s fight pointed
clearly to successive struggles, and the greatest. The Transfiguration
mount meant turning from the greatest glory of His divinity which any
earthly eye had seen to the little hill of death, which was to loom above
the mount. Gethsemane is Calvary in anticipation. Calvary was _the_
tragedy when love yielded to hate and, yielding, conquered. There love
held hate's climax, death, by the throat, extracted the sting, drew the
fang tooth, and drained the poison sac underneath. Love's surgery.

And the tinge of the tragedy remains in the Resurrection and Ascension in
lingering scars. They are still in that face. It is a scale ascending
from the first. In each is seen the one thing from a different angle. The
cross in advance is in each experience, growing in intensity till itself
is reached, and casting its shadow as it is left behind.

<u>Our Brother.</u>

Through the crowds at the Jordan River, there quietly walked one morning a
Man who came up to where John stood. He took a place in the line of those
waiting to be baptized, so indicating His own intention. John is absorbed
in his work, but as he faces this Man, next in order, he is startled. This
is no ordinary man. That face! Its wondrous purity! That intangible
something revealing the man! That spirit looking through those eyes into
his own! In that presence he feels his own impurity. It is the instant
unpremeditated recognition by this fine-grained Spirit-taught John of his
Master, his Chief. The remonstrance that instinctively springs to his lips
is held in check by the obedience he at once feels is due this One.
Whatever _He_ commands is right, however unexpected it may be, or however
strange it may seem.

Why did Jesus go to John for baptism? The rite was a purifying one. It
meant confession of sin, need of cleansing, a desire for cleansing, a
purpose to turn from wrong and sin and lead a new life. How _could_ Jesus
accept such a rite for Himself? Why did He? Read in the light of the whole
story of Jesus the answer seems simple. Jesus was stepping down into the
ranks of man as His _Brother_. The kingdom He was to establish among men
was to be set up and ruled over by man's Brother. The salvation was to be
by One, close up, alongside. The King will brush elbows with His subjects,
for they are brothers too. No long-range work for Jesus, but personal
touch.

In accepting John's baptism, Jesus was allying Himself with the race of
men He had com