and of becoming the direct service of Jesus
Christ.

To work for Christ is the real foretaste of heaven, far removed from the
sensuous imagery of some modern hymns. "Be thou ruler," there is the
supreme reward, "over ten cities."

If we are doing any work for Christ, i.e. for others for Christ's sake,
and as part of our service to Him, willingly and cheerfully, then we have
the final and convincing proof that we are indeed forgiven, that the
offer of renewed allegiance has been accepted, that we have been restored
to His Friendship.

V
THE FOURTH WORD

"Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani."--ST. MATT. XXVII. 46; ST. MARK XV. 34.

There are three peculiar and distinguishing features of this fourth word
which our Saviour uttered from His Cross.

1. It is the only one of the Seven which finds a place in the earliest
record of our Lord's life, contained in the matter common to St. Matthew
and St. Mark.

2. It is the only one which has been preserved to us in the original
Aramaic, in the very syllables which were formed by the lips of Christ.

3. It is the only one which He is said to have "shouted" ([Greek text]),
under the extremity of some overpowering emotion.

In fact, we are here at the very heart of the Passion. In this dread cry
I see something of the height of the Divine love, something of the depths
of my own sin.

The meaning of this dread "cry" is not perhaps so difficult to understand
as some have thought. It is to be found in the entire reality of that
human nature which the Son of God assumed--not merely a human body, but a
human consciousness like our own; in the thoroughness with which He
identified Himself with every phase of our experience, the knowledge of
personal sin alone excepted.

In this identification more was involved than we commonly think. Sin
cannot be in a world of which the constitution is the expression of the
Mind of God, without introducing therein a fatal element of discord,
confusion, and pain. To all consequences of sin the Saviour necessarily
submitted Himself, by the mere fact of His entry into a world which sin
had disordered. In respect of the external consequences, this is
abundantly clear. We have seen, and it is, in fact, obvious, that His
sufferings and Death were the result of the actual sins of men. But
there were, it is important to remember, internal sufferings attributable
to the same cause. We are at once reminded of His tears over the doomed
c