CHRIST TEMPTED. there can be no peace in life, no hope||would condescend to be thus temptin death, no entrance into heaven.-ed? The rashness of thine adversaBishop Dehon. ry is exceeded by thine own humility. If a state of innocence could have afforded an exemption, the first Adam would not have been thus assaulted, much less the second. But, O gracious Lord, how glorious was it for thee, how happy for us, that thou wert tempted? Hadst thou not been assailed, how shouldst thou have over The water of baptism is succeeded by the fire of temptation. The holy Spirit of God hath no sooner descended upon the blessed Jesus, than he is called on to encounter the powers of darkness. The more we are en-come? gaged in the sesvice of God by our public vows, and by the divine favour, the more is the rage of Satan exasperated against us. When we come forward into the field of battle, as members of a militant Church, he heaven-the first was tempted, and labours to wrest our weapons from was subdued-the second was temptour hands, or artfully to turn themed, and overcame. How boldly then against ourselves. Without a conflict there can be no triumph, no victory-how had thy power been manifested, if no antagonist had waged war against thee? The first man is of the earth, earthly -the second man is the Lord from may we approach the throne of grace, The voice from Heaven had ac- to obtain mercy, and find seasonable knowledged Christ to be the Son of assistance in time of need? We God. This glorious testimony does have not a Saviour who cannot be but inflame the malice of the enemy. touched with the feeling of our infirThe serpent swells with more malig-mities; but was in all points temptnant poison, and hastens to assaulted like as we are, yet without sin.Him, whom God hath honoured from Lord, in viewing thy conflict with his throne. O Lord, how shall a thine adversary, we see the mann r mortal escape that wicked one, when of his assault-we see how he is rethe Son of thy love could not be freesisted, how he is overcome. If the --when grace itself draws on enmi-sins to which he tempts us are of the ty? Will he who spared not to most atrocious nature, we remember strike at the Head, forbear to attack that thou wast solicited to infidelity, the members? Arm thou us, O God, to covetousness, to idolatry. Being with expectation of that evil we can- troubled on every side, we are not not avoid-make thou us as intrepid, perplexed-being persecuted, we are as the tempter is malicious-let thy not in despair. How glorious was it strength be made perfect in our weak- for thee therefore, O Saviour, how ness-so we shall be more than con-happy for thy servants, that thou wert querors through Him that loveth us. tempted! During the time that our Saviour But whither, O blessed Jesus, didst dwelt in his peaceful retirement, Sa-thou go, to encounter thine adversatan bent not his forces against him-ry, and ours? That the glory of thy now, that he meditates the public ex- victory might be greater, thou didst ercise of his sacred office, he must be retire into the waste howling wilderprepared for all the fiery darts of the ness, the haunt of wild beasts, a wicked. O Saviour, who can suffi-scene of horrour and desolation. ciently wonder at the presumption of that apostate spirit, who dares oppose himself to the Son of the everliving God? Who can sufficiently admire thy meekness and patience, which There didst thou remain during the space of forty days, fasting, solitary, exposed to the various attacks of the malicious enemy. The time of thy rigorous abstinence corresponded with that of thy great fore-runners, of Mo-ons of his warfare, where they are ses and Elias. At the accomplish- most likely to sink deep in the soul. ment of the law, and the promulga- In every temptation there is an aption of the gospel, thou the Redeem-pearance of good-whether it respects er of mankind, thoughtest fit to fast the mind, the body, or the estate.forty days and forty nights, that (by The lust of the flesh, the lust of the an act designed for our wonder, rath-eyes, and the pride of life, oppose er than our precise imitation) thou themselves to our various duties.mightest teach us how to invest our- The progenitor of mankind was asselves with spiritual armour. saulted by these, and was subdued— He who would suffer death for our the Redeemer was tempted by them, sakes, would also suffer hunger-in and was triumphant. The stones the fast, he manifested his mighty were to be made bread-the_guard power in the cessation of it, the of angels was to be presumed ontruth of his manhood. Moses and the kingdoms of the world and the Elias, through the miraculous sup- glory of them were to be purchased port afforded them from above, had by apostacy and profanation. fasted as long a time-after these Satan was not a stranger to the reprecedents, the Author of our salva-cord, which God had given of his betion abstained from food, till he deem-loved Son. The message and the ed it expedient to prevent all cavils acclamations of the heavenly host-against the verity of his human nature. To prove, that there was no difference between him and his crea tures (save only that he was exempt from sin) he would be supported with food-would fast-would hunger. O Saviour, why should thy children be discouraged, in the want of earthly comforts, when they behold thee thus destitute of society, and voluntarily abstaining from sustenance? the supernatural light of the starthe homage of the eastern sages-the testimony of more than one faithful servant of God the various predictions of the inspired prophets-all these were present to his mind. Yet, now, beholding the object of his jealousy and malice oppressed with hunger, and not comprehending how such infirmities were consistent with his divine nature, he presumes to approach him with a supposition, in itself the grossest of all calumnies— No sooner does Christ begin to suffer hunger, than the adversary is at hand with his temptations. Vain-" If thou be the Son of God." On ly supposing that he has