be difficult and thorny, and evil spirits work us shame and woe, they sustain us; they bear the voice of our complaining, our supplication, our repentance, up to the foot of God's throne, and bring us back in return a pitying benediction to strengthen and to cheer. When passion and temptation arrive for the mastery, they encourage us to resist: when we conquer, they crown us; when we falter and fail, they compassionate and grieve over us; when we are obstinate in polluting our own souls, and perverted not only in act but in will, they leave us; and woe to them that are so left! But the good angel does not quit his charge until his protection is despised, rejected, and utterly repudiated. Wonderful one fervour of their love, wonderful their meekness and patience, who endure from day to day the spectacle of the unveiled human heart with all its miserable weaknesses and vanities, its inordinate desires and selfish purposes! Constant to us in death, they contend against the powers of darkness for the emancipated spirit.

(Mrs. Jameson.)

Andrew, Ephah, Isaiah, James, Jesus, John, Simon, Zabdi, ZebedeeCapernaum, Galilee, Jerusalem, Jordan River, Judea, Nazareth, Sea of Galilee, Wilderness of JudeaDesert, Drives, Driveth, Drove, Forth, Immediately, Impelled, Spirit, Straight, Straightway, Waste, Wilderness1. The office of John the Baptist.
9. Jesus is baptized;
12. tempted;
14. he preaches;
16. calls Peter, Andrew, James, and John;
23. heals one that had a demon;
29. Peter's mother in law;
32. many diseased persons;
40. and cleanses the leper.

Mark 1:12

     3045   Holy Spirit, sovereignty
     3263   Holy Spirit, guidance
     3269   Holy Spirit, in Christ
     4018   life, spiritual

Mark 1:12-13

     2075   Christ, sinless
     4230   desert
     5338   holiday
     5418   monotony
     5804   charm
     6022   sin, causes of
     8401   challenges
     8729   enemies, of Christ

What 'the Gospel' Is
The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ.--Mark i. 1 My purpose now is to point out some of the various connections in which the New Testament uses that familiar phrase, 'the gospel,' and briefly to gather some of the important thoughts which these suggest. Possibly the process may help to restore freshness to a word so well worn that it slips over our tongues almost unnoticed and excites little thought. The history of the word in the New Testament books is worth notice. It seldom occurs in those …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Christ's Touch
'Jesus put forth His hand, and touched him.'--Mark i. 41. Behold the servant of the Lord' might be the motto of this Gospel, and 'He went about doing good and healing' the summing up of its facts. We have in it comparatively few of our Lord's discourses, none of His longer, and not very many of His briefer ones. It contains but four parables. This Evangelist gives no miraculous birth as in Matthew, no angels adoring there as in Luke, no gazing into the secrets of Eternity, where the Word who afterwards …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

The Strong Forerunner and the Stronger Son
'The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; 2. As it is written in the prophets, Behold, I send My messenger before Thy face, which shall prepare Thy way before Thee. 3. The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make His paths straight. 4. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. 5. And there went out unto him all the land of Judaea, and they of Jerusalem, and were all baptized of him in …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Mighty in Word and Deed
'And they went into Capernaum; and straightway on the Sabbath day He entered into the synagogue, and taught. 22. And they were astonished at His doctrine: for He taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes. 23. And there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit; and he cried out, 24. Saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with Thee, Thou Jesus of Nazareth? art Thou come to destroy us? I know Thee who Thou art, the Holy One of God. 25. And Jesus rebuked him, saying, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

Healing and Service
'Simon's wife's mother lay sick of a fever; and straightway they tell Him of her: 31. And He came and took her by the hand, and raised her up; and the fever left her, and she ministered unto them.'--Mark i. 30, 31, R. V. This miracle is told us by three of the four Evangelists, and the comparison of their brief narratives is very interesting and instructive. We all know, I suppose, that the common tradition is that Mark was, in some sense, Peter's mouthpiece in this Gospel. The truthfulness of that …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Parable in a Miracle
'And there came a leper to Him, beseeching Him, and kneeling down to Him, and saying unto Him, If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean. 41. And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth His hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; he thou clean. 42. And as soon as He had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.'--Mark i. 40-42. Christ's miracles are called wonders--that is, deeds which, by their exceptional character, arrest attention and excite surprise. Further, …
Alexander Maclaren—Expositions of Holy Scripture

A Composite Picture.
It may be helpful to make the following summary of these allusions. 1. His times of prayer: His regular habit seems plainly to have been to devote the early morning hour to communion with His Father, and to depend upon that for constant guidance and instruction. This is suggested especially by Mark 1:35; and also by Isaiah 50:4-6 coupled with John 7:16 l.c., 8:28, and 12:49. In addition to this regular appointment, He sought other opportunities for secret prayer as special need arose; late at night …
S. D. (Samuel Dickey) Gordon—Quiet Talks on Prayer

The Way to the Kingdom
"The kingdom of God is at hand: repent ye, and believe the gospel." Mark 1:15 These words naturally lead us to consider, First, the nature of true religion, here termed by our Lord, "the kingdom of God," which, saith he, "is at hand;" and, Secondly, the way thereto, which he points out in those words, "Repent ye, and believe the gospel." I. 1. We are, First, to consider the nature of true religion, here termed by our Lord, "the kingdom of God." The same expression the great Apostle uses in his Epistle …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

