It is further to be observed that nowhere throughout the New Testament is a miracle, properly so called, ascribed to Satanic action. Possession is a phenomenon entirely different from a miracle. I admit that there is one apparent exception, namely in the history of our Lord’s temptation. This if it is intended to be a description of an objective fact, is undoubtedly an instance of direct interference with the action of the forces of nature; Satan is here represented as possessing and exercising the power of counteracting the force of gravitation by transporting the body of our Lord from place to place. As this is the one solitary instance in the New Testament in which such power is ascribed to him, it demands especial consideration. We are told that during one period of his temptation our Lord was carried by Satan to an exceeding high mountain; and again, that he was placed on a pinnacle of the temple. These acts involve such an exercise of supernatural power as may justly be put in comparison with his walking on the water. It becomes therefore a very important question whether this account is intended to be taken as a literal narrative. The fact of its being the only recorded instance of its kind affords a contrary presumption, for if the writers had believed that there was nothing in such interference with the physical forces inconsistent with the ordinary course of Satanic action it is hardly possible that they could have viewed this as a solitary instance of the exercise of such power, especially when the case of the demoniacs afforded so many opportunities for its manifestation. It is clear from the narrative itself that the only source of information regarding the temptation must have been an account given by our Lord himself to his disciples, as it was an occurrence of which there could have been no witnesses. Otherwise it must be assumed to be a mere fiction. It is also clear that the three temptations into which the narrative is divided are intended to describe three great crises through which our Lord’s mind passed. According to Mark’s account he is represented as undergoing temptations during the whole period of forty days. Matthew and Luke present us with the general results of the entire temptation. If our Lord gave an account of it to his disciples, there can be no reason why he should not have embodied its results in a narrative form, as is the course which he adopted in his parables. If the parables were not usually introduced with the formula “he spake a parable,” we might easily mistake them also for narratives of actual occurrences. But although this is the usual form, it is not the only one, as appears in the parable of Dives and Lazarus. It is therefore quite conceivable that on giving his disciples an account of the crises through which his mind passed during the period of the temptation he may have put it into a parabolic form, of which himself was the centre, as one