thou art God’s Son.”  A miracle would prove to himself his appointment and his power.  The suggested doubt of his call he passed unnoticed; distrust of God he repudiated instantly, falling back on his faith in the God he had served these many years (Deut. viii. 3).  His victory is remarkable because his spirit conquered unhesitatingly after a long ecstasy which would naturally have induced a reaction and a surrender for the moment to the demand of lower needs.

93.  This firmness of trust opened the way for another evil suggestion.  In the work before him as God’s Anointed many difficulties were on either side and across his path.  He knew his people, their prejudices, and their hardness of heart; and he knew how far he was from their ideal of a Messiah.  He knew also the watchful jealousy of Rome.  Others before him, like Judas of Galilee, had tried the Messianic role and had failed.  He, however, was confident of his divine call:  should he not, therefore, press forward with his work, heedless of all danger and regardless of the dictates of prudence,—­as heedless as if, trusting God’s promised care, he should cast himself down from a pinnacle of the temple to the rocks in Kidron below?  A fanatic would have yielded to such a temptation.  Many another than Jesus did so,—­Theudas (Acts v. 36), the Egyptian (Acts xxi. 38); and Bar Cochba (Dio Cassius, lxix. 12-14; Euseb.  Ch.  Hist. iv. 6).  Jesus, however, showed his perfect mental health, repudiating the temptation by declaring that while man may trust God’s care, he must not presumptuously put it to the test (Matt. iv. 7).  The after life of Jesus was a clear commentary on this reply.  He constantly sought to avoid situations which would compromise his mission or cut short his work (see John vi. 15), and when at the end he suffered the death prepared for him by his people’s hatred, it was because his hour had come and he could say, “I lay down my life of myself” (John x. 18).  His marvellous control of enthusiasm and his self-mastery in all circumstances separate Jesus from all ecstatics and fanatics.  Yet presumption must have seemed the easier course, and could readily wear the mask of trust.  He was tempted, yet without sin.

94.  As the refusal to doubt led to the temptation to presume, so the determination to be prudent opened the way for a third assault upon his perfect loyalty to God.  The world he was to seek to save was swayed by passions; his own people were longing for a Messiah, but they must have their kind of a Messiah.  If he would acknowledge this actual supremacy of evil and self-will in the world, the opposition of passion and prejudice might be avoided.  If he would own the evil inevitable for the time, and accommodate his work to it, he might then be free to lead men to higher and more spiritual views of God’s kingdom.  His knowledge of his people’s grossness of heart and materialism of hope made a real temptation of the suggestion that he should not openly oppose but should