if Jesus, ready to come here to the earth and seeing how it was possible to save man from sin by suffering, had not suffered.  Do you wonder at the mother, when she gives her life without a hesitation or a cry, when she gives her life with joy, with thankfulness, for her child, counting it her privilege?  Do you wonder at the patriot, the hero, when he rushes into the battle to do the good deed which it is possible for him to do?  No; read your own nature deeper and you will understand your Christ.  It is no wonder that He should have died upon the cross; the wonder would have been if, with the inestimable privilege of saving man, He had shrunk from that cross and turned away.  It sets before us that it is not the glories of suffering, it is not the necessity of suffering, it is simply the beauty of obedience and the fulfilment of a man’s life in doing his duty and rendering the service which it is possible for him to render to his fellow-man.

I said that a man when he did that left behind him all the thought of the life which he was willing to live within himself, even all the highest thought.  It is not your business and mine to study whether we shall get to heaven, even to study whether we shall be good men; it is our business to study how we shall come into the midst of the purposes of God and have the unspeakable privilege in these few years of doing something of His work.  And yet so is our life all one, so is the kingdom of God which surrounds us and infolds us one bright and blessed unity, that when a man has devoted himself to the service of God and his fellow-man, immediately he is thrown back upon his own nature, and he sees now—­it is the right place for him to see—­that he must be the brave, strong, faithful man, because it is impossible for him to do his duty and to render his service, except it is rendered out of a heart that is full of faithfulness, that is brave and true.  There is one word of Jesus that always comes back to me as about the noblest thing that human lips have ever said upon our earth, and the most comprehensive thing, that seems to sweep into itself all the commonplace experience of mankind.  Do you remember when He was sitting with His disciples, at the last supper, how He lifted up His voice and prayed, and in the midst of His prayer there came these wondrous words:  “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified”?  The whole of human life is there.  Shall a man cultivate himself?  No, not primarily.  Shall a man serve the world, strive to increase the kingdom of God in the world?  Yes, indeed, he shall.  How shall he do it?  By cultivating himself, and instantly he is thrown back upon his own life.  “For their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified.”  I am my best, not simply for myself, but for the world.  My brethren, is there anything in all the teachings that man has had from his fellow-man, all that has come down to him from the lips of God, that is nobler,