as out riding with her
little boy. The horse took fright and ran away. The buggy was
wrecked. The mother escaped without injury. But the little lad was so
crippled that he was never able to sit up again.

Now, before this tragic accident the mother of this little wounded boy
had been very active in the life of her Church and community. But with
the coming of this great sorrow she had to give up all outside work.
She gave herself instead night and day to the nursing of her boy. At
times she would hold the little fellow in her arms for almost the whole
night through. At last, after three years, the angel of release came
and the patient sufferer went home. And there were those in the
community who said, "I know that his mother will grieve. Yet his
home-going must be a bit of a relief."

But what said the mother when the minister went to see her? She met
the preacher at the door and as love's sweet rain ran down her face she
did not say anything about being relieved at all. But this is what she
said: "Oh, Brother, my little boy is gone and I can't get to do
anything for him any more." Why, it was the grief of her heart that
the little fellow had gone out beyond the reach of her hand where she
could no longer have the joy of offering herself a living sacrifice
upon the altar of his need. She longed to continually share in his
suffering.

So Paul wanted to share in the sufferings of Christ because he loved
Christ. Then he wanted to share in the sufferings of Christ, in the
second place, because he knew that suffering was involved in being like
Christ. You may suffer and yet be un-Christlike, but no man can be
Christlike and fail to suffer. If you ever, by the grace of God,
become a partaker of the divine nature you must also inevitably become
a partaker of His sufferings.

To be Christlike is to suffer for the very simple reason that Christ
cannot be what He is and fail to suffer in and for a world like ours.
What is the nature of Christ? Christ is like God. Christ is God. "He
that hath seen me hath seen the Father." But what is God? There are
many definitions. There is only one all comprehensive and all
inclusive definition. That is that sentence of pure gold that fell
from the lips of the apostle that leaned upon the bosom of his Lord.
"What is God?" I ask this man who had such a wonderful knowledge of
Him. And he answers, "God is love."

Now since God is love He must suffer. He cannot look up