espied a vul- the establishment of his truth nothing nerable part, he commences his as- less depends, than the eternal salvasault without delay. We have a foe tion of mankind. How should he no less vigilant than malicious-one have ransomed the sentence of death, who will watch every opportunity to how should he have reconciled all injure us-one who will not forego things to himself, whether they be the least possible advantage. How things on earth or things in heaven, should we guard ourselves against this had he been otherwise than the Son mighty adversary! How should we of God? To undermine this imporlabour for our own safety, while he tant basis of our faith, has ever been seeks with so much activity to effect the grand object of our spiritual eneour destruction! my-to assert, and to maintain this Our Saviour was an hungred-Sa-truth, must ever be the Christian's tan tempts him in respect to food-he||glory. knew, that this was not the moment for avarice or ambition to offer their illusions he adapts the trial to the circumstances he directs the weap There is nothing more common with our spiritual enemy, than to take occasion by our wants to move us to sin. He seeks to tempt our Saviour may Indifference in Matters of Religion. 271 INDIFFERENCE IN MATTERS OF RELIGION. to distrust the providence of his eter-|| -to deliver their soul from death, nal Father, to abuse his marvelous and to feed them in time of famine." powers, to work a miracle at the sug- -Bishop Hall. gestion of hell. It had been easy for thee, blessed Lord, to have soiled thine adversary by the exertion of thine omnipotence-but thou wouldst vanquish him by the sword of thy In the history of christianity naspirit, to teach us how to resist and tions begin and terminate. They overcome the powers of darkness.-pass away with their customs, their Assisted by this divine armour, we laws, their opinions, and their scialso be victorious. Nothing can enees. One only doctrine continues resist an assault of this perilous na- always to be believed, notwithstandture, but the revelation of our God ing the interest which the passions "Teach me, O Lord, the way of have to prevent its being believed. thy statutes-O take not the word of Always immoveable in the midst of thy truth utterly out of my mouth. the rapid changes of society, conLet thy testimonies be my delight stanly attached and always justified: and my counsellors-let those be my ever safe from the changes which songs in the house of my pilgrimage; successive centuries bring on the so shall I make answer unto my blas- most solid institutions, and the most phemers for my trust is in thy word. accredited systems, it is always more Our Saviour shews the tempter astonishing and more admired in profrom the highest of all authority, that portion as it it is more examined.his suggestions are unfounded that The consolation of the poor and the man lives, not merely by his daily highest hope of the rich; the ægis of food, but by every word that pro- the people and the restraint of kings; ceedeth out of the mouth of God ;- the law of the power which it modwho can either support his creatures erates, and of the obedience it sancwithout bread, or give it them by tifies; it is a doctrine humble as well miracle, or multiply miraculously as profound; simple yet magnificent; that which is given. All things are a doctrine which subjugates the most sustained by that almighty word powerful genius by its sublimity, and which created them. We live by proportions itself by the clearness of bread, but God makes it the means its light, to the most feedle intellect. of our preservation-through his pro-In fine, an indestructible doctrine, vidence alone it affords us nourishment. Should he withdraw his hand from his creatures, they would languish and expire-in the midst of abundance they would inevitably perish. "When thou hidest thy face they are troubled-when thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust." Why do we turn our eyes to the instrument, and forget that gracious power who gives it efficacy?" Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord Jehovah-and blessed is the folk that he hath chosen to him to be his inheritance.— Behold, the eye of the Lord is upon them that put their trust in his mercy which resists every thing triumphs over every thing; over violence and contempt, over sophisms and scaffolds, and powerful in its antiquity, it victorious evidences, and its benefits, seems to reign over the human mind by right of birth, of conquest and of love." Such is the religion, which some men have chosen to make the object of their indifference. What Bossuet, Pascal, Fenelon, Despartes, Newton, Leibnitz, Euler, believed, after the most attentive examination, what was the continual subject of their meditation, is not judged worthy of a moments thought. In despising chris tianity, without understanding it, they think to raise themselves above all the genius and virtue which has appeared on the earth during eighteen centuries; and, absurdly proud of a careless disdain for the truth, whatever it be, they are inflated because they keep up a neutrality of ignorance between the doctrine which produced Vincent de St. Paul, and that which produced Marat. and found a sort of brutal consolation in astonishing the eyes of the people by the sight of a gayety more frightful than the anguish of fear, and the agony of despair. But that a man uncertain whether his head is not about to fall, in a few hours, under the axe of the executioner, and certain of saving it, if he will only convince himself of the reality of the danger which menaces him, should Whether God exists, or not; wheth- remain in repose in this terrific doubt, er to this short life succeeds a life that and prefer, before life, some moments is lasting, whether the only duty is of pleasure, or even of listlessness, to follow our wishes; or whether we which a shocking and disgraceful ought to regulate them by a fixed and punishment is to terminate-this is divine law, we wish to know every