, but in spite of His will. Remember that God exhausted all
the wealth of His resource when He gave His Son. There can come nothing
more after that.

Your Personality Needed.

Then there is a second question from God's side to ask about those ugly
words: thoughtfully, and yet plainly--Is it the fault of Jesus, the Son
of God? And let anyone here listen to Him speaking in that tenth chapter
of John. "I lay down My life for the sheep. No man taketh it from Me. I
lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down and power to take it
again." And then go out yonder to that scene just outside the Jerusalem
wall. There hangs Jesus upon that cross, suspended by nails through
hands and feet. He is only thirty-three. He is intensely human. Life was
just as sweet to Him that day as it is to you and me to-night. Aye, more
sweet: for sin had not taken the edge off his relish of life. Plainly He
could have prevented them. For many a time had He held the murderous mob
in check by the sheer power of His presence alone. Yet there He hangs
from nine until noon and until three--six long hours. And He said He did
it for you, for me. Do not ask me to tell _how_ His dying for us saves.
I do not know. No one statement seems to tell all the truth. When I
study into it I always get clear beyond my depth. In a tremendous way it
tells a double story; of the damnable blackness of sin; and of the
intensity of love. I do know that _He said_ He did it for us, and for
our salvation, and that it had to be done. But as we look to-day on that
scene, again the question: does any of the blame of the awful statements
this book makes regarding your friends belong to Him, do you think? And
I think I hear your hearts say "surely not."

Well, the Father has done His best. No blame surely attaches there. The
Son has gone to the utmost limit. No fault can be found there. There is
just one other left up yonder, of the divine partnership--the Holy
Spirit. What about Him. Listen. Just as soon as the Son went back home
with face and form all scarred from His brief stay upon the earth, He
and the Father said, "now We will send down the last one of Us, the Holy
Spirit, and He will do His best to woo men back," and so it was done.
The last supreme effort to win men back was begun. The Holy Spirit came
down for the specific purpose of telling the world about Jesus. His work
down here is to convict men of their terrible wrong in rejecting Jesus,
and of His righteousn