t His death renders, in a conspicuous form,
the perfect self-sacrifice with which He devoted Himself to our good. It
is conceivable that in a long-past age some other man should have lived
and died for his fellows, and yet we at once recognise that, though the
history of such a person came into our hands, we should not be so
affected and drawn by it as to choose him as our king and rest upon him
the hope of uniting us to one another and to God. Wherein, then, lies
the difference? The difference lies in this--that Christ was the
representative of God. This He Himself uniformly claimed to be. He knew
He was unique, different from all others; but He advanced no claim to
esteem that did not pass to the Father who sent Him. Always he explained
His powers as being the proper equipment of God's representative, "The
words that I speak unto you, I speak not of Myself." His whole life was
the message of God to man, the Word made flesh. His death was but the
last syllable of this great utterance--the utterance of God's love for
man, the final evidence that nothing is grudged us by God. Greater love
hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. His
death draws us because there is in it more than human heroism and
self-sacrifice. It draws us because in it the very heart of God is laid
bare to us. It softens, it breaks us down, by the irresistible
tenderness it discloses in the mighty and ever-blessed God. Every man
feels it has a message for him, because in it the God and Father of us
all speaks to us.

It is this which is special to the death of Christ, and which separates
it from all other deaths and heroic sacrifices. It has a universal
bearing--a bearing upon every man, because it is a Divine act, the act
of that One who is the God and Father of all men. In the same century as
our Lord many men died in a manner which strongly excites our
admiration. Nothing could well be more noble, nothing more pathetic,
than the fearless and loving spirit in which Roman after Roman met his
death. But beyond respectful admiration these heroic deeds win from us
no further sentiment. They are the deeds of men who have no connection
with us. The well-worn words, "What's Hecuba _to me_ or I to Hecuba?"
rise to our lips when we try to fancy any deep connection. But the death
of Christ concerns all men without exception, because it is the greatest
declarative act of the God of all men. It is the manifesto all men are
concerned to