uman
character through experience. And so He did. And forever He has a
fellow-feeling with each of us, at every point, for He Himself has _felt
our feelings_.

Jesus' experiences brought Him suffering; keen, cutting pain; real
suffering. Where there is possible danger or pain in an approaching
experience there is _shrinking_. It is a normal human trait to shrink from
pain and danger. Jesus' experiences in the suffering they brought to Him
far outreach what any other human has known. He shrank in spirit over and
over again as the expected experiences approached. He shrank back as none
other ever has, for He was more keenly alive to the suffering involved. He
suffered doubly: in the shrinking beforehand; in the actual experience.

But, be it keenly remembered, shrinking does not mean _faltering_. Neither
suffering in anticipation nor actually ever held Him back for a moment,
nor an inch's length, nor in the spirit of full-tilted obedience to His
Father's plan. This makes Jesus' experiences the greatest revealers of His
character. He was sublime in His character, His teachings, His stupendous
conceptions. He was most sublime in that wherein He touches us most
closely--His experiences.

With a new, deep meaning it can be said, knowledge is power. We humans
enter into knowledge and so into power only through experience.
Experiences are sent, or when not directly sent are allowed to come, that
through these may come knowledge, through knowledge power, through both
the likeness of God, and so, true service in helping men back to God.

Let us, you and I, go through our experiences _graciously_, not
grudgingly, not balking, cheerily, aye, with a bit of joy in the voice and
a gleam of light in the eye. And remember, and not forget, that alongside
is One who _knows_ the experience that just now is ours, and, knowing,
sympathizes.

There were with Jesus the commoner experiences and the great outstanding
ones: the mountain range with the foot-hills below and the towering peaks
above. From His earliest consciousness until the cross was reached, Jesus
ran the whole gamut of human experiences common to us all, with some
greater ones, which are the same as come to all men, but with Him
intensified clear beyond our measurements.

These greater experiences were tragic until the great tragedy was past.
Each has in it the shadow of the greatest. The Jordan waters meant turning
from a kingdom down another path to a cross. The Wildernes