sends that terrible trial in Asia to bring him down, lest he trust in himself and not in the living God.  God watched over his servant that he should be kept trusting.  Remember that other story about the thorn in the flesh, in 2 Corinthians XII., and think what that means.  He was in danger of exalting himself, and the blessed Master came to humble him, and to teach him:  “I keep thee weak, that thou mayest learn to trust not in thyself, but in Me.”  If we are to enter into the rest of faith, and to abide there; if we are to live the life of victory in the land of Canaan, it must begin here.  We must be broken down from all self-confidence and learn like Christ to depend absolutely and unceasingly upon God.  There is a greater work to be done in that than we perhaps know.  We must be broken down, and the habit of our souls must be unceasingly:  “I am nothing; God is all.  I cannot walk before God as I should for one hour, unless God keep the life He has given me.”  What a blessed solution God gives then to all our questions and our difficulties, when He says:  “My child, Christ has gone through it all for thee.  Christ hath wrought out a new nature that can trust God; and Christ the Living One in heaven will live in thee, and enable thee to live that life of trust.”  That is why Paul said:  “Such confidence have we toward God, through Christ.”  What does that mean?  Does it only mean through Christ as the mediator, or intercessor?  Verily, no.  It means much more; through Christ living in and enabling us to trust God as He trusted Him.

Then comes, thirdly, the death of Christ.  What does that teach us of Christ’s relation to the Father?  It opens up to us one of the deepest and most solemn lessons of Christ life, one which the Church of Christ understands all too little.  We know what the death of Christ means as an atonement, and we never can emphasize too much that blessed substitution and bloodshedding, by which redemption was won for us.  But let us remember, that is only half the meaning of His death.  The other half is this:  just as much as Christ was my substitute, who died for me, just so much He is my head, in whom, and with whom, I die; and just as He lives for me, to intercede, He lives in me, to carry out and to perfect His life.  And if I want to know what that life is which He will live in me, I must look at His death.  By His death He proved that He possessed life only to hold it, and to spend it, for God.  To the very uttermost; without the shadow of a moment’s exception, He lived for God,—­every moment, everywhere, He held life only for His God.  And so, if one wants to live a life of perfect trust, there must be the perfect surrender of his life, and his will, even unto the very death.  He must be willing to go all lengths with Jesus, even to Calvary.  When a boy twelve years of age Jesus said:  “Wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” and again when He came to Jordan to be baptized:  “It becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.”  So on through all His life, He ever said:  “It is my meat and drink to do the will of my Father.  I come not to do my own will, but the will of Him that sent me.”  “Lo, I am come to do Thy will, O God.”  And in the agony of Gethsemane, His words were:  “Not my will, but Thine, be done.”