He was with men also in lowliness and meekness. When the Samaritan villagers would not receive Hun, He restrained His disciples' indignation and went to another village (Lk O'--"') ; He took a place in the lower seats in the Pharisee's house (Lk 14''-") ; He was infinitely api)roachable by all the outcast and needy. Though He proclaimed, when need M-as, His greatness as the Son of God, yet He turned aside from personal questions as to whether He was the Messiah. His aim was to create in men's hearts faith in God as their Father, and He was content to let that faith come to its own appreciation of Him and His claims. The man
who would not follow Him, but yet wrought cures in His name, was not to be rebuked (Mk 93«-i2) . ^nd any blasphemy against Him personally would be forgiven (Mt ]2-^i-^^). His greatness among men was the greatness of service. This union of lowly- mindedness and loftiest self-consciousness is re- flected, as in a mirror, in His parable of the Last Judgment. He sees Himself attended by all the holy angels, and seated on the throne of glory to judge men. But there His royal robe is the self- forgetting humility of love. For there no wrongs done to Himself are thought of, no disbelief in His claims, no offence against His juajesty : it is the helpless and the suffering forgotten by their brethren who fill His mind. His glory vanishes within the light of love.
(2) Jesus faced the sorrow and sin of the world, and yielded nothing of His faith and joy. It has been said that He was a man of melancholy, one ^\■ho never laughed, one marked and scored by the world's evil, grown old before His time. That is an a j^riori interpretation of His character. In the Gospels it is the note of joy that strikes us. Jesus Himself says to the complaining Pharisees, ' Can the children of the bridechamber fast while the bridegroom is with them ? ' The joy of the bride- groom was in His heart. His life then was empty of all the things in whose abundance the world tliinks that man's life consists. But the sources of happiness are all within. And Jesus' joy reveals His vict(jry over the tyranny of things. He was rich inwardly. That arose from His cheerful faith ' that all wliicli we behold is full of blessings.' This world, to His vision, was God's world. It is He who clothes the lily with beauty, and feeds the ravens, and knows when a sparrow falls to the ground, and numbers the hairs of His children's heads. And He had faith in man. He saw in the Temple's outcast children marks of good. They could love 'much : the authentic Divine seal was still on their hearts. Such an outlook brings riches of interest and joy to the whole nature.
But how did that faith and that joy fare in their encounter with the world's sin and sorroM- ? It was tried to the uttermost. Jesus met with all the sorrows of life in others' experience, which His sympathy made real to Him, if not in His own. He met the world's sin ; He had to endure the dis- belief of His brethren and the forsaking of His followers ; He was led to see the very throne of Satan in the hypocrisy of religious men, and in the cruelty and inliuman pride of earth's saints. But that did not touch the inward joy and peace of His faith. As He went up to Jerusalem, where alone the blood of the prophets was shed, there was a glory in His face Avhich held His followers awed and silent (Mk 10^-"^-'). It was the inward rapture of a heart that saw, beyond the darkness, light ; beyond the hatreds and crimes of men, the love of the Father turning sin to blessed account. It is true that Jesus' latest words are words of judgment. That could not but be ; for the days of Judah's visitation were hurrying by, and the truth which the hour revealed must be spoken. The shadow of Israel's rejection is over them. But peace, ' sub- sisting at the heart of endless agitation,' was His. It is present everywhere in His last discourse in the Upper Room ( Jn L3^'-I7'^^). A sober colouring as of even is there ; but it speaks quiet assurance of victory. ' Be of good cheer : I have overcome the world.' That is its note. Peace breathes through it, peace ' whose other names are rapture, power, clear sight, and love.' Only twice during that night was this peace greatly disturbed : in Gethsem- ane when He prayed, ' Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me' (Mt 26^^) ; and on the cross when the cry burst from Him, ' My God, my God, ^\•hy hast thou forsaken meV' (27'**'). These are
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mysteries where we pass beyonil mere moral ques- tions into tlie theology of the sin-bearing. Could such an unique spirit pass through such an ex- perience without striking notes too profound and strange for our conceiving? But only for a brief s})ace rested His soul within the sh.adow. There was peace in His heart after Uethsemane, when Judas came, and when He stood before Caiaphas and I'ilate, which made Him the Lord of *iill that evil night. And there was peace on the cross, that throne of love and obedience ; peace before the darkness, when sym])athy for others lilled His heart, and He prayed for those who slew Him knowing not what they did, and comforted the repentant thief, and gave His mother into His loveil disciple's care ; peace after the darkness, when He surveyed His work, and seeing it finished thus in sacrificial death, commended His soul to the Father, whose will He was obeying. There is the perfection of Jesus' victory over the world. He yielded no hostages of joy or faith. He con- fronted the world's sin, the very darkness of evil where God seemed not to be, and He remained with inward glory crowned, His soul full of the joy and peace of the vision that He and all His lay in the bosom of the Father.