what we have never seen, this what thing, these things excepted. Men we can never see. Whatever conare agreed that every thing interests tempt we affect for an existence, them except their eternal fate. They brief and burdened with so many have not, they say, time to think of pains, we are not so easily detached it; but they have abundance of leis- from it; there is no apathy so proure when the question is about sais- found, that the announcing of it, the fying the most frivilous fantasy.idea alone of approaching death, does They have time for business-time not awaken. What do I say? Evefor pleasure, and they have not time ry thing which touches us, whether to examine whether there be a heav-in our health or goods, or enjoyments, en, or a hell. They have time to in-or opinions, or habits, startles, alarms, struct themselves in the most vain transports us out of ourselves, inspires trifles of this world, where they only us with an indefatigable activityrass a day, and they have not time and we are indifferent to nothing but enough to assure themselves wheth-heaven, hell, and eternity. er there exists another world, which they must whether happy or miserable, inherit eternally. They have time to take care of a body, which is about to dissolve, and none to inform the mselves whether it encloses a n immortal soul. They have time to go far to convince their eyes of the existence of a rare animal, a curious plant, and they have none to convince their reason of the existence of God. Inconceivable blindness! And who will not exclaim with Bossuet, "what! is the charm of sense so strong we can foresee nothing?" We have seen convicts laugh and dance upon the scaffold, but the death which they braved was inevitable, nothing could save them from it. In the invincible necessity of dying, they strove against nature, From the N. Y. Constellation. ON DYING AT HOME. "Where thou diest will I die, and there will I be buried. There seems to be a natural desire among all mankind to draw their last breath among their kinsmen, and mingle their dust along with the dust of their fathers. So strong is this desire, that perhaps most people feel less anxious where they shall live than where they shall die. They carelessly roam abroad through the earth; they become wanderers in a foreign land; they eat their bread among strangers; but when the last hour arrives, they would give the world if they had it to fall asleep with their fathers and be buried with their On dying at home. kindred. Thus says Goldsmith in his poem of the Traveller: "I still had hope my long vexations past, Here to return and die at home at last." And Pope in his Elegy to the memory of an unfortunate Young Lady, thus feelingly speaks of her death and burial among strangers: "No friends complaint, no kind domestic tear, Pleased thy pale ghost, or graced thy mourn ful bier; 273 had been spent; and finally to be buried side by side with kindred and friends. Even the grave is fancied by the dying man to be less terrible in his own native burying ground than in that of strangers. When surrounded by the graves of his affectionate kinsmen, he almost imagines that the clods will be lighter on his breast that the earth will be less cold and damp, and that a greener turf and fairer flowers will flourish above him. He feels less horror at mouldering By foreign hands thy dying eye were closed, ed." that he shall mingle with that of his ancestors. So universal is this feeling, that it would perhaps be difficult to find a stranger in any land, who, when the close of life approaches does not look back with longing eyes to his native country. However full of hope he may have abandoned it ;— however unjustly and ungenerously he may have been treated by it; however little cause he may have for gratitude and love; and however much for hatred and disgust; still he feels a desire at last to die in that country, and repose his dust along with the dust of his kindred. There is generally felt a sort of horror at dying among strangers.While the health is vigorous, and the spirit of enterprise warm and active, little anxiety or care is experienced, whether life be spent in a foreign land or at home; but when health declines, when nature fails, when the closing hour approaches, then it is that the wanderer longs to behold his native land, and to say to his friends in the language of Cardinal Wolsey; "I am come to lay my bones among you." However great may be the kindness of strangers, however tenderly and devotedly they may strive to soothe the last moments of life; still such is the desire for kin-native land. With what ardor, with How fondly the exile looks to his dred and home, that no hand can soothe the agonies of death, like that of a mother, a wife or a sister; no pillow is so soft, no bed is so downy as that which is smoothed by affectionate kindred. When the light of life is departing; when the sight grows dim; when all earthly objects are fading from the view; what a fond desire is there to have the eyes closed by the hand of friendship and love; to cast the last Longing, lingering look," upon those scenes and objects which have been familiar in life; to behold the last sun shining through the same windows, whence it had met the eye in the hey day of youth and the glow of health; to fall asleep in the same room where the happiest hours of life what tenacity, does he cherish the hope, even under circumstances where hope is forbidden, that he shall yet return and close his eyes at home. But if disappointed in this hope, he thinks it some consolation to expire with his face turned towards his native country, and to direct his last look towards that land where the earliest and most interesting associations of his heart still linger and dwell.——— Though he cannot close his eyes among his kindred, he wishes to lay his bones among them; and, among are occupied, is frequently that of dithe last objects with which his tho'ts recting his remains to be carried to his native land, and placed in the family vault, or buried side by side |