Father.
He, the Son of God, felt the need of much prayer, of persevering prayer, of
bringing down from heaven and maintaining the life of fellowship with God
in prayer. We hear a great deal about trusting God. Most blessed! And we
may say: "Ah, that is what I want," and we may forget what is the very
secret of all,--that God, in Christ, must work all in us. I not only need
God as an object of trust, but I must have Christ within as the power
to trust; He must live His own life of trust in me. Look at it in that
wonderful story of Paul, the Apostle, the beloved servant of God. He is in
danger of self-confidence, and God in heaven sends that terrible trial in
Asia to bring him down, lest he trust in himself and not in the living God.
God watched over his servant that he should be kept trusting. Remember that
other story about the thorn in the flesh, in 2 Corinthians XII., and think
what that means. He was in danger of exalting himself, and the blessed
Master came to humble him, and to teach him: "I keep thee weak, that thou
mayest learn to trust not in thyself, but in Me." If we are to enter into
the rest of faith, and to abide there; if we are to live the life of
victory in the land of Canaan, it must begin here. We must be broken down
from all self-confidence and learn like Christ to depend absolutely and
unceasingly upon God. There is a greater work to be done in that than we
perhaps know. We must be broken down, and the habit of our souls must be
unceasingly: "I am nothing; God is all. I cannot walk before God as I
should for one hour, unless God keep the life He has given me." What a
blessed solution God gives then to all our questions and our difficulties,
when He says: "My child, Christ has gone through it all for thee. Christ
hath wrought out a new nature that can trust God; and Christ the Living One
in heaven will live in thee, and enable thee to live that life of trust."
That is why Paul said: "Such confidence have we toward God, through
Christ." What does that mean? Does it only mean through Christ as the
mediator, or intercessor? Verily, no. It means much more; through Christ
living in and enabling us to trust God as He trusted Him.

Then comes, thirdly, the death of Christ. What does that teach us of
Christ's relation to the Father? It opens up to us one of the deepest
and most solemn lessons of Christ life, one which the Church of Christ
understands all too little. We know what the death of Christ means as an