in His Son. Jesus should lay down everything which could give Him an advantage over others; should come and live a purely human life with purely human resources; should know every temptation that the world, the flesh or the devil could contrive; should be handicapped by every difficulty of life; should be poor, despised, a failure, the Son of God living the life of a poor village carpenter: and yet should, through it all, obey, and prove that any man who made use of the Grace of God could keep His Law. It cost Him tremendous struggles. The wilderness, the Mount of Transfiguration, Gethsemane all bore witness to that. It could not be done easily—but it could be done.

By this victory Jesus of Nazareth plunged the whole world into inescapable condemnation. No longer could man say that God had asked the impossible, or find refuge in the Fall of Adam for their own disobedience. The simple truth was out: man sinned because he wanted to, not because he must. The first man who wanted with all His heart to obey—obeyed. There was everything in His circumstance to make Him rebellious: He was denied the privileges which many children had. God's Son had less than man's son, lest He should be accused of favouritism, or told that His Son only obeyed from 'cupboard' love, the taunt that was flung at Job and magnificently rebuked.

Further than this, the office for which Jesus was destined, that of High Priest, demanded that He should be in all things like those to whom He was to minister, that He might have that true compassion which only comes from a like experience. He and His brethren must have the fellowship of similar temptations, like fears, equal shocks, and parallel adventures. If the Son of God was ever to lead, it could only be because in all the changes and stresses of life He surpassed all His brethren. Theology