of men nor sympathise perfectly with all
human suffering, unless he has faced and conquered pain and fear and
death unaided, save by the aid he draws from the God within him. It is
easy to suffer when there is unbroken consciousness between the higher
and the lower; nay, suffering is not, while that consciousness remains
unbroken, for the light of the higher makes darkness in the lower
impossible, and pain is not pain when borne in the smile of God. There
is a suffering that men have to face, that every Saviour of man must
face, where darkness is on the human consciousness, and never a glimmer
of light comes through; he must know the pang of the despair felt by the
human soul when there is darkness on every side, and the groping
consciousness cannot find a hand to clasp. Into that darkness every Son
of Man goes down, ere he rises triumphant; that bitterest experience is
tasted by every Christ, ere he is "able to save them to the
uttermost"[234] who seek the Divine through him.

Such a one has become truly divine, a Saviour of men, and he takes up
the world-work for which all this has been the preparation. Into him
must pour all the forces that make against man, in order that in him
they may be changed into forces that help. Thus he becomes one of the
Peace-centres of the world, which transmute the forces of combat that
would otherwise crush man. For the Christs of the world are these
Peace-centres into which pour all warring forces, to be changed within
them and then poured out as forces that work for harmony.

Part of the sufferings of the Christ not yet perfect lies in this
harmonising of the discord-making forces in the world. Although a Son,
he yet learns by suffering and is thus "made perfect."[235] Humanity
would be far more full of combat and rent with strife were it not for
the Christ-disciples living in its midst, and harmonising many of the
warring forces into peace.

When it is said that the Christ suffers "for men," that His strength
replaces their weakness, His purity their sin, His wisdom their
ignorance, a truth is spoken; for the Christ so becomes one with men
that they share with Him and He with them. There is no substitution of
Him for them, but the taking of their lives into His, and the pouring of
His life into theirs. For, having risen to the plane of unity, He is
able to share all He has gained, to give all He has won. Standing above
the plane of separateness and looking down at the souls immerse