l preach to the crowds. "You'll come down in the
midst of an open-mouthed, admiring crowd." The devil loves the
spectacular, the theatrical. He is always working for striking, stagy
effects.

How many a man has yielded to the _religious_ temptation! He is taken up
in the air, and seems to float among ethereal clouds. It is better for us
to live in the strength of Somebody else's victory, and keep good hard
earth close to the soles of our feet, or we may come into contact with it
suddenly with feet and head changing places.

The devil "taketh" Jesus. How could he? He could do it only by Jesus'
consent. Jesus yields to his taking. He has a strong purpose in it. He was
going for the sake of His brothers. The tempter cannot take anybody
anywhere except with his full consent. He tries to, and often befools men
into thinking he can. It's a lie. He cannot. Every man is an absolute
sovereign in his will, both as regards God and Satan. God will not do
anything with us without our ready consent. And be it keenly remembered
that the tempter _cannot_. Here Jesus gave consent for His brothers' sake.

The tempter acts his part like an old hand. The proper thing here is some
scripture, repeated earnestly in unctuous tones. Was it from this tempter
that all of us religious folks and everybody else have gotten into the
_inveterate_ habit of quoting verse and sentence entirely out of
connection? Any devil's lie can be proven from the Scriptures on that
plan. If it was he who set the pace, certainly it has been followed at a
lively rate. It was a cunning quotation, cunningly edited.

The angels _are_ ministering spirits. On their hands they do bear us up.
It is all true, blessedly true. But it is only true for the man who is
living in the first verse of that ninety-first psalm, "in the secret place
of the most High." The tempter threads his way with cautious skill among
those unpleasant allusions to the serpent, and the dragon, and getting
them under our feet, and then twisting and trampling with our hard heels.
He knew his ground well, and avoids such rough, rude sort of talk. It was
a cunning temptation, cunningly staged and worded and backed. He was doing
his best. One wonders if he really thought _Jesus_ could be tripped up
that way. So many others have been, and are, even after Jesus has shown us
the way. A dust cloth would help some of us--for our Bibles--and a little
more exercise at the knee-joint, and a bit of the hard common s