Satan requests Christ to fall down and worship him while Christ replies, “Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God.” Satan has no disposition to follow the example of the Wise Men or to adopt their order of procedure. He asks our Lord to accept his gift and then worship him in acknowledgement of his supremacy. He offers temporal things for spiritual service, earthly greatness for divine recognition. Unlike the Wise Men Satan is unlike God also, who sends his rain upon the just and the unjust. God’s giving springs from his love, is measured by it and is the expression of it. God so loved the world that He gave His Son. His giving is a real bestowment and not a deceptive deal. He gives according to his nature and men receive according to their ability. Well we know that God can give Knowledge of the way to live. Give he will and give he must Unto all who in him trust, Right thru things that lie between God can give while yet unseen. But God gives ministry instead of mastery. “It is the most fantastic of all dreams,” says Newman Hall, “that a man can cut his being into two portions, call one of them religious and the other mundane, and administer them on directly opposite principles.” As Christ was not deluded, divided and directed by Satan neither can Christians be if they are to remain Christians. Inside Information The references to money which appear in the sermon on the mount as reported by Matthew offer inside information on the subject. Jesus came to fulfil the law, not to destroy it, not to lower religion. Our religion must have expression in our life for only life at its best can satisfy us. Prof. Stalker tells us that “The task of religious teachers is to get people to see things as they are,” and we may add, as they ought to be. Jesus requires more than external compliance with the law or formal righteousness and hence his followers must be better than Pharisees. They must act from right motives when they pray and give alms and be confidential with the Father who seeth in secret. The Pharisee’s reward, to be seen of men, seems utterly insignificant as compared with that of the Christian, “Thy Father who seeth in secret shall reward thee.” “Thy Father” and not “our Father,” as elsewhere: for here the transaction is confidential and personal; “Reward thee” as an individual who merits his consideration. The approval of our Father in heaven is worth while as well as good standing in our community. Both are possible and Dr. Deems emphasizes the value of both when he says: “One good man given to a town is better than the gift of a park or a library and is worth more to a town than a hundred of the most learned men who are not good.”