Article February 28, 1925 Issue

Resisting Temptation

BERENICE H. SILBERBERG

CHRISTIAN SCIENTISTS, having accepted Jesus as their Way-shower, naturally turn to the Bible to study his words and works, in an endeavor to gain that Mind "which was also in Christ Jesus," and thereby be prepared to meet every situation with the mastery which he at all times possessed. It is comforting, therefore, to find in the epistle to the Hebrews the words, "We have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."

Since Jesus was tempted "in all points," a study and understanding of his life-work should reveal to us the means of overcoming every possible temptation which could present itself to our thought. Furthermore, since Jesus said we must do the works that he did, we too must ultimately meet and master every claim of error. Our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, makes this quite clear in a statement in "Miscellaneous Writings" (p. 114): "Rest assured that God in His wisdom will test all mankind on all questions; and then, if found faithful, He will deliver us from temptation and show us the powerlessness of evil,—even its utter nothingness."

Let us then turn to the account, in the fourth chapter of the gospel of Matthew, of the way in which Jesus overcame temptation when he encountered it. We find that immediately after his baptism by John and his receiving the blessed assurance, through "a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased,"—at the very time when his divine sonship had been so clearly revealed to him,—he was "led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil." In other words, as the next step in the fulfillment of his mission, his newly acquired understanding was to be put to the proof. We are told that he thereafter spent forty days and forty nights in fasting,—in purifying his thought from materiality. Then, at the completion of this period of communion with God, of spiritual exaltation, the devil (evil) presented itself to him.

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