here were only the wild
animals to keep him company.

_I am the Messiah_, he thought. _There is no doubt that I am the
Messiah. I must save my people. How should I begin?_

There was nothing to eat in the wilderness, and Jesus grew hungry. He
looked around him, and saw that the stones were shaped like loaves of
bread.

There seemed to be a voice inside him which was not his own. The voice
said:

"_If you really are the Messiah, you oughtn't to be hungry. If you
really are the Messiah, you would just have to say the word and these
stones would be turned into bread. Then you would have plenty to eat
for yourself, and, besides, you could go and give bread to all the
hungry folk out there who are waiting for you to help them._"

It was very quiet in the wilderness. The voice spoke up again.

"_But maybe you are afraid to try. Suppose you said to the stones,
'Stones, become bread!' and then nothing happened! That would prove
that you weren't the Messiah, wouldn't it?_"

Jesus shook his head, to get rid of the thought. Some words from the
Scriptures came into his mind. "_Man shall not live by bread alone,
but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God._" No, it
would not do to try playing tricks with stones. It would not matter
if he did turn them into bread. Bread was not the most important thing
in the world. People might think that there was nothing so important
as eating, but there were bigger things in life than that. People
might think that what the Messiah ought to do was to make the country
prosperous, but that would not help them so much as they thought. That
was not the kind of Messiah he was going to be.

But what was the best way to prove that he was the Messiah? The
tempting voice inside tried again.

"_Maybe the best idea_," it said, "_is to go to Jerusalem and climb up
on the tower and jump down! Everyone says that the Messiah is going to
come suddenly out of heaven. You would come down suddenly enough that
way! And nothing would happen to you. It says in the Scriptures that
God will send his angels to hold you up and keep you from being hurt.
Surprise the whole city by jumping off the Temple, and everybody will
worship you at once!_"

Again Jesus shook the thought away, and again he thought of what the
Scriptures said.

"_Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." I can't go and put God to
the test, to see whether he will keep me from being hurt. And it won't
make me the Messiah just to