dawn of conscious life--"I
believe that Jesus Christ was incarnate by the Holy Ghost of the Virgin
Mary, and was made man"; "I believe in the life of the world to come."

The two thoughts blend in our text with a harmony of illumination which,
though it does not solve the problem, renders it less dark.

Only in the light of another world, where the seed sown here shall bear
wondrous fruit, can we even begin to reconcile the existence of
suffering with the goodness of Almighty God. If there be no hereafter,
then indeed suffering must be the work of a vengeful tyrant rejoicing in
cruelty, or of a fatalistic machine grinding out its foreordained
consequences.

What we require is some comprehensive plan which will knit together
past, present, future in one great purpose of progress towards ultimate
perfection, which will guarantee not only _an_ existence hereafter,
but will render that existence personal, conscious, capable of the
highest development.

We find this in the Incarnation, the eternal purpose of God the Father,
formed in the eternity of _the past_, that His Son should take our
human flesh.

This plan is working itself out in _the present_ by the power of
God the Holy Ghost, through the life of the great Church of Christ,
militant and expectant.

It stretches forth into the future, with regard to which we have
parables, promises, visions, warnings, all pointing to a continuously
progressive growth till the perfect manifestation of the Kingdom of
Christ be reached.

Thus the Incarnation supplies the unifying principle, and in its light
we catch some ray of hope on the dark problem of suffering.

In consequence of sin our Lord was a sufferer, even in some mysterious
sense was "made perfect through suffering" (Heb. ii. 10).

The climax came in the "full, perfect, and complete sacrifice, oblation,
and satisfaction for the sins of the whole world" made upon the Cross.

It is suggestive that these words should occur in the Consecration
Prayer of the Holy Communion Service, as if to remind us that our true
spiritual and commemorative sacrifice draws all its validity, power, and
preciousness from the one offering of Christ made by Himself in His
death.

Thus we see that most essential act for our salvation was not one of
victory, triumph, or glory, as the world reckons these things. Oh, no!
It was one of absolute self-surrender, involving untold anguish of soul
and body. The results of the sufferings of ou