meat is to do the will of him that sent
me, and to finish his work."_--JOHN 4:34.

JOY IN SERVICE.

This is one of the sentences that dropped from the lips of Christ,
which let us into his personal spiritual life and in some measure lay
bare his mind. To be permitted thus to share his confidence is one of
our greatest privileges. Viewing him from a distance, we may admire his
character; viewing him in history, we may confess his incomparable
power; viewing him when convincing us of our own sin, we may adore him
as our Saviour; but we desire, and may have, a still more intimate
acquaintance. He tells us about himself. He describes here and there
his personal inner life. He permits us to share his secrets, and all
that we otherwise feel of reverence, admiration, and gratitude gives
new value to these disclosures of the spiritual life of the God in man.

Now, in the words before us, Christ describes his joy in the service of
the Father. They reveal a devotion so complete as to entirely control
his mind. They reveal a soul so absorbed in doing the Divine will as to
be insensible for the time to ordinary physical needs. They reveal a
self-consecration which is absolute, and yet which is so spontaneous
and glad as to be self-sustaining; so that Christ needed no other
support in serving the Father than simply the opportunity of such
service. We, on the contrary, require support to enable us to serve. We
must be rewarded for our work, must be encouraged by sympathy, must be
fed with promises and spiritual gifts, in order to be strong enough to
do our duty. Christ found duty its own reward, service itself joy,
obedience a source of renewed strength. His will was one with the
Father's; and thus he discloses the, to us, marvelous spectacle of one
who could truly say, Not my desire or my duty, or my purpose is, but my
meat--my food--my source itself of life and strength--is to do the will
of God, and to finish his work.

And yet our Lord Jesus was a very genuine man. He did not impress
observers with the common insignia of holiness. It was the Pharisees,
not Christ, who stood at the corners of the streets to make long
prayers, who enlarged the borders of their phylacteries and chose the
chief seats in the synagogues. It was the Baptist, not Jesus, who
clothed himself in a garment of camel's hair and ate locusts and wild
honey. Jesus, on the contrary, lived the outward life of other men,
consorted with them in their us