congruous to speak of the severity of Jesus. Severity is often associated with narrowness, and we have seen how broad and tolerant Jesus' spirit was. It is usually opposed to pity and affection, and these marked the Son of man. Perhaps a better word than severity might be chosen, but there is at times a certain sternness, a certain inflexibility which is very different from the popular thought of the gentle, meek, and mild Jesus. He sets his demands before men uncompromisingly. Sell what you have, take up your cross, hate your life, follow me: so he speaks to men. He has no room for half-heartedness. He has pity for the sinful, but when they turn it must be with their whole heart. This broadest of teachers has about him certain narrowness. He insists upon the pure heart, the single aim. Strive to enter in, he calls out to men. His rebuke of evil is not only stern but full of deep passion, whether it be the Pharisees to whom he speaks or his friend Peter.

His Severity Rooted in Loyalty and Love.-Shallow men take offense at this. Their idea of liberality is indifference. Their conception of love and kindness is sentimentality. They lack moral depth and fiber. With Jesus there was first of all the absolute devotion to truth and right. An utter loyalty to the will of God marked his own life. Nothing could move him from this, neither toil nor peril nor suffering nor death. To be pure in the inmost thought, to be true in the least word, to be obedient with the whole heart, that was his life, and that he demanded of others. Men have sometimes talked as though righteousness like this might come into conflict with love, as though it might demand harshness where love would be lenient. But that is a wrong conception of righteousness as it is of love. The love of Jesus would have been a poor and impotent thing if this righteousness had not been at its heart. It is just because Jesus saw so unerringly and demanded so uncompromisingly, because he so hated iniquity and loved righteousness, that his love has been the saving power that it is. Because he loved men he could not ask less.

LOYALTY AND DEVOTION

The Value of Loyalty.-What Jesus demanded of others, that he was the first to yield himself, an absolute and unwavering loyalty to his work, a single devotion that counted no cost and shrank at no sacrifice. Men have not rated

highly enough the virtue of loyalty. It lifts men out of petty lives and makes them great by joining them to some high cause. Weak men become strong through it, and timid men are made into heroes. If this is valued in times of war, how much more it means in time of peace when no great wave of public feeling carries men on and only simple steadfastness in duty sustains them. Again and again Jesus praises such simple loyalty: "he that is faithful," "he that endureth," "ye have continued with me." It is such men who win the "Well done" at the last.

Jesus' Devotion to His Work.-Such was the spirit of Jesus' life: a simple but absolute devotion to his work. It calls him from Nazareth. It occupies him through the days of meditation and struggle in the wilderness. It fills his thought in long nights of prayer: What is my Father's will, and how am I to do his work? It carries the secret of his unshaken confidence even with approaching death; he throws himself upon God because he is doing God's work. "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to accomplish his work." And how that cry upon the cross reveals all the toil and terrible conflict of the past from which his spirit now turns to his Father! "It is finished." He was sent into the world for a great work; now it is accomplished. The unselfishness of that devotion friend and enemy alike recognized. He received no higher tribute than that which came from his enemies in heartless taunt as he hung upon the cross: "He saved others; himself he cannot save."' Only, we write it a little differently: That he might save others, he would not save himself.

His Enthusiasm and Passion.-Such devotion was no cold obedience to duty. Righteousness was the passion of

his life, and his soul was full of a holy and sustaining enthusiasm for his work. The fourth Gospel gives the picture of Jesus at the well, forgetful of weariness and hunger, his soul stirred with the vision of whitened fields, saying to his returning disciples: "I have meat to eat that ye know not" (John 4. 31-35). With what passion of indignation does he smite hypocrisy and wrong and oppression! With what joy does he look upon the penitence of publican and harlot, and the eager earnestness of those whom he sees taking the Kingdom by storm! It was his holy indignation that swept the temple, not the feeble Scourge that he bore in his hands. And with what a deep feeling of love and devotion and confidence has he filled his disciples ever since! Jesus changed the morality of bald duty into a mighty passion; he taught men how to hate the evil and love the good, and thus gave men not only ideals but power. He changed religion into a like passion, which joined a glowing devotion to God with a joyous confidence in the future. But that conquering spirit which has marked his disciples was first seen in its purity and power in himself.

