June 7

"Is it right that a man should entirely sacrifice himself to his fellow-men? Is it right that a man should give away his life in order that his brethren may be saved?" We see it in many ways, with a thousand meanings—that vast truth; but when we carry it on to its fullest interpretation, it is an awful doctrine, a doctrine that it is inconceivable that God should teach His children. God can never really sacrifice the essential fulfilment of any life to the service which it could render to any other life. Much I may be called upon to give up, much I may be called upon to surrender. I may surrender my comfort, my means, my time, my cultivation. But myself I have no right to give entirely to any man, to give for the growth of my fellow-men. God never

can ask a man to give his own true life, his own real self, his own essential and absolute self, the fulness of his own life, even for the salvation of the world. It is the story of the great man's life; it was the story of the divine life of Jesus. He gave Himself absolutely for man, but He never gave Himself away to man. He never sacrificed that which belonged to His Father.