THE

EVANGELICAL MAGAZINE

AND

MISSIONARY CHRONICLE.

AUGUST, 1869:

Christ's Sympathy with the Tempted.

In the world temptation abounds, and pre-eminently affects Christian men. To them their principles make many things a source of danger, to which others, strangers to the power of religion, are insensible. These temptations are found everywhere. There is no condition of life, and no kind of employment, free, from them. They may be greatly diversified in their nature-often severe, sometimes protracted, and may occasion painful suffering and distress, yet are they necessary as a means of discipline. They check evils which might, if left to their own course, have ruined us. They exercise and strengthen graces essential to the completeness of the spiritual character. But they are frequently trying, and we need, when exposed to them, special help-support in our weakness, guidance in our perplexities, and sympathy in our distress. Nor are these blessings withheld. They come to us in a form expressive of marvellous condescension. Provision has been made to meet our case in the very constitution of the Saviour's person. He has become one of us, possessed of the affections and feelings, subject to the conditions of service, and exposed to the trials which belong to us, and therefore able to enter thoroughly into our case. In nothing is the tender love of God so manifested as in this arrangement. It assures us that God contemplates, not our salvation alone, but our comfort, and the bestowment of all needful aid during the entire process which salvation involves. This is what the Apostle affirms when he says that "in all things it behoved

VOL. I. NEW SERIES.

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Him to be made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, to make reconciliation for the sins of the people, for in that He himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted."

Accepting this view of the case as an important part of the scheme of redemption, it may not be improper to ask, Is it duly appreciated by believers? Is it not a matter of fair inquiry whether there are not mistakes which prevent the right apprehension of this wonderful arrangement, and intercept the relief, strength, and consolation which it is intended to impart? Should such hindrances exist, and in so far as they do, they cannot fail to be injurious. To ascertain this as far as we can must be a profitable employment. Let us give a few moments' consideration to this point.

May there not be a feeling in the minds of some that temptation must have been a very different thing to Christ from what it is to us, inasmuch as He was without sin, and there was no likelihood, therefore, that temptation in His case could have been successful? It never could have led Him to indulge an undutiful disposition, or to be betrayed into a wrong action. Such a difference no doubt existed; but the sinlessness of Christ's human nature did not make His temptations less real, or mitigate in any degree the distress and suffering which they must have occasioned. To imagine this, goes on the supposition that temptation loses its severity in proportion to the holiness of the person tempted. Is this true? Is not the direct opposite the fact? The unholy know little of temptation. It gives them small trouble; they treat it lightly, and give way to it. On the contrary, the holier a man is, the more sin becomes an object of his abhorrence, and the presentation before his mind of inducements to its commission a bitter trial. Temptation, even when it is certain that such a man will instinctively resist and overcome it, occasions 'an amount of mental suffering of which no one can have the experience, or is competent to form a judgment, who is not likeminded. Now, the holiness of Christ was far superior to anything that the best of His followers can attain. It was perfect in its nature, and incapable of increase in degree. His sufferings in part arose from coming habitually into contact with the sin from which His holy nature instinctively recoiled. To Him the presentation of a temptation, whatever might be the form of sin to which it sought to seduce him, must not only have been a real thing, but must have produced a degree of mental pain far more acute than any of us can imagine. The innate repugnance of His holy mind to the sin constituted the bitterness of the temptation. The holiness of Christ, therefore, so far from putting Him out of sympathy with us in our temptations, is the very thing which gives Him a more perfect fellow-feeling with us. He was a man, and

felt as men do, though the purity of His nature caused Him to suffer more intensely in the matter of temptation. This is the true explanation of the phrase, "He suffered being tempted." His temptations were sufferings. We greatly mistake the matter if we conceive that the holiness of Christ's nature disqualifies Him for sympathising with us.

Again, do believers always realize His perfect acquaintance with their trials? There is absolutely nothing concealed from Him. He searcheth the hearts and trieth the reins. His knowledge is omniscience. It precludes the possibility of mistake, and admits of no addition. He understands our temptations in their causes, in their circumstances, in their subtilty, in their effects, in the design for which they are sent, and he sees when that design is attained. No believer will question this, since it is the matter of Divine testimony; when appealed to, he will at once admit it. But how imperfectly is it realized! Our temptations perplex us. They are dark. We strive in vain to discover a reason for them; and the thought steals into our mind, that what is so confusing to us has something of the same character to Christ. The language of the prophet is sometimes descriptive of our state of mind: "My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God." But we are wrong. It is the impression of unbelief. It affords evidence that the temptation is gaining advantage over us. By entertaining such a suggestion, we are shutting out all the blessed consolation which the assurance of Christ's sympathy is fitted to impart. We must not permit so unworthy and groundless a suspicion to find entrance; we must train our mind to cherish a deep practical conviction of the truth, that Christ's knowledge of us and of all our ways is absolutely perfect; that what is confused to us is all clear to Him; that He cannot mistake our case, and that He is never at a loss as to the means of effectually meeting it. Complicated and perplexing as our condition may seem, it is all plain to Him, and thoroughly comprehended. We need to have this fixed in our mind, and we must allow no shade of doubt to come over it.