DIRECTIONS FOR STUDY

Scripture references: Mark 2. 14-17; 14. 6-9; Matthew 9. 36; 23. 13-36; Mark 8. 33; John 4. 32-34. Only a few Scripture references are given. The whole Gospels must be the material for this lesson.

Under the friendliness of Jesus, think of his humanness, his kindliness, his warm-heartedness. Recall all the instances you can in which Jesus showed himself thus friendly.

The love and compassion of Jesus take us a little farther. Call to mind the different classes of folks to whom Jesus showed this pity. Did he show it toward his enemies?

Was it hard for one of Jesus' friendly and sympathetic nature

to be lonely? State the causes of this loneliness.

Where did Jesus most clearly show his loyalty to his work and to God?

How far is loyalty the test of character?

CHAPTER XXV

THE CHARACTER OF JESUS AS SEEN IN HIS
PERSONAL LIFE AND HIS RELATION
TO GOD

WE have seen the character of Jesus in his relation with men, but the springs of his life lay beneath this. These we consider when we study the inner spirit of his life and his relation with God. Men saw his love and righteousness in word and deed, but they felt even more the power of the life that lay behind this. "In him was life," wrote one of his disciples. What was that life?

THE LIFE OF JESUS WITH GOD

The inner life of Jesus was a life with God. One man's passion is beauty. Another's dream is of power. A third sets all his strength to the gaining of wealth, and measures all things in relation to this end. The passion of Jesus was God. All the thought of his life was filled with God. The fallen sparrow, the tinted lily, the glowing sunset, the swift tempest, the life of men about him all spoke to him of God.

A Life of Humility.-The life of Jesus with his Father was first of all a life of humility. We have seen the independence of Jesus, how he asserted his authority against friend and foe, against priest and scribe, and even over against the sacred law. The source of that independence was in his utter dependence upon God. He had no desire for himself. He saw his life only in relation to God's will, and lived in utter dependence upon God's power. That dependence is no irksome restraint, but a matter of deepest rejoicing. His Father is Lord of heaven and earth and of his own life, and for this he thanks God (Matthew 11. 25). All the praying of Jesus shows this spirit; it is

the atmosphere that encompasses the Lord's prayer, and it fills his soul in the conflict in the Garden.

A Life of Trust.-Closely akin to this humility is his confidence in God. The spirit of utter trust breathes through all his life. His confidence did not come from ignorance or blindness. He knew from the first the evils that surrounded him, and what awaited him in those last days, but he never hesitated (Luke 9. 51). He knew the peril from Herod, "that fox," but he knew also that "today and to-morrow and the third day" were in God's hand. Upon his Father's goodness he could fling his life, for this Father was Lord of heaven and earth. All who saw him noted that spirit of confidence. Even his enemies said, "He trusted in God," albeit they mocked in saying it. The early church, with its joyous faith, is witness to his power to communicate this spirit to others. His praying shows us that this confidence was not held without fierce struggle. He wrought his work amid the greatest perils. He saw his nation turn from him, his disciples desert him, one of his companions betray him, and the most cruel and shameful of deaths coming upon him. But in the midst of all danger and the apparent collapse of his work his quiet confidence and peace never left him. He breathed his last with words of trust upon his lips: "Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit."

A Life of Obedience. In the teaching of Jesus, obedience and trust go hand in hand. So it is in his life. There is more than one kind of obedience. There is the obedience of the servant who thinks only of his wage. There is the obedience that bows in submission because it cannot help. But the obedience of trust and devotion is of a different kind. Such was the obedience of Jesus. When he thought of the will of God he saw it as the greatest good that could come to man; to do that will was man's highest calling. Here too there was struggle, as he faced shame and pain and seeming defeat; and yet he could say of all his life, "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me." The will of God was not only the supreme purpose of his life, but the joy and strength that sustained him.