XVI.
IN THE DESERT.
When the people on the river banks looked around
for the wonderful Stranger they could find Him nowhere.
He had quietly left the place where He had
been glorified, and, climbing the steep side of a mountain,
had entered a lonely country full of barren rocks
and gloomy caves, a region rugged and dreary beyond
description. There He spent forty days and forty
nights, neither eating nor drinking. The wild creatures
of the wilderness were His only companions. The
tortoise came out of its rocky hole, the lizard darted
across His path as He walked. When evening fell He
heard far off on the mountain side the jackal's mournful
cry. Lions and leopards passed Him on their way
to a stream, or came up and fixed their great, wondering
eyes on Him as He knelt in prayer. He was their
Lord and Master, and He was sinless—they did not
harm Him.
After He had fasted forty days and forty nights the devil, who had been watching and suspecting, came to Him. He wanted to find out who this extraordinary man was. He knew that the time was at hand for His Coming who was to redeem the world and save us from sin and hell. Was this holy One the Redeemer, or only another of the prophets? If he was no more than man, He could be tempted and fall into sin like other men.
There are three desires which, unless resolutely checked lead people into sin—the desire of pleasure, such as the enjoyment of the body in eating and drink-
