own personal interests, the scattering of our own
selfish hopes and plans, the surrender of our life to the service of
others, we are to remember that this, which looks so very like death,
and which often throws around our prospects the chilling atmosphere of
the tomb, is not really the termination, but the beginning of the true
and eternal life of the spirit. Let us keep our heart in the fellowship
of the sacrifice of Christ, let us feel our way into the meanings and
uses of that sacrifice, and learn its reality, its utility, its grace,
and at length it will lay hold of our whole nature, and we shall find
that it impels us to regard other men with interest and to find our true
joy and life in serving them.

IV.

_THE ATTRACTIVE FORCE OF THE CROSS._

"Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save Me from
this hour. But for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify
Thy name. There came therefore a voice out of heaven, saying, I have
both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The multitude
therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it had thundered:
others said, An angel hath spoken to Him. Jesus answered and said,
This voice hath not come for My sake, but for your sakes. Now is the
judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast
out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto
Myself. But this He said, signifying by what manner of death He
should die. The multitude therefore answered Him, We have heard out
of the law that the Christ abideth for ever: and how sayest thou,
The Son of man must be lifted up? who is this Son of man? Jesus
therefore said unto them, Yet a little while is the light among you.
Walk while ye have the light, that darkness overtake you not: and he
that walketh in the darkness knoweth not whither he goeth. While ye
have the light, believe on the light, that ye may become sons of
light."--JOHN xii. 27-36.

The presence of the Greeks had stirred in the soul of Jesus conflicting
emotions. Glory by humiliation, life through death, the secured
happiness of mankind through His own anguish and abandonment,--well
might the prospect disturb Him. So masterly is His self-command, so
steadfast and constant His habitual temper, that one almost inevitably
underrates the severity of the conflict. The occasional withdrawal of
the veil permits us reverently to o