reject Him? Let us take a hasty look at Him as He is portrayed in the Gospels-in John's gospel, for instance and as we pass these features in His life and ministry and teachings, tell me or tell yourself for which or all of them you reject Jesus Christ and with the rabble cry out: "Away with Him; crucify Him, crucify Him.'

In the first chapter of John, I see Him as "the Lamb of God that taketh away the sin of the world." Is it for that you reject Him? In the second chapter, I behold Him up in the little hill town of Cana, the guest and friend of the family where the wedding was, turning water into wine, and by His presence blessing and sanctifying the holiest ordinance among men; one that makes for home and peace and happiness, when it is performed with Christ looking on and blessing it. Is it for His influence upon the married and home life you reject Him? In the third chapter, I behold Him talking with a good but troubled man and telling Him that He "must" and yet "may" be born again and enter into the kingdom of God. Is it for the solution of this age-old question of how a man that is born of woman may be just with God that you reject Him? In the fourth chapter, I see Him talking with a poor outcast woman and telling her how He bears a gift of God to such as she, in living water which if a man drink he shall never thirst again. Is it for this Gift of God that you reject Him? In the fifth chapter, I see Him healing a poor, sick and paralysed man for whom no one cared, bidding him take up his bed and walk away healed. Is it for such deeds and what they imply that you reject Him? In the sixth chapter, I see Him feeding a hungry multitude upon whom He had pity as upon sheep without a shepherd; and yet offering them bread coming

down from heaven, which they might eat and have eternal life. Is it because He is the bread of life for starving humanity that you reject Him? In the seventh chapter, I see Him standing in the temple and crying out: "If any man thirst, let him come unto Me and drink." How many millions of thirsty souls have availed of that proclamation and drunk of that living water and lived?

"I heard the voice of Jesus say, Behold, I freely give The living water; thirsty one, stoop down and drink and live.

I came to Jesus and I drank of that life-giving stream, My thirst was quenched, my soul revived, and now I live in Him."

Is it for such an invitation to thirsty souls as this that you reject Him? In the eighth chapter, I see Him stooping down and writing something in the sand while the Pharisees were demanding that He stone a poor woman taken in the act of adultery; then rising up and rebuking those hypocrites, and turning to the poor, stricken soul and saying: "Neither do I condemn thee; go in peace and sin no more." It is for such words and acts of mercy that you reject Him? In the ninth chapter, I see Him opening the eyes of a blind man. Giving him both light in which to see and the power with which to see; and eyes and light not for this world only, but for the unseen world. Is it for such light and sight which He gives that you reject Him? In the tenth chapter, I see Him as the good shepherd laying down His life for His sheep. Is it for this and all that that act stands for that you reject Him? In the eleventh chapter, I see Him standing at the grave of Lazarus and demanding of Death, as the Master of Death, that he give back to those weeping sisters their brother

whom they had lost; and proclaiming Himself the "resurrection and the life" in whom men believing should never die. Is it for this resurrection life and power in Him that you reject Him? In the twelfth chapter, I see Him in that homely little house in Bethany, sitting down to meat with His humble friends and telling them of the great things He had come forth from the Father to do. Is it for this that you reject Him? In the thirteenth chapter, I see Him instituting the Last Supper, a perpetual memorial and exposition, an object lesson of the meaning of His death; and washing His disciples' feet, telling them that He came to be their minister and the forgiver of their sins. Is it for this that you reject Him? In the fourteenth chapter, I hear Him saying those wondrous words that have given comfort to millions of troubled souls: "In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you; and if I go I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." Is it for these words of heavenly comfort that you reject Him? In the fifteenth chapter, He is the vine of which we are the branches, inspired and cared for by this heavenly vine-dresser, without being grafted into whom, we are but withered branches, to be cut off and burned in the fire. Is it for this that you reject Him? In the sixteenth chapter, we have the promise of the Comforter who will convince the world of sin, righteousness and judgment. That is the certainty of justification and victory to them who receive Him. Is it for this Divine care and government that you reject Him? In the seventeenth chapter, we have that most wondrous mediatorial prayer, in which He includes us with

Himself and puts us into the keeping of God, and asks for us the same glory that was His before the world was and that will continue through the endless ages of eternity. Is it for this you reject Him? In the eighteenth chapter, we see Him in the Garden, sweating great drops of blood for us, not accepting deliverance that He might yet go to the cross and expiate our sins. We see Him betrayed, arrested and condemned that we might go free and live in the power of His life. Is it for this you reject Him? In the nineteenth chapter, we see Him before the Sanhedrin, before Pilate, and in the face of the furious and maddened mob, rejected, scorned and condemned, crowned with thorns and crucified on the cross, where He nailed our sins to the tree. Is it your choice to stand in with those murderers of the Lord of Life and Glory, and with them reject Him and fill up the cup of human sin from which He came to save you? In the twentieth chapter, we see Him rising from the dead, guaranteeing to us ten thousand promises of God and bringing to light life and immortality, without which death must be at best a leap into the dark, without God and without hope. Is it for this that you reject Him? In the twenty-first chapter, we see Him alive from the dead, showing Himself to His disciples, and with His last words commending His lambs and His sheep to their care. Is it for this you reject Him?

Surely, even with Pilate, we may say: "I find no fault in Him;" and demand with amazement: "What evil hath He done?" and ask that question of questions: "What then shall I do with Jesus?" May I close with somewhat reversing that question and ask: "What then will you do without Jesus?" In that then which is sure to come to you, what will you do without Jesus?

VIII

INCARNATION

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us, (and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth."-John i: 1, 14.

PR

ROFESSOR WOOLSEY, of Yale, used to tell his students that Christianity was composed of "three determining elements": The Historical, as found in the Gospels; the Doctrinal, as found in the Epistles; and the Experimental, as found in the lives of regenerated men and women. Dr. Forsythe, of London, varies this statement a little. He says that, in the Gospels we have the fundamental Fact upon which Christianity rests, namely: the person of our Lord Jesus Christ who was born of the Virgin Mary; His ministry, His death and His resurrection. In the Epistles we have the three-fold fact of Christ interpreted. In the lives of believing men and women we have the fact of Christ, interpreted in the Epistles, translated into the lives of men and women, regenerated by the Holy Spirit. These are statements of truth which, in our effort to understand the revelation of God concerning our salvation, it is well for us always to remember and ponder.

Without these determining elements there could be no Christianity. If God did not come to us in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ, that is, if our Lord Jesus Christ is not God manifest in the flesh, His death