The Repentance of Believers
"Repent ye, and believe the gospel." Mark 1:15. 1. It is generally supposed, that repentance and faith are only the gate of religion; that they are necessary only at the beginning of our Christian course, when we are setting out in the way to the kingdom. And this may seem to be confirmed by the great Apostle, where, exhorting the Hebrew Christians to "go on to perfection," he teaches them to leave these first "principles of the doctrine of Christ;" "not laying again the foundation of repentance …
John Wesley—Sermons on Several Occasions

The Lord and the Leper
The Lord Jesus Christ at this day has all power in heaven and in earth. He is charged with a divine energy to bless all who come to him for healing. Oh, that we may see today some great wonder of his power and grace! Oh, for one of the days of the Son of Man here and now! To that end it is absolutely needful that we should find a case for his spiritual power to work upon. Is there not one here in whom his grace may prove its omnipotence? Not you, ye good, ye self-righteous! You yield him no space …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 34: 1888

Faith and Repentance Inseparable
I. I shall commence my remarking that the gospel which Christ preached was, very plainly, a command. "Repent ye, and believe the gospel." Our Lord does condescend to reason. Often his ministry graciously acted out the old text, "Come, now, and let us reason together; though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as wool." He does persuade men by telling and forcible arguments, which should lead them to seek the salvation of their souls. He does invite men, and oh, how lovingly he woos them to be …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 8: 1863

Answer to Mr. W's First Objection.
I WILL first consider all Mr. W's objections to these literal stories. Mr. W. says in his preamble, before he comes to propose his objections in form: That these three miracles are not equally great, but differ in degree, is visible enough to every one that but cursorily reads, and compares their stories one with another.--The greatest of the three, and indeed the greatest miracle, that Jesus is supposed to have wrought, is that of Lazarus's resurrection; which, in truth, was a most prodigious miracle, …
Nathaniel Lardner—A Vindication of Three of Our Blessed Saviour's Miracles

The Fellowship of Prayer
THE FELLOWSHIP OF PRAYER "Be careful for nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God." -- Phil. 4:6 This timely exhortation stresses the fact that God's people should consult with Him in every matter pertaining to life. Unless they see the imperative necessity of prayer, and give it an important place in daily life, they cannot expect to be maintained by the ample resources of a generous Saviour. It is apparent that we cannot obtain …
T. M. Anderson—Prayer Availeth Much

Healing a Demoniac in a Synagogue.
(at Capernaum.) ^B Mark I. 21-28; ^C Luke . IV. 31-37. ^b 21 And they [Jesus and the four fishermen whom he called] go into { ^c he came down to} Capernaum, a city of Galilee. [Luke has just spoken of Nazareth, and he uses the expression "down to Capernaum" because the latter was on the lake shore while Nazareth was up in the mountains.] And ^b straightway on the sabbath day he entered into the synagogue and taught. { ^c was teaching them} ^b 22 And they were astonished at his teaching: for he taught …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

Jesus Heals a Leper and Creates Much Excitement.
^A Matt.VIII. 2-4; ^B Mark I. 40-45; ^C Luke V. 12-16. ^c 12 And it came to pass, while he was in one of the cities [it was a city of Galilee, but as it was not named, it is idle to conjecture which city it was], behold, ^b there cometh { ^a came} ^b to him a leper [There is much discussion as to what is here meant by leprosy. Two diseases now go by that name; viz., psoriasis and elephantiasis. There are also three varieties of psoriasis, namely, white, black and red. There are also three varieties …
J. W. McGarvey—The Four-Fold Gospel

The Way from Sin to Perfect Salvation.
We have learned that sin entered this world and that all mankind have sinned. We have also learned that Jesus came to save man from his sins. Now the question may arise in the mind of some, what must I do to be saved? We hope in this chapter to quote such scriptures as will plainly teach you the way of salvation, or how to be fully saved, and also the scriptures describing each experience. Repentance. The first step for the sinner is to repent. When on Pentecost men were pricked in their hearts …
Charles Ebert Orr—The Gospel Day

Jesus' Conception of Himself
252. When Jesus called forth the confession of Peter at Caesarea Philippi he brought into prominence the question which during the earlier stages of the Galilean ministry he had studiously kept in the background. This is no indication, however, that he was late in reaching a conclusion for himself concerning his relation to the kingdom which he was preaching. From the time of his baptism and temptation every manifestation of the inner facts of his life shows unhesitating confidence in the reality …
Rush Rhees—The Life of Jesus of Nazareth

John the Baptist
Matt. iii. 1-17; iv. 12; xiv. 1-12; Mark i. 1-14; vi. 14-29; Luke i. 5-25, 57-80; iii. 1-22; ix. 7-9; John i. 19-37; iii. 22-30. 72. The first reappearance of Jesus in the gospel story, after the temple scene in his twelfth year, is on the banks of the Jordan seeking baptism from the new prophet. One of the silent evidences of the greatness of Jesus is the fact that so great a character as John the Baptist stands in our thought simply as accessory to his life. For that the prophet of the wilderness …
Rush Rhees—The Life of Jesus of Nazareth

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