Page:The Last Judgement and Second Coming of the Lord Illustrated.djvu/88

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charge concerning Thee; and in their hands they shall bear Thee up, lest at any time Thon dash Thy foot against a stone. Jesus said unto him, It is written again, thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God. Again, the devil taketh Him up into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth Him all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them; and saith unto Him, All these things will I give Thee, if Thou wilt fall down and worship me. Then saith Jesus unto him, Get thee hence, Satan; for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve. Then the devil leaveth Him, and behold angels came and ministered unto Him."[1] These, doubtless, were most extraordinary occurrences, and surely it cannot require any argument to prove that the actual scene in which they transpired was the spiritual world. The temptations by wicked spirits, and the comforts of angelic ministration, must each have come from their respective departments in the other life; and when the temptations were removed, illustrations from the latter were displayed. How pointedly did the Lord refer to the spiritual combats He had undertaken, when He said to Peter, who had drawn the sword in His defence, and struck a servant of the high-priest and smote off his ear, "Put up again thy sword into his place, for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?"[2] It was through the devil entering into Judas that the Lord was betrayed;[3] and to what else, but the terrible nature of His spiritual conflicts, can be referred the agony which he experienced in Gethsemane, in which "there appeared an angel unto Him from heaven, strengthening Him," and when "His sweat was as it were great

  1. Matt. iv. 5-11.
  2. Matt. xxvi. 51-53.
  3. John xiii. 2.