- 22 - Nevertheless, all the specialists of hell laboured in vain to overcome this fever-racked Jesus of Nazareth, in spite of the fact that he was in the end no longer able to stay on his feet because of bodily fatigue, hunger and thirst. Again and again, amidst tears, he cried to his Father for help, in order that he might be spared the mortal sin of desertion, and be given the strength to hold out against the assaults of the evil powers until victory was achieved. Finally, on the very last day, when the other infernal powers with all their arts of seduction had failed to make headway against their tormented victim, the Prince of Darkness arrived in person. He, too, is a specialist in some things, especially as a worker of hellish miracles. As such he now stood before Jesus, who was shaking with hunger, and said: ‘You think you are a Son of God. If this is true, then you need not suffer hunger. You need only to command that these stones become bread. That, however, is beyond your power, deluded man, and because of your obsession, you must die here of starvation. You are not able to work miracles. You never were, and never will be, and yet you imagine yourself to be a Son of God! Look at me! I am a son of God, Whom I have left, and Who in His cruelty leaves you to suffer thus. I can work miracles; a power God cannot take away from me. I can turn these stones into bread, which I will give you to eat. You will see that I am able to do this. Abandon HimWho has abandoned you to die of hunger! Join me, and the choicest foods on earth will be yours.’ Begone, Satan, I want neither your bread, nor any I could make out of these stones. I await the magic word that comes from the mouth of God. That word will come at the appointed hour. By it I shall have food, and shall live’. “Satan, however, was not so easily discouraged. ‘So be it!’ he replied, ‘If you will neither work a miracle in my presence, nor accept the bread that I offer you in pity, you may choose another way to convince yourself whether you are indeed a Son of God. For that you are not, I would gladly prove to you, and rid you of your delusion. See, here is the pinnacle of the temple; I will take you up there and do you cast yourself down, for it is written: the hands of angels shall bear up the sons of God. So, try it! You know that I will not help you, since it is my purpose to prove to you that you are not one of the sons of God, and I am certain that the fall will dash you to pieces. Nevertheless, you should make the attempt. Not even God can demand of you a blind belief that you are His Son. If you are not willing to put your Sonship to even one single trial, you must confess yourself lacking in understanding. If you survive your fall unhurt, even I will believe in you. But if you perish, be thankful that death has relieved you quickly of the deceit with which you have been beguiled, rather than that you should waste your life in such madness, to die at last, disappointed, and reviled by mankind.’ Tortured though he was by weeks of suffering, Satan’s victimmarshalled all his strength and replied: ‘I will not test my Lord. I will not use this way to prove that I am God's Son. I leave the proof in His hands. He will not fail me, as you too shall find.’ At this speech Lucifer, the second, the fallen, son of God, quailed for a moment before his elder, loyal brother. His sorcery availed him nothing against one who would accept no miracles nor presume to perform any on his own account. Not even then did Satan lose hope; he had still another lure to offer that in the past had always yielded brilliant results: The world was his, for everything material is under his sway. He could give the kingdoms of the earth to whomsoever he pleased, whether to the Babylonian, Nebuchadnezzar, or the Roman, Tiberius, or to the Nazarene, Jesus, was for him to decide. All those to whom he had made such a gift theretofore had become his vassals and had obeyed his orders. The kingdoms of the earth in all their entrancing splendour passed as in a film before the feverish eyes of the Son of Man.
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