While acknowledging Christ's perfect knowledge of us, may we not question whether His sympathy, real as it is, can meet our precise case? We may understand this matter in relation to some earthly friend, of whose affection we may be well assured, and whose ability and disposition to feel for us in our troubles we may not dispute. Our trial, however, may be peculiar; we may be inclined to conclude that there has been nothing like it-that it is something purely exceptional, into which no one can enter. To any attempt which our dearest friend may make to sympathise with us, we may listen with incredulity, and may be inclined to say, "It is very good of you to try to comfort me; you mean it kindly, I am sure, but you cannot comprehend my case-your sympathy cannot reach it; your very effort to feel for me seems like mockery.

It is best that you let me alone to bear it as I may." Nothing to this effect, however, can with truth be said of the sympathy of Christ. His temptations were more varied in their nature than those to which any of His followers have ever been exposed. While His condition was one of poverty and hardship-for this reason, amongst others, that it might correspond to the actual circumstances of the vast majority of those who should hereafter believe on Him-He was at the same time, from His official character as Messiah, open to the allurements of ambition, power, rank-the snares which beset those who are more favoured in their position of life. The narratives of the Gospel prove this. In their reality, in their craftiness, in their severity, in the mental suffering they occasioned, and in all that could make them formidable, the temptations of Christ exceeded everything which any of His people can be called upon to endure. Of course, it is impossible to affirm that in their minute incidents and details the temptations of Christ exactly corresponded to everything in those to which His people may be exposed. This is simply impossible, but in substance they did. "He was in all points tempted like as we are, and yet without sin." The remembrance of all that He endured is never forgotten. He has acquired through them a sympathy with us which He has carried with Him into Heaven, and which can never be impaired. For all His tempted people He feels; no conceivable case is beyond the reach of His sympathy; and His feeling is real, tender, lively, and practical. He is able to enter into the condition of each, however unusual it may seem, with a truthfulness in which there is not a particle of defect or deception. Friends may mistake us in our trials-may stand aloof from us, and may wonder, not knowing what to think of our case; but the friend, who sticketh closer than a brother, never does. What shall we say to this? Difficult it may be for us to conceive, even when assured of it, how the blessed God-not only so far above us, but so grievously offended-should condescend to us, enter into our case, and feel for us in our struggles and trials. Our minds can hardly embrace the idea. To our weakness these views seem conflicting. To meet our case, God hath sent his own Son in our nature, that we may obtain a thorough comprehension of Divine sympathy in a form we can understand. The way in which Christ acts and feels towards us is an exemplification of God's mind and disposition. Let us have faith in it. It is intended for our support and consolation and joy.

Do believers never mistake the mode in which the sympathy of Christ is expressed! Our trials-for all temptations are trials, and trials may prove temptations--are sent by the Saviour. There is a purpose worthy of Christ in them, contemplating our good; what that purpose is we may not be able to discover. It may be our chastisement; they may be designed to bring to light evils in us, which we may have failed to

notice, but which may threaten to do us injury; they may be intended to exercise and strengthen our principles, and thus prepare us to do better service for the future; or they may have in view the benefit of others and the glory of Christ. If He sees it wise to send them for such purposes, it would be unwise to withdraw them until these purposes are effected. He continues them, but His sympathy is expressed in the bestowment of seasonable help to enable us to sustain them. Of the strength imparted we may be hardly conscious; the trial is always a more sensible thing than the strength, but not more real. For the time we may be so engrossed with our trouble, so hard pressed, that everything escapes us save the suffering and the sense of earnestness with which we may have poured out our heart in prayer to God for relief, which never seems to come. When, however, the trial is passed, we may look back on it with mingled feelings of surprise and thankfulness. We can discern, now that the trial is over, what we failed to see when its pressure was upon us; we can hardly tell how we have been carried through it; we wonder how we have survived it; we are constrained to acknowledge that a hidden power has been at work upholding us, though we knew it not.

We are ashamed of the feebleness of our faith, and now gladly and thankfully confess that Christ has done far more and better for us than we imagined. His sympathy with us may have been actively and marvellously displayed towards us when we may have thought ourselves forsaken. In our temptations, sense often gets the better of faith-we judge erroneously. We may imagine that we are forgotten at the very time that Christ's power may be sympathizingly sustaining us.

These remarks only glance at some aspects of a subject which admits of larger expansion. They may, however, suffice to show that there may be misconceptions in our own minds, varied in their form, to some of which only allusion has been made, which may deprive us of the rich benefit which Christ's sympathy is intended to bestow. The chief thing which concerns us, is to obtain a distinct knowledge of what is revealed respecting Christ—a settled persuasion of His power, grace, and sympathy, on which our faith may rest. Our strength and peace will be in proportion to our faith. Let us once fairly realize what Christ is in relation to His people, what His obedience on earth has done for Him to qualify Him to meet their case, and we shall have in our most painful changes, in our sorest trials, in our most bewildering temptations, a source of support and consolation which nothing else will impart. "For in that He Himself hath suffered being tempted, He is able to succour them that are tempted." JOHN KELLY.