It is only when weakness has reached its highest point and when Christ begins to hunger, that Satan approaches him in the guise of an old peasant, pathetically describing the difficulty of maintaining life in the wilderness.  Then he adds that, having seen Jesus baptized in the Jordan he begs him to turn the stones around him into food, thereby relieving himself and his wretched fellow-sufferer from the pangs of hunger.

  “But, if thou be the Son of God, command
  That out of these hard stones be made thee bread;
  So shalt thou save thyself and us relieve
  With food, whereof we wretched seldom taste.”

Jesus, however, merely reproaches the tempter, rejoining, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but from the words which proceed out of the mouth of God,” and explaining that he knows who Satan is and for what purpose he has been sent hither.  Unable to conceal his identity any longer, the evil spirit admits he has come straight from hell, but adds that God gave him power to test Job and to punish Ahab.  He argues that the Almighty, who fed the Israelites with manna and supplied Elijah with miraculous food, does not intend to starve his only Son.  Then, expressing admiration for Jesus’ intellect, Satan explains he is not the foe of man, since through him he has gained everything, and whom he prides himself upon having often helped by oracles and omen.  In spite of these arguments, Jesus refuses to listen to him, declares his oracles have lost all power, and adds that he is sent to execute his Father’s will.

  “God hath now sent his living oracle
  Into the world to teach his final will,
  And sends his Spirit of truth henceforth to dwell
  In pious hearts, an inward oracle
  To all truth requisite for men to know.”

Thus baffled, Satan vanishes into “thin air diffused,” and night steals over the desert, where fowls seek their nests while the wild beasts begin to roam in search of food.

Book II. John the Baptist and his disciples, made anxious by Jesus’ long absence, now begin to seek him as the prophets sought Elijah, fearing lest he too may have been caught up into heaven.  Hearing Simon and Andrew wonder where he has gone and what he is doing, Mary relates the extraordinary circumstances which accompanied her Son’s birth, mentioning the flight into Egypt, the return to Nazareth, and sundry other occurrences during the youth of our Lord.  She declares that, ever since Gabriel’s message fell upon her ear, she has been trying to prepare herself for the fulfilment of a promise then made her, and has often wondered what Simeon meant when he cried that a sword would pierce her very soul!  Still, she recalls how at twelve years of age, she grieved over the loss of her Son, until she found him in the temple, when he excused himself by stating he must be about his Father’s business.  Ever since then Mary has patiently awaited what is to come to pass, realizing the child she bore is destined to great things.