February 3

Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.

1 TIM. i. 15.

For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. — LUKE xix. 10.

THE Son of God in his work for men identifies himself with them by becoming, and constantly calling himself the Son of man. He is among men and with men as a new power in the life of the world. For one purpose only could so great an event as the coming of the Son of man be demanded. For the ordinary regulation of life the resources of the earth and the activity of man are sufficient, as each new year of experience proves. But the fact that man was lost, that he had wandered from his Father's presence and from the knowledge of his Father's love, called for the coming of the Son of man to bring man back to his true position. The wisdom and love of the God of creation met the new demand.

Without the Son of man our daily duties and pleasures are the endless and aimless wanderings of men lost in a trackless existence. Under his guidance they are marches to a definite end. If that end is not always clear to us or to others, it is to him. He not only comes to seek, but to save. We respond to the seeking voice, and at once the work of salvation begins. It is sure of success, and every day that makes up a part of its story shares in that certainty, and has now in all its events the brightness of the sun which never shall set.

Arthur Brooks

Jesus sought me when a stranger, Wandering from the fold of God; He, to rescue me from danger, Interposed his precious blood.

ROBERT ROBINSON.