Parochial and Other Sermons Author:James Fraser General Books publication date: 2009 Original publication date: 1887 Original Publisher: Macmillan Subjects: Church year sermons Religion / Christianity / Anglican Religion / Sermons / Christian Religion / Christian Ministry / Preaching Notes: This is a black and white OCR reprint of the original. It has no illustrations and there m... more »ay be typos or missing text. When you buy the General Books edition of this book you get free trial access to Million-Books.com where you can select from more than a million books for free. Excerpt: IV. THE TEMPTATION OF OUR LORD. " Then was Jesus led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." -- St. Matt. iv. 1. I Cannot pretend to explain to you the whole mystery of our Blessed Lord's temptation. Why He condescended to listen to the voice, and to be assailed by the wiles of that fallen angel whose kingdom He had Himself come down from heaven to destroy, is a fact for which I could venture to give you very few reasons. We must be content to receive it as one of those mysteries which as yet we can see but as "through a glass darkly," and which wait for their fuller illumination till the day when " we shall know even as we are known." There are some considerations, however, which may help to a partial apprehension of some of its significances. The Son of God took upon Him the nature of man to be a kind of new root of a regenerate humanity ; or, as St. Paul expresses it, " to be the first-born of every creature." He has recovered for us all that welost in our first forefather. As Satan was the instrument of our fall, so also was he the instrument of our regeneration. As he conquered human nature in Adam, so he was conquered by human nature in Christ. Our Blessed Lord saved men by tasting their sorrows as well as by bearing their sins. " He was tempted in all points," we are told, " like as we are." And so we see the temptation of our Blessed Lord was necessary: -- 1, To the destruction of Satan; 2, To o...« less