cher
than ever and more renowned, while a fresh family grew up around his
knees. "So," say the Christians, "all's well that ends well!" Not so,
however; for there remains uneffaced the murder of Job's children, who
were hurriedly despatched out of the world in the very midst of their
festivity. When the celestial and infernal powers play at conundrums, it
is a great pity that they do not solve them up above or down below,
and leave the poor denizens of this world free from the havoc of their
contention.

In the New Testament, as in the Old, the Devil appears early on the
scene. After his baptism in Jordan, Jesus was "led up of the spirit in
the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil." When he had fasted forty
days and nights he "was afterward hungered." Doctor Tanner overlooked
this. The hunger of Jesus only began on the forty-first day. The Devil
requests Jesus to change the stones into bread, but he declines to do
so. Then he sets him "on a pinnacle of the temple" in Jerusalem, and
desires him to throw himself down. Jesus must have been exceedingly
_sharp set_ in that position. Meanwhile, where was the Devil posted?
He could scarcely have craned his neck up so as to hold a confabulation
with Jesus from the streets, and we must therefore suppose that he was
sharp set on another pinnacle. A pretty sight they must have been for
the Jews down below! That temptation failing, the Devil takes Jesus "up
into an exceeding high mountain, and showeth him _all_ the kingdoms of
the world, and the glory of them." This is remarkably like seeing
round a corner, for however high we go we cannot possibly see the whole
surface of a globe at once. "All these things," says Satan, "will I give
thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me." What a generous Devil! They
already belonged to Jesus, for doth not Scripture say the earth is the
Lord's and the fulness thereof?--a text which should now read "the
earth is the landlords' and the emptiness thereof." This temptation also
fails, and the Devil retires in disgust.

What a pretty farce! Our burlesques and pantomimes are nothing to it.
Satan knew Jesus, and Jesus knew Satan. Jesus knew that Satan would
tempt him, and Satan knew that Jesus knew it. Jesus knew that Satan
could not succeed, and Satan knew so too. Yet they kept the farce up
night and day, for no one knows how long; and our great Milton in his
"Paradise Regained" represents this precious pair arguing all day long,
Satan retiring a