The Temptation in the Wilderness. By G. Reeves Palmer, M.A.
(Shaw and Co.)—Mr. Palmer says, with groat truth, in his preface that "the contemplation of the life of tho Lord Josue Christ, and the truths of the Christian religion taught thereby, is a marked characteristic of the present age. The Christian Church is learning more and more to present its truths rather in the form of in- ferences from that glorious life, than as positive dogmatic statements otherwise sustained." Influenced by the feeling thus indicated, Mr. Palmer has written this study on an event of tho life of Christ,— the Temptation, the importance of which we do not think he over-rates. It is written with great care and fullness, and with a constant view to edification. Mr. Palmer does not think that the personality of the Tempter is a point to be insisted on, and believes, as we think rightly, that the Tempter certainly presented himself to Jesus under no visible form. His opinion that the scone of the Temptation was the Wilderness of Horeb seems to us a speculation only, and one incapable of proof. In a chapter on the somewhat diffi- cult subject of" The Divine Element in the Temptation," Mr. Palmer seems to us rather to miss the point. Nothing in the Gospels is more suggestive on the subject of the nature of Christ than the account of the Temptation. It is to Christ's consciousness of Sonship to God that the Tempter appeals. It is by his real Sonship, to the Tempter a thing undiscerniblo, by his perfect filial trust and love, that Jesus pre- vails. Jesus was tempted on all points like as man, and as man overcame, but only because he was also the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father. By bringing into a human nature the Eternal Son's devotion to the Father, he overcame the Tempter for us.
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