rough the coming weeks, and knew that the Father had
given all things into His hands. What the devil had offered as the
price of obeisance to himself, that the Father was about to give Him,
nay, had already given Him, as the price of His self-emptying. And if
for a moment He stooped, as we shall see He did, to the form of a
servant, it was not because of any failure to recognize His high
dignity and mission, but with the sense of Godhead quick on His soul.

The love which went out toward this little group of men had Deity in
it. It was the love of the Throne, of the glory He had with the Father
before the worlds were, of that which now fills the bosom of His
ascended and glorified nature.

_He was aware of the task to which He was abandoning these men_.--He
knew that as He was the High Priest over the house of God, they were
its priests. He knew that cleansing was necessary before they could
receive the anointing of the Holy Ghost. He knew that the great work
of carrying forward His Gospel was to be delegated to their hands. He
knew that they were to carry the sacred vessels of the Gospel, which
must not be blurred or fouled by contact with human pride or
uncleanness. He knew that the very mysteries of Gethsemane and Calvary
would be inexplicable, and that none might stand on that holy hill,
save those that had clean hands and a pure heart; and because of all
this, He turned to them, by symbol and metaphor, to impress upon their
heart and memory the necessity of participating in the cleansing of
which the Laver is the type.

The highest love is ever quickest to detect the failures and
inconsistencies of the beloved. Just because of its intensity, it can
be content with nothing less than the best, because the best means the
blessedest; and it longs that the object of its thought should be most
blessed forever. It is a mistake to think that green-eyed jealousy is
quickest to detect the spots on the sun, the freckles on the face, and
the marring discords in the music of the life; love is quicker, more
microscopic, more exacting that the ideal should be achieved. Envy is
content to indicate the fault, and leave it; but love detects, and
waits and holds its peace until the fitting opportunity arrives, and
then sets itself to remove, with its own tenderest ministry, the defect
which had spoiled the completeness and beauty of its object.

Perhaps there had never been a moment in the human consciousness of our
Lor