rts of men, and thereby an ever-increasing number
have been quickened with the desire and strengthened with the will to
spend and be spent for the cleansing, the restoration, and the life of
the most guilty, miserable, and degraded of their fellows." It was in
Christ's life and death this great principle of the life of God and man
was affirmed: there self-sacrifice is perfectly exhibited.

It is to this willingness of Christ to suffer we must ever turn. It is
this voluntary, uncompelled, spontaneous devotion of Himself to the good
of men which is the magnetic point in this earth. Here is something we
can cleave to with assurance, something we can trust and build upon.
Christ in His own sovereign freedom of will and impelled by love of us
has given Himself to work out our perfect deliverance from sin and evil
of every kind. Let us deal sincerely with Him, let us be in earnest
about these matters, let us hope truly in Him, let us give Him time to
conquer by moral means all our moral foes within and without, and we
shall one day enter into His joy and His triumph.

But when we thus apply John's words we are haunted with a suspicion that
they were perhaps not intended to be thus used. Is John justified in
finding in Christ's surrender of Himself to the authorities, on
condition that the disciples should escape, fulfilment of the words that
of those whom God had given Him He had lost none? The actual occurrence
we see here is Jesus arrested as a false Messiah, and claiming to be the
sole culprit if any culprit there be. Is this an occurrence that has any
bearing upon us or any special instruction regarding the substitution of
a sin-bearer in our room? Can it mean that He alone bears the punishment
of our sin and that we go free? Is it any more than an illustration of
His substitutionary work, one instance out of many of His habit of
self-devotion in the room of others? Can I build upon this act in the
Garden of Gethsemane and conclude from it that He surrenders Himself
that I may escape punishment? Can I legitimately gather from it anything
more than another proof of His constant readiness to stand in the
breach? It is plain enough that a person who acted as Christ did here is
one we could trust; but had this action any special virtue as the actual
substitution of Christ in our room as sin-bearer?

It is, I think, well that we should occasionally put to ourselves such
questions and train ourselves to look at the events of C