Page:Jesus of Nazareth the story of His life simply told (1917).djvu/129

 *ing; the desire of notice and admiration; the desire of riches, and of the comforts, power and importance that riches bring.

We must bear in mind, however, that these three p's—pleasure, plenty and praise—are things not bad in themselves, nor is the moderate desire of them wrong. What is bad is the immoderate desire, the reckless use of them simply because they are nice. The devil knows that we are inclined to rush after enjoyment for enjoyment's sake, so he uses these things as baits to catch and ruin us. Men, women, children, all are tempted, some by one bait, some by another, but no one escapes, the Saints least of all. They do not go to Heaven alone, but take many with them, hence the enemy of souls hates and fears them more than others. With what hate, then, did he look upon this Holy One who might be not a Saint only but the Saint of Saints and the Redeemer of men.

The forty days were over, and Jesus, who had been six weeks without food, was sitting worn and weak on a rock in the midst of the desolate country. Scattered around were great stones something in the shape of loaves. And the tempter coming said to Him:

"If Thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread."

By these cunning words he meant to find out what he wanted so much to know, for God alone could change a stone into bread. But we wonder, perhaps, where the temptation was. Our Lord was very hungry and He was asked to change a stone, not into anything dainty but into bread. It was temptation because He was urged to satisfy His hunger before the time appointed by His Father, and to do this by a miracle. He had come into the world to suffer, not to use His divine power to escape