HE "WAS WITH THE WILD BEASTS."
THE Sabbath-school lesson printed in this paper is upon the temptation of our blessed Lord as revealed in the synoptic Gospels. Of the period of Christ's temptation Mark tells us: "And He was there in the wilderness forty days, tempted of Satan; and was with the wild beasts." Mark 1:13. We are told in the portrayal of artists' imaginations that these beasts were gentle, affectionate, and kind, and they are pictured as lying at the tempted Man's feet, even as a purring kitten lies by a child. The reality was doubtless otherwise. Jesus met His temptations as a man; met the noise and tumult and terrors of the wilderness, even as many of His followers have since had to meet them. To the fierce temptations were added the terrors of prowling beasts of prey clamoring for His blood, symbolical of the fiercer spiritual foes desirous of His eternal destruction. But these few words are written to introduce a little narrative, written by the Rev. William Ewing, in the S. S. Times of August 17, 1895, which graphically portrays what it means for Jesus to be "with the wild beasts." Mr. Ewing thus describes the finding of a lost attendant:— All were very early astir. Just before mounting I scanned the plain with my telescope, and descried a coming horseman whose appearance resembled that of the lost man. His appearance caused no little excitement in camp; but, on a nearer view, there was no doubt of his identity. Both man and horse were utterly wearied, and Sa'id's garments were covered with blood. The tale he told of his experiences was terrible enough. On our departure he lingered a moment to see the muleteers ready and on the road; then, as he thought, he followed us, but, missing the way, he pushed straight southward, guided in part by the river, arriving on the Dead Sea shore just as the sun set. As he had ridden rapidly, he thought he might have passed us on the way; but, after waiting and careful search along the lonely beach, he despaired of finding us. He turned away in the twilight, hoping by instinct to hit upon some way leading to Jericho. Soon the night was filled with the horrid howlings of the jackals, all over that weary waste, and here and there the shrill laugh of the hyena fell on his ear. Pushing forward, he was speedily entangled among the sand-dunes. Climbing one after another, he sought to hit upon some landmark to guide him; but ever, on descending, his bearings were lost, and he wandered almost hopelessly. As the night closed in, he could see shadowy forms moving around, and the howlings came nearer and nearer. Suddenly, in the track before him, he saw a hyena glaring upon him. The natives believe that the hyena will not attack a man save when famished or grievously provoked. But in such moments one does not reflect much on these things. Fortunately Sa'id had my gun and ball cartridge with him. Nerves steadied by something like despair, he aimed at the brute's head, and, the ball crushing through the brain, he rolled over with a groan. A momentary silence followed the report, and then the dismal noises broke out again. Riding onward he saw, and not a moment too soon, a leopard crouching for a spring. Aiming swiftly, he fired and the ball took effect in the leopard's neck; but withal the brute was able to spring, and almost to reach his mark. "Then," said Sa'id, his lip quivering, and an unaccustomed tear trembling in his eye,—"then I must have had strength given me from heaven; for, as the brute sprang, I reached forward, caught him by the neck, and hurled him back violently to the ground, where he lay stunned, and a second ball finished him." He attempted to carry the leopard on the pommel of his saddle, and this accounted for the blood-stains on his garments. But weariness and anxiety soon overcame his purpose, and the leopard was left to decay among its native wilds. Finally, baffled by the darkness, and the intricacies of the labyrinthine windings, he climbed a little knoll, and, tying the horse's halter to his arm, stretched himself on the ground to sleep; but ever and anon, as the denizens of the desert drew near, the trembling creature tugged at the halter to awaken his master, and seemed to long for waking fellowship. At last he was overcome with sleep, and was only awakened when the horse had apparently come close up and whinnied in his ear. Then, rising bolt upright, it seemed to him as if the gloomy waste were all alive with moving shades, and vocal with dismal howlings. How he came out of that pandemonium he never could say; but erelong the dawn stole into the sky, and the wild beasts crept away into their dens. He found a poor shepherd, walking out with his flocks, who, seeing his forlorn condition, sustained the best traditions of desert hospitality by offering what he had for his day's food to the weary traveler. Then he was able to make out the direction of Jericho, and, ere the morning was well born, he was again with his companions, uttering perhaps the most sincere hamdu lillahs of his life. Ever since hearing this tale from the lips of that worn-out man, on the borders of the desert of Jericho, it has seemed that I could better realize what it meant for the Son of man when He was driven of the Spirit into the neighboring wilderness, and through the long nights was "with the wild beasts."