"O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the Lord our maker. For he is our God; and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand." In the record of Jesus' baptism, given in Matthew, we read of "a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased." It is interesting to note that following this experience Jesus was "led up of the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil;" in other words, an opportunity presented itself to him to prove this positive statement of Truth—to prove man's unity with God, good.
Now let us in thought accompany this "beloved Son" of inestimable Love as he entered the sanctuary of quiet, earnest thinking, wherein to dissociate all human beliefs from the divine idea of God. In so doing, we shall gain a clearer understanding of the value of deep spiritual meditation in its capacity, first to uncover the modus operandi of mortal pretense and deceitfulness, and then to prove absolutely untenable the claim of any separation from the divine Mind.
It is recorded in Matthew that after fasting forty days and forty nights Jesus was "an hungred." And it was to this state of mortal thought—hunger, the sense of deprivation—that the first temptation was presented. Suggestive evil, or devil, said, "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread." Through the argument of lack came the suggestion to usurp the authority and power of Spirit by performing a miracle. But the understanding of divine control was never for an instant deserted by this great missionary.
