ight know for
all time his weak spot. The poison of those fangs is completely
neutralized by simple, steady loyalty to God. But the rattles do make a
big scary noise.

It is safe to go where the Spirit of God leads, and not safe to go
anywhere else. The wilderness, any wilderness, becomes a place of victory
if the Spirit of God be leading there. Any temptation is a chance for a
victory when the Spirit leads the way. A man's controlling motive
determines the attractiveness or ugliness of any place. To Jesus this
wilderness barren was one of the mountain peaks. Its forbidding chasms and
ugly gullies and darting snakes ever afterwards speak to Him of sweet
victory. The first great victory was here. He made the wilderness to
blossom with the rose of His unswerving loyalty to His Father. And its
fragrance has been felt by all who have followed Him there. To the tempter
it was a wilderness indeed, barren of anything he wanted. He quit it the
first chance he could make. He would remember the beasts and serpents and
dreary waste. For here he received his first death-thrust.

Every man whom God has used has been in the wilderness. The two great
leaders before Jesus, and the great leader after Him, had each a
post-graduate course in the University of Arabia. A degree in that school
is required for those who would do valiant service for God. Only so can
the eyes and ears be trained away from the glare and blare of the crowd.
They needed it, we need it, for discipline. He, the matchless Man, for
that too, and that He might make it a place of sure victory for us.

<u>Earth's Ugliest, Deepest Scar.</u>

Jesus is the _only_ One of whom we are told that He was led up to be
_tempted_. He was the leader of the race for the regaining of the blurred
image, the lost mastery and dominion. He Himself bade us pray not to be so
tempted. He out-matched the tempter. Any one of us, alone, is clearly
out-matched by that tempter. But we may always rest secure in the victory
He achieved that day. Only so are we safe.

It is noteworthy that the _place_ of the temptation was chosen by the
Spirit, and what place it is He chooses. Mark keenly, the tempter did not
choose it. He was obliged to start in there, but he seized the first
chance to get away to scenes more congenial to himself.

The wilderness is one of the most marked spots on the earth's crust. That
remarkable stretch of land going by swift, steep descents almost from
Jerusalem's ve