Wonderful sympathy!  He went about gathering human sorrow into His own heart, scattering His joy, and having fellowship in agony and in deliverance, in tears and in their wiping away.  Great, sympathetic soul!  Why?  Because He always lived with God, and, living with God, the divine love moved Him with compassion.  Ah, believe me, our sorrows are more felt in heaven than on earth.  And we had that glimpse of that eternal love in this Man, who did the things that pleased God, and manifested such wondrous sympathy.

Fourth, strength.  The last note is that of strength.  You talk about the weakness of Jesus, the frailty of Jesus.  I tell you, there never was any one so strong as He.  And if you will take the pains of reading His life with that in mind you will find it was one tremendous march of triumph against all opposing forces.  About His dying—­how did He die?  “At last, at last,” says the man in his study that does not know anything about Jesus; “At last His enemies became too much for Him, and they killed Him.”  Nothing of the sort.  That is a very superficial reading.  What is the truth?  Hear it from His own lips:  “No man taketh my life from me.  I lay it down of myself.  And if I lay it down I have authority to take it again.”  What do you think of that?  How does that touch you as a revelation of magnificence in strength?  And then, look at Him, when He comes back from the tomb, having fulfilled that which was either an empty boast or a great fact—­thank God, we believe it was a great fact!  Now He stands upon the mountain, with this handful of men around Him, His disciples, and He is going away from them.  “All authority,” He says, “is given unto me.  I am king not merely by an office conferred, but by a triumph won.  I am king, for I have faced the enemies of the race—­sin and sorrow and ignorance and death—­and my foot is upon the neck of every one.  All authority is given to me.”

Oh, the strength of this Man!  Where did He get it?  “My Father hath not left me alone.  I have lived with God.  I have walked with God.  I always knew him near.  I always responded to his will.  And my heart went out in sympathy to others, and I mastered the enemies of those with whom I sympathized.  And I come to the end and I say, All authority is given to me.”  Oh, my brother, that is the pattern for you and for me!  Ah, that is life!  That is the ideal!  Oh, how can I fulfil it?  I am not going to talk about that.  Let me only give you this sentence to finish with, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”  If Christ be in me by the power of the Spirit, He will keep me conscious of God’s nearness to me.  If Christ be in me by the consciousness of the spirit reigning and governing, He will take my will from day to day, blend it with His, and take away all that makes it hard to say, “God’s will be done.”

CADMAN

A NEW DAY FOR MISSIONS

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTE