ITS GATE. ITS SELF-AND WORLD-DENIAL. ITS STUDY, SPREAD AND PRACTICE OF THE TRUTH. ITS WATCHFULNESS. ITS PRAYER. ITS ENDURANCE OF EVIL. 

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OUR LORD Jesus did not become a human being to remain such. Rather, it was as a means to an end—to use His humanity as the means of ransoming the race. Hence it was taken temporarily only as a thing to be consecrated to God for man's redemption. The road over which He traveled to lay it down in sacrifice was the Narrow Way—a way over which He and all His true followers have had to travel—the way of sacrifice (1 Pet. 2:19-24). There are three ways over which in God's plan there is or will be traveling done: (1) the broad way that leads to destruction, over which the race has been traveling since Adam's day (Matt. 7:13); (2) the narrow way, over which Jesus and the Church have been traveling in the Gospel Age (Matt. 7:13, 14); and (3) the highway of holiness, over which the race will Millennially travel (Is. 35:8). Having been born sinless and free from the Adamic sentence, Jesus never was on the broad road leading to destruction. And being the Church's Forerunner (Heb. 6:20) over the narrow way, that is the way over which He traveled. This is also evident from the fact that His experiences were similar to those of the Church, as it has been traveling thereover, i.e., self and world-denial, watchfulness, prayer, study, spread and practice of the Word and faithful endurance of the incidental experiences. Indeed, His traveling there over was done perfectly and flawlessly, and gave Him harder experiences than those of any of His followers thereon. His followers having traveled thereover, He must have traveled thereover before them, else they would not have been His followers (Matt. 16:24),

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walking in His footsteps (1 Pet. 2:21). It was indeed a narrow, a difficult, way over which He traveled in carrying out His consecration. Even a superficial reading of the Bible, particularly of the Gospels, gives the impression that His course from His baptism on was one of great difficulty. It taxed to the utmost, not only His perfect powers as a perfect man, but also His perfect powers as a New Creature. Hence let us study Christ as a Traveler over the narrow way. 

His course thereover had a beginning in a series of acts, two of which were His own acts, and three of which were His Heavenly Father's acts. His two pertinent Acts were His consecration of Himself and His symbolizing that consecration; and God's three pertinent Acts were His influencing Jesus to consecrate Himself, His begetting Him of the Spirit and His anointing Him. Each of these Acts will be considered in its turn. Jesus' consecration of Himself was the initial step of His entering the narrow way—it was the gate leading into that way. His entrance into the narrow way was a hard thing for Him; for He included Himself in speaking of those entering the strait, not straight, gate. Hence His entrance through the gate was accompanied with straits, hard struggles. Like our own, His consecration, entrance through the strait gate into the narrow way, consisted, first, in giving up His own will selfward and worldward and the world's will, and, secondly, in accepting the Father's will in all things as His will. This implied the surrender of all His human rights selfward and worldward to God, which effected the result that He was no more to use for self or the world His rights in self and in the world. His rights in Himself included the right of a good opinion of Himself, of the good opinion of others, of ease, comfort, innocent pleasure, of safety, of hiding disadvantageous things, of gaining and retaining human possessions, of food and drink, health and life, of self-defense and of aggressiveness against harmful things. Moreover, His rights in the world included the right

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of sexliness, husbandliness, fatherliness, filiality, brethrenliness, friendship, home and native land. His consecration was, first of all, an agreement not to use any of these things in self-will or world-will. Hence He agreed to deny self and the world, i.e., not to use self and the world for His own indulgence, nor to let the world use Him for its indulgence. Had His consecration consisted in nothing else He would have been dead—dead to self and the world. 

But it consisted of another thing—taking the Father's will as His own in all things, which made Him alive to God. His consecration, therefore, consisted of deadness to self and the world and aliveness to God. Having seen the implications of deadness to self and the world, let us look at those of aliveness to God. It implies that Jesus was to use His human rights in self and the world for God alone, in harmony with God's will as to their use. This means that He was to use them or leave them unused, as God would direct. And God directed that they be not used for self-and world-gratification, i.e., that He was to deny self and the world as to their use in gratification, but that they be used in ways that God would indicate to advance God's plans and purposes, i.e., that He should use His love of a good opinion of Himself and of others' good opinion of Him, His love of ease, comfort, pleasure, safety, secretiveness, possessions, food, drink, health, life, self-defense, aggression, parents, opposite sex, wife, children, brethren, friends, home and country only in ways that would advance God's plans and purposes. In other words, that He should give God, to further His plans and purposes according to God's will, His will, with all that it controlled. This implied that He give God His body, intellect, affections, graces, time, strength, health, life, talents, knowledge, possessions, influence, position, reputation, etc., to be used for His service. It also implied that He do these things out of perfect faith, fortitude (whose heart is hope of victory), knowledge, self-control, patience, piety, brotherly love 

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and charity. And all of this, not only under easy conditions, but under the stress and distress of a sacrificial death amid most crucial trials, temptations, and sufferings. All of this was implied in Jesus' taking God's will as His own, amid self-denying and world-denying conditions. Certainly, to have entered the covenant of sacrifice by the act of consecration in its two parts made the narrow way's gate a hard thing to enter. 

In Rom 12:1 our consecration is taught; and as it implies the two parts of consecration for us, it also implies that, our consecration introducing us into the narrow way, and we therein following in Jesus' footsteps, His consecration introduced Him into the narrow way, and had the same two parts as ours—deadness to self and the world and aliveness to God. In Heb. 10:5-10, among other things, Jesus' consecration is set forth as the antitype of that of the bullock on the typical day of atonement. In v. 5 is shown, among other things, that Jesus' humanity is set forth as the antitype of the atonement-day bullock, to be sacrificed; and His body implied all that He was and had as a human being; and in v. 9, among other things, the statement, "He taketh away the first [set of sacrifices], that He might establish [sacrifice] the second [set of sacrifices]," implies His consecrating His humanity unto death, i.e., deadness to self and the world; while in the first part of v. 9, as well as in v. 7, it is shown that Jesus' consecration implied that He take God's will as His own. Here, then, the two parts of Jesus' consecration are set forth. It will be noted that we used several times in our explanation of this section the expression, "among other things." This is because in the whole section, Heb. 10:1-10, in type and antitype, both Jesus and the Church as His body are set forth as consecrated: the bullock typing Jesus' humanity and the Lord's goat that of the Church. According to v. 10 the Church, the body of Jesus Christ, was sanctified, consecrated, by taking the same will as vs. 7, 9 tell us Jesus took, in its being offered 

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up once for all. It is because of what Heb. 10:1-9 teaches as to Jesus' body that we cited Rom. 12:1 as shedding light on Jesus' consecration, though this verse refers directly to the Church's, not Jesus' consecration. 

Jesus' entire course throughout the 3½ years of His ministry proves that He entered the narrow way by His consecration; for His traveling that way was nothing else than a fulfillment of the consecration vows that he made as the act of passing through the gate of entrance into the narrow way. Thus He kept the vow to deny self; for it is written of Him, "Even Christ pleased not himself" (Rom. 15:3). Nor was He a man-pleaser who lived to do the world's will, as His whole life showed that His doing God's will was at the world's displeasure and against its will, even unto its hating Him for His not doing its, but God's will (John 15:18-25). So also His future course showed that He fulfilled the positive side of His consecration—He did the Father's will, as He said, "My meat is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish his work" (John 4:32, 34). "I must work the works of Him that sent me, while it is day" (9:4). "I delight to do thy will, O my God; yea, thy law is within my heart" (Ps. 40:8). "I was not rebellious, neither turned away back." (Is. 50:5). In Gethsemane His heart's attitude, as well as His words, were "not as I will, but as thou wilt … thy will be done" (Matt. 26:39, 42). Modestly He disclaimed originality either of teaching or work: "I can of myself do nothing; as I hear [from the Father], I judge; and my judgment is just, because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me" (John 5:30). Again He asserts the same thing, almost in the same words: "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of Him that sent me" (6:38). He showed that His will was to glorify God in the doing of God's will: "He that seeketh his glory that sent him, the same is true, and no unrighteousness is in him" (7:18). Truly He could therefore say: "I do always those 

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things that please him … I know him, and keep his saying" (8:29, 55). His taking the Father's will as His own marked His course to the end, as He declared just before Gethsemane: "As the Father gave me commandment, even so I do" (14:31) and "Even as I have kept my Father's commandments" (15:10). It was by taking the Father's will as His own that He glorified the Father, and finished the work that God gave Him to do: "I have glorified thee on the earth; I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do" (17:4). This made Him obedient to God unto the limit: "Became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Phil. 2:8). This He did because He was a real son of God: "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered" (Heb. 5:8). Taking the Father's will as His own was the purpose of His whole ministry: "I come to do thy will, O God" (10:9). Certainly, these Scriptures prove that Jesus kept both sides of His consecration—remained dead to self and the world and alive to God, i.e., took God's will as His own. 

Our Lord Jesus symbolized His consecration in the river Jordan, at the hands of John the Baptist. The latter, recognizing Jesus' superiority to himself and the fact that Jesus needed not the baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins, modestly declined to baptize Him in water, saying, "I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?" (Matt. 3:14). But Jesus, who understood that He was not to be baptized unto repentance for the forgiveness of sins, replied, "Suffer [permit] it to be so now; for thus it behooveth us to fulfill all righteousness" (v. 15). What did this language mean? Did it mean that by John's dipping Jesus into the Jordan and lifting Him up therefrom they would actually fulfill all righteousness? Certainly that could not have actually fulfilled all the demands of God's law—justice. This is apparent when we consider what those demands are; for God's law demands actual obedience of those under it to its every particular

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of duty-love to God and man, as it also demands the death of all who disobey any of its demands. And, certainly, by John's putting Jesus under, and then lifting Him up out of the water, and by Jesus' submitting to, and cooperating in those acts, they did not fulfill actually every demand of God's law. How did they, then, fulfill all righteousness by these acts, if not actually so doing? Our answer is: They did it symbolically, figuratively, representatively; for by his part therein John symbolized God's part in actual fulfillment of all righteousness and Jesus by His part therein symbolized His part in the actual fulfillment of all righteousness. How so? First, God's law demanded the death of all disobeying it. This part of its demand God in His attribute of love fulfilled or satisfied by giving up His son to death to satisfy the demand of the law for the death of the race; and this part of the law's demand Jesus fulfilled by laying down His life unto death as the sinners' substitute. Thus actually God in His attribute of love and Jesus in the same attribute actually fulfilled the demand of the law for the life of the race. This John and Jesus symbolized by that part of water baptism that buried Jesus under Jordan's wave. But the actual death of Jesus for the race is only a part of the demands of the law, of justice. 

There is another part to it. It demands obedience to it in every particular from all under it. Accordingly, God's wisdom, justice, love and power enabled Jesus as a man perfectly to fulfill every demand of duty-love toward God and man, i.e., supreme love toward God and equal love toward man, and so doing they fulfilled the Law's demands for obedience in every particular; and that obedience was also a substitutionary one for mankind, so that His righteousness might become that of mankind, now reckoned to the Church, later to be given to the world actually, as it obeys (Jer. 23:5, literally). This is the name [office] that Jehovah shall call Him, Our righteousness; (see Young and 1 Cor. 1:30). Thus the human death of Jesus and

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His human righteousness worked out by His obedience are the actual fulfillment of all righteousness of justice, and Jesus' being raised out of the water and helping Himself to be raised out of it in part symbolized this life of righteousness that His human disposition lived for mankind's righteousness. But there is still something more that Jesus did and that God's glory enabled Him to do, i.e., as a new creature He fulfilled not only the law of duty-love, but also that of disinterested love, inasmuch as His New Creature arose out of His dead human sentiments selfward and worldward into corresponding spiritual sentiments in both duty and disinterested love; and this rising is also symbolized by John's raising Him out of the water and His cooperating therein. Thus John and Jesus symbolically fulfilled all righteousness in humanity and New Creature, which God and Jesus actually fulfilled through their course as to Jesus' walking the narrow way. John probably did not understand these details at all; and Jesus did not at the time understand them as much as He later came to see them. 

Jesus evidently consecrated Himself before His water baptism; for the real baptism had to be begun before it could be symbolized, since we must have the original before we can take a photo of it. We, therefore, infer that before He started out to be baptized by John, He had consecrated Himself, i.e., at Nazareth, which is implied in Matt. 3:13. He made His consecration on the day of atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month, as is evident from the following: The antitypes of institutional types fixed to a date must set in on the date of the type, and thus take its place, e.g., as the typical passover lamb had to be set aside Nisan 10 and be slain Nisan 14, so with Jesus, the antitypical Lamb: He was set aside to be slain Nisan 10 by the Sanhedrin, and killed on the 14th. 

Jesus, a firstfruit, was resurrected Nisan 16, inasmuch as the typical first ripe firstfruit was presented before the Lord on that date (Lev. 23:10, 11; 1 Cor. 15:20). 

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The two wave loaves made from the firstfruits' flour were waved before the Lord on Pentecost; so the crown-retainers and crown-losers as the rest of the firstfruits had to be presented to the Lord as the antitypical loaves at Pentecost. The typical cycle's ceasing Oct., 627 B. C. gave way on that date to the start of the antitypical cycle. The antitypical jubilee set in Oct., 1874, exactly at the date when the 70 jubileeless cycles ended. Accordingly, we see that the antitypes of institutional types fixed to a date must set in on the date of the type, had it persisted. Accordingly, Jesus' consecration set in on the tenth day of the seventh month, because that consecration was the antitype of the bullock's presentation before the Lord on the typical day of atonement, the tenth day of the seventh month. This implies that Jesus was born at Bethlehem exactly 30 years before, i.e., on the atonement day. It was a four days' journey from Nazareth to the reputed place of Jesus' baptism in the Jordan, near where it empties into the Dead Sea. 

Having seen Jesus' part in entering the narrow way—passing through its strait gate, i.e., His consecration, and His symbolizing it, it would now be in place to study God's part in that entrance. There were three things that He did therein. Of these the first was His rousing our Lord to consecrate Himself, and encouraging Him to symbolize it. This rousing occurred at Nazareth, by the latest, the morning of the day of atonement. God may have worked on His mind, heart and will to consecrate just before the 10th of the seventh month, as likely the bullock was picked out before the day of atonement. On that day, immediately before Jesus set out for Jordan, God worked on His mind to go to John to be baptized; and the obedient Jesus at once started out on the journey. God roused and encouraged Him to do both of these things by motives furnished Him in the Word. One of these parts of the Word working to this end was its teaching that at 30 a religious work of one's life's calling

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should be started. Obediently Jesus waited until 30 years old to begin His life's work (Luke 3:23). Another thing that God used to arouse Him to consecration and its symbolization was making clear to Him, either just before or immediately after consecration, that His consecration made Him enter into a course of dying for the world and living righteously to work out a true righteousness of justice for it, as well as arising as a new creature in the resurrection life of a new creature; for He started out for Jordan to symbolize these things (Matt. 3:14). Thus God did certain things to and for Jesus as to His consecration. 

The second thing that God did to Him in connection with these two things was to beget Him of the Holy Spirit. Jesus, as we have seen, had three begettings: 

(1) as the Logos (Col. 1:15; Rev. 3:14); (2) as the embryo Jesus (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:35); (3) as the New Creature Christ at Jordan (Matt. 3:16, 17; Mark 1:10, 11; Luke 3:22). The Apostle John refers to this third begettal of Jesus in John 1:14, when he says, "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." The Apostles beheld this glory, full of grace and truth, after they were called to be Apostles. Hence it is to that begotten condition that he refers when speaking of Him as the only begotten of the Father. In v. 18 he refers to the same begettal when he says, "The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him." It was after that begettal at Jordan that Jesus is here spoken of as the only begotten Son, in the Father's bosom, revealing God to us. To which of these three begettals any passage refers must be gathered from what the passage itself and its connection indicate. The begettal of the Spirit is necessary, if one would enter into membership in the Kingdom class, as well as to understand the things pertinent to that class (John 3:3, 5); for in bringing into existence the Kingdom class God is creating a new order of beings, that is, one of the Divine nature (Eph. 2:10; 

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2 Cor. 5:17; Gal. 6:15; John 5:26; Heb. 1:3-5; 2 Pet. 1:4). And Jesus was made the Head of this class, as He is its Forerunner (Heb. 6:20; Eph. 1:22, 23; Col. 1:18); for He is the King of kings (the Church is these kings) and Lord of lords (the Church is these lords), as we read of Him and them in 1 Tim. 6:16; Rev. 19:16. These, then, Jesus and His faithful Church, are the Kingdom class (Rev. 1:6; 5:10); and to obtain membership therein one must be begotten of the Spirit (John 3:3, 5); and this is what occurred to Jesus at Jordan when the Spirit in a dove's form came upon Him. God Himself testifies to this begettal unto the highest family of God immediately saying, "This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased" (Matt. 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22). 

This begettal of the Spirit gave Jesus what it has given everyone else who has received it: a spiritual capacity in each one of His brain organs, adapting it to reach out and act upon the things on the spiritual plane corresponding to the things on the human plane to which alone each brain organ reached out and acted upon before the begettal. This act of the begettal of the Spirit began in Jesus the Divine life as to mind, heart and will, as the beginning of His creation on the Divine plane of being, even as it has done this to His footstep followers throughout this Age. The necessity for this is evident when we recognize that God is creating a new order of beings—beings for the Divine plane of existence, and that He gave Jesus the first opportunity to gain this change of nature! for if He was to be born on the Divine plane, evidently He had first to be begotten unto that nature. Let us note again what His Spirit-begettal gave each of His brain organs; a spiritual capacity adapting it to spiritual things out of spiritual motives and in a spiritual manner. Before that begettal His brain organs were adapted to human things out of human motives and in a human manner. Before His Spirit-begettal each of His brain organs was limited to such uses; it could not act on 

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spiritual things; from spiritual motives and in a spiritual manner, for the simple reason that it was human and not spiritual. Just as a dog, not having the necessary brain capacities, cannot reach out to, and lay hold on things peculiar to the human mind, heart and will, so human beings, because of the lack of the necessary capacities, cannot reach out to, and lay hold on things limited to spiritual natures. Accordingly, if Jesus were to reach out to, and lay hold on spiritual things, He had to have capacities that humans do not have given to His organs of mind, heart and will, which means that, if He were to become Divine in nature, He had to have Divine capacities added to His organs of mind, heart and will; and this is exactly what His begettal of the Spirit added to His brain organs. 

Let us look a little closer at what this means, first as to His intellectual brain organs. Whereas before His Spirit-begettal His intellectual brain organs were limited to reaching out to, and laying hold on things for which His human mental organs were adapted, and could not reach out to, and lay hold on things peculiar to spiritual natures; He thus could perceive, remember, imagine and reason on the former, but not on the latter things; so after that begettal of the Spirit He could not only perceive, remember, imagine and reason on human things, but by the spiritual capacities implanted by the Spirit-begettal in His brain organs He could also perceive, remember, imagine and reason on spiritual things, i.e., on things beyond human ken. It was not only on His mental faculties that such added powers were bestowed; but they were also imparted to His semi-mental and semi-moral faculties, i.e., His artistic faculties, so that they could reach beyond the objects of human feelings as to beauty, sublimity, constructiveness, imitativeness, oratory, humor and music, to which objects His feelings in His artistic sentiments were limited before the Spirit-begettal, to the objects of these feelings in the spiritual sphere, from spiritual motives and in a spiritual manner. Thus, too, before 

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His Spirit-begettal His religious feelings of faith, hope, self-control, patience, piety, brotherly love and charity were limited to their human exercise from human motives and in a human manner. They could in Him not exercise themselves to spiritual ends, from spiritual motives and in spiritual manners, because He lacked spiritual capacities in the pertinent brain organs; but after His Spirit-begettal He could and did exercise them in spiritual, heavenly respects, from spiritual motives and in spiritual manners. And by His Spirit-begettal these seven religious graces became His spiritual will, i.e., the graces that controlled His motives, thoughts, words and acts, and as such controlled His human and spiritual selfish and social affections, by making His spiritual selfish and social sentiments reach out to, and act on their spiritual objects from spiritual motives and in spiritual manners, by suppressing the efforts of both His spiritual and human selfish and social sentiments to control Him when they attempted so to do, and that out of spiritual motives and in spiritual manners, and, finally, by enslaving His spiritual and human selfish and social affections to the service of truth, righteousness and holiness. 

Let us notice a little more particularly how these seven religious affections and graces made His Spiritual selfish and social sentiments reach out to, and act on the things on the spiritual plane corresponding to the things on the human plane to which His human selfish and social affections were limited as the objects to which they reached out and laid hold on. In such exercise He detached His selfish and social affections from their human objects and attached them by their spiritual capacities to the corresponding things on the spiritual plane. Thus by these seven religious affections and graces He detached His love for a good opinion of Himself as a human being in self-confidence, self-satisfaction and self-respect, and attached it to a good opinion of Himself as a new creature in self-confidence, self-satisfaction and self-respect, and that out of 

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spiritual motives and in spiritual manners; He detached His love for humans' good opinion of Him and attached it to God's good opinion of Him, from spiritual motives and in spiritual manners; He detached His love for rest, comfort, pleasure, etc., from human rest, comfort, pleasure, etc., and attached it to spiritual rest, comfort, pleasure, etc.; He detached His love for His human safety, secretiveness, providence, food, drink, health, life, self-defense and aggressiveness, from spiritual motives and in spiritual manners, and attached it to love for His spiritual safety, secretiveness, providence, food, drink, health, life, self-defense and aggressiveness, out of spiritual motives and in spiritual manners. He could not have set His affections on such spiritual things, had He been merely human, since as such He lacked spiritual abilities so to do; but His Spirit-begettal enabled Him so to do; for it gave every one of His faculties a spiritual capacity. In a similar way, by these seven religious affections and graces He detached His social affections from their human objects and attached them to their corresponding spiritual objects. Thus He detached His love for the opposite sex from the opposite human sex and attached it to the opposite spiritual sex—the prospective Church, to which He desired to be espoused, and which He desired to love as such out of spiritual motives and in spiritual manners. In the same way He detached His love for a prospective human wife from such an one, perhaps Mary of Bethany, and attached it to the Church as His prospective wife, out of spiritual motives and in spiritual manners. Similarly He by these seven religious affections and graces detached His love from earthly parents, brethren, children, friends, home and country, and attached His love for such to God as His heavenly Father, to the Sarah Covenant as His heavenly mother, to His footstep followers as His brethren, to the restitution class as His children, to His followers as His friends, to the heavenly resurrection body as His Heavenly home and to the Truth and its Spirit as His

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heavenly country. None of these things could He have done as an un-Spirit-begotten human, but as a new creature He could and did do them; and the ability to do them was the fact of his having Spiritual capacities that the Spirit-begettal implanted in all His brain organs. Such Spirit-begettal made it possible for Him to undergo the change from human to Divine nature. And God's making this possible for Him by that begettal was the second great thing that God did for Him in connection with His entrance into the narrow way. His Spirit-begettal is a complete refutation of the God-man theory. Had he been God, how could He have been given the Spirit, since as such He necessarily had it? 

Finally, there was a third thing that God did for and to Him in connection with His entering the narrow way; and that was the beginning of His anointing. As the prospective High Priest of the Church and prospective Head of the World's High Priest, and as the prospective King of the Church and the world, it was necessary that He be anointed as such, i.e., be qualified as such, which the anointing did to Him. This had its beginning at Jordan, when the Holy Spirit was poured out upon His New Creature that in the twinkling of an eye just before was begotten in Him. His New Creature is the Priest and King that was anointed; His humanity was the sacrifice (Heb. 9:14). Hence His new creature had to exist before it could be anointed. Hence His Spirit-begettal preceded, if but by the twinkling of an eye, the beginning of His anointing. That He was begun to be anointed at Jordan is evident from Matt. 3:17; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22: That this action at Jordan was at least the beginning of His anointing as Priest and King is evident from Acts 10:38; Is. 11:2, 3; 61:1, 2. As a human being Jesus was perfect in all His faculties, physical, mental, artistic, moral and religious. This implies perfection in His human intellect, heart and will. Accordingly, He had perfect perceptive, remembering, imagining and reasoning powers in His intellect; perfect tastes as

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to beauty, sublimity, constructiveness, acting, oratory, humor and music in His artistic powers; perfect higher and lower primary graces, secondary and tertiary graces and accordant affections in His heart; and a perfect will especially acting through His higher primary graces. Not only so, but all of these human faculties, affections and graces were strong and balanced as human qualities in Him as a perfect man. The anointing, which was His qualification for service, as Acts 10:38; Is. 11:2, 3; 61:1, 2 prove, qualified every one of His faculties, affections and graces and His will for service as High Priest and King. By the begettal every one of His graces was made spiritual and every one of His affections was given a spiritual capacity; and those graces and capacities were made immediately perfect as such by the anointing there at Jordan. And His perfect human will was by that anointing also made a perfect spiritual will. And to His intellectual faculties there was given perfection in spiritual respects, though not yet were they given all the spiritual knowledge that belonged to the anointing. Thus the anointing of the affections, graces and will in possession, in strength and in balance was completed at Jordan. We say this, because if the anointing of these had not been complete He would have been imperfect in character, but He always was flawless in disposition, both as a human and as a new creature. 

He began at Jordan to get the anointing of His mind, which is what we understand the words, "the heavens [spiritual things] were opened" (Matt. 3:16), to mean; but it was not completed there, though that of the heart and will was there completed. As much of the anointing of knowledge and understanding of the Old Testament, which His perfect intellect had learned by heart before His consecration, as He received at Jordan, combined with the full anointing of heart and will that He received there, as God's Spirit in Him, made Him see that He needed more of such knowledge and understanding, in order to be qualified properly to execute

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the office of Savior, for which the anointing was His qualification. He, therefore, concluded that He needed privacy, in order to study undisturbedly the Word of God, where He knew were hidden the things of God's plan necessary for Him to know and understand, as the rest of the qualification for His ministry. Hence His Holy Spirit moved Him to retire into the wilderness, where the needed privacy for such study could be had (Matt. 4:1, 2; Mark 1:12, 13; Luke 4:1, 2), amid which study He experienced His first temptations as a new creature. So intently did He there study God's Word that He forgot to eat for 40 days and nights. But the result of that study was a clear knowledge and understanding of God's plan and of His place and office in that plan. We are not to understand this to mean that He in those 40 days' study came to know and understand every detail in God's Word; for He Himself tells us two days before His death that He did not understand when the day and hour of His Second Advent would set in (Mark 13:32). Nor are we to understand it to mean that, apart from this one item, He in the wilderness learned to know and understand everything in God's Word; for as typified by Moses' getting the typical revelations gradually, Jesus got the antitypical ones gradually; hence we are to understand that He in the wilderness gained of good knowledge and understanding of its general details, as much as was needed for Him intelligently to enter into His ministry; for as He had to walk by faith; and as the Truth is clarified only as due, from time to time advancing Truth became clear to Him, as He needed it. This we gather not only from the type of Moses, but particularly from Ps. 119, where His love for, study of, and gaining a knowledge and understanding of the Word are set forth. But this much is sure: He gained in the wilderness enough of the anointing pertinent to knowledge and understanding of the Word to undertake perfectly His ministry. The anointing of His mind, therefore, was a rather long-drawn-out matter before it

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was completed. This anointing gave Him His name Christ, which means anointed in Greek, and Messiah, which means anointed in Hebrew. 

It would be well to consider a little more in detail the passages Acts 10:38; Is. 11:2, 3 and 61:1, 2, cited above to prove Jesus' anointing. All three passages teach that it was the Holy Spirit with which He was anointed. Please take note that He was not anointed by, but with the Holy Spirit, which, accordingly, was the symbolical oil of His anointing (Ps. 45:7; Is. 61:3), typed by the holy oil with which, e.g., Aaron as priest and David as king were anointed. In addition Acts 10:38 tells us that He was anointed with power, by which we understand the extraordinary ability for working miracles bestowed upon Him to be meant, additional to the Holy Spirit, disposition, with which He was anointed. Acts 10:38 definitely states that He was anointed by God with the Holy Spirit and with power. Is. 11:2, 3 defines this anointing very clearly. It tells what that Spirit was which rested upon Him; and from what the passage says it proves that the Spirit was the holy disposition that God gave Him, for v. 2 defines that Spirit as the disposition of wisdom [truth] and understanding [He was given an understanding of the meaning of the Truth given Him], as the disposition of counsel [that planned what and how to do] and might [power to do what His office required Him to do], as a disposition of knowledge [cognition of the things of His ministry] and of the fear [reverence, which consists of duty and disinterested love] of the Lord. In other words, His anointing gave Him, among other things, the four great attributes of God's character, or to put it in other words, the seven higher primary graces; for faith, fortitude [hope] and knowledge [of the Truth] are the three ingredients of the attribute of wisdom as the tactful application of the Truth, which it trusts and uses in hope of accomplishing good. In Is. 11:2, by the words wisdom [in the sense of the Truth], understanding, counsel and 

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knowledge wisdom in the sense just defined is meant. By the word might the attribute of power in the sense of self-control and patience, the ingredients of power, is meant; and by the words, fear [reverence] of the Lord, justice, as duty-love, and charity, as disinterested love, are meant. Accordingly, we see that Is. 11:2 tells us that Jesus had as the main parts of the anointing the four great attributes of God as His disposition, or, according to Peter's analysis of these four, the seven higher primary graces. These were His controlling graces, that dominated and used or left unused, as the case would require, all His other graces, His intellect and affections. This passage shows, therefore, that the Spirit that rested on Jesus as His anointing was the Holy Spirit, disposition, of God. Vs. 3-5 show that this disposition has been His qualification for His office, while in the flesh and in the spirit. On the other hand, Is. 61:1, 2 speaks of His anointing as His qualification for executing His ministry while in the flesh. God's holy disposition was upon Him as an anointing, enabling Him to preach to the meek, to comfort the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for sin's captives and the awakening of the sleepers in the cells of the tomb and to announce the high calling. Jesus' anointing, like His Spirit-begettal, is proof that He was not a God-man; for not the man but the new creature was anointed; but Had He been God, He would have needed no anointing, even as the Father needed it not. What added qualifications could God have received as fitting Him for a ministry such as Jesus performed? 

There is but one other item connected with our Lord's entering the narrow way upon which we would briefly touch, i.e., the day of His Spirit-begettal and the anointing of His heart and will. Above it was hinted that this act occurred some time during the 14th day of the 7th month. This is inferred partly from the fact that it was a good four days' journey from Nazareth to the Jordan just above its entrance into the Dead Sea. But there is yet a better reason for this: It was

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called for by the type. We know that the feast of tabernacles was begun at 6 P. M. of what we would call the 14th of the 7th month, but of what God calls the beginning of the 15th (Lev. 23:34). In EJ, 183-185, we have shown the antitype of Israel's dwelling in booths (vs. 40-43), i.e., for each one of God's real and nominal people to take his final standing before the Lord. Jesus' only and thus final standing before God was that of a faithful New Creature in the High Calling. To take that standing He had first to be a New Creature and have His anointing begun; and He had to take it on the day that the typical feast of tabernacles set in, because here is an institutional type fixed to a date. Hence the antitypical dwelling in a booth had for Him to set in at 6 P. M. of the 15th of the 7th month, just as the typical feast of tabernacles set in. Hence just before 6 P. M. His begettal of the Spirit and the anointing of His mind had to begin, and of His heart (affections and graces) and will had to take place as a completed thing. Hence these took place in that late afternoon of the 14th, just in time for Him to sit in His antitypical booth when the 15th set in. Hence the time of His Spirit-begettal and the anointing of His heart and will occurred completely and that of His mind began in the late afternoon of the 14th of the 7th month. His consecration on the 10th and Spirit-begettal on the 14th made it exactly 3½ years to the day until His setting aside on Nisan 10 and slaying as the Lamb Nisan 14, which corroborates the correctness of the thought of the dates of His consecration and Spirit-begettal as given above. 

We have now completed our study of our Lord's experiences in entering the narrow way and have found them to be, first, those in which He was active and, secondly, those in which He was passive, God being the Actor and He being the Recipient responsive to God's pertinent acts. Those in which He was active were His consecration at Nazareth and His symbolizing that consecration at Jordan, with the assistance of

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John the Baptist. Those in which God was the Actor and He the Recipient responsive to God's pertinent acts, were God's rousing Him to consecrate and to symbolize His consecration; God's begetting Him of the Spirit, in which He was entirely passive, and God's anointing Him, the part of which that had to do with the heart and will occurring while He was entirely passive and the part that had to do with the mind occurring while He by study cooperated with God. 

We are now ready to enter into a study of Jesus' progress over the narrow way. On this feature of our study we will limit ourselves to the generalities of that progress, leaving details to be studied under other and more appropriate features of our subject. Jesus' progress over and through the narrow way was the fulfillment of His consecration vow. Above we saw that His consecration vow consisted of two sub-vows: He vowed to God (1) to be dead to self and the world, and (2) to be alive to God. And His progress in the narrow way consisted simply in His keeping these two promises or vows. Thus amid all the circumstances into which the Divine providence brought Him He remained dead to self and the world and alive to God, i.e., He did not allow self-will or the world's will to rule Him, but made Himself be ruled by God's will; when self-will, either toward self or the world, sought to assert itself in any matter, He promptly suppressed it, and whenever the world, acting through His mother, brothers, sisters, friends, neighbors, disciples, scribes, Pharisees, the Jewish priesthood, the Sanhedrin, Herod, Pilate or any of their underlings, sought to dominate Him as to His mission, He remained dead to their wills. But He ever sought to learn and do exactly what the Father desired of Him, regardless of whether it was easy or hard, toward or untoward, pleasant or unpleasant, agreeable or disagreeable, painful or pleasurable, to His flesh. Always, everywhere, by all lawful manners, all just methods and all righteous means, He sought to fulfill and did fulfill God's holy will at every stage of

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His progress over the narrow way. This course made Him sacrifice to God His human all as a result of His remaining dead to self and the world, holding back in no particular any part of His human all, but using up all of His time, talents, means, influence, reputation, strength, health, life—in a word, all that He was and had and hoped to be or hoped to have as a human being—in God's service. This He kept up faithfully and perfectly until and unto death. His taking perfectly God's will as His own always, everywhere, in every right manner and method and by all proper means, resulted in His maintaining His holy disposition in flawless perfection and in crystallizing His heavenly affections, His graces of all three classes, primary, secondary and tertiary, with the higher primary in full control as His new will, not only in flawless actuality and strength, but also in faultless balance. All this He maintained amid and despite most crucial trials and temptations, as He traveled over the narrow way. 

This brings us to a study of the steps that He took as He traveled the narrow way. Travelers take different kinds of steps as they go on their ways, e.g., as to speed: slow, average, quick, double quick and very rapid; as to size: short, medium, long and very long. So Jesus took seven kinds of steps as He walked the narrow way: (1) self-and world-denial (2) study of God's Word, (3) spread of God's Word, (4) practice of God's Word, (5) watchfulness, (6) prayer and (7) endurance of the experiences incidental to faithfulness in the six preceding steps. Let us see how He did in each of these seven kinds of steps that He took as He journeyed over the narrow way. The first of these was self-and world-denial, or, to put it in another way: refusing to indulge any sentiment of His own or of others that ran counter to His doing God's will. As a free moral agent He could indulge His selfish and social sentiments in self-gratification or in gratifying the world, or He could in loyalty to His consecration refuse to gratify self and the world therein. He refused 

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to indulge in such gratification of self and the world in any way that would in the slightest particular make Him disloyal to God and His Divinely-given mission. As a human being He loved a good opinion of Himself in self-confidence, self-satisfaction and self-respect; but if He was tempted to indulge these at the expense of His loyalty to God He rejected the temptation, e.g., He did not allow His self-respect to hold Him back from associating with publicans and sinners or from washing His disciples' feet, His self-confidence to make Him cast Himself down from the temple's pinnacle, nor His self-satisfaction to despise the imperfect sinful race. He did not allow His love for others' approval to make Him stop pursuing the course of loyalty to His mission, despite its unpopularity with the world, though it brought Him the loss of His good reputation. He did not allow His love for rest and comfort, when His weariness made resting desirable, to make Him refrain from discoursing to the Samaritan woman on the waters of life at Jacob's well, where He had taken a seat to rest, but He gave up His rest and comfort to bless that woman with life's waters. He did not allow His love for safety to make Him flee from those who sought to arrest Him and bring Him unto death, when He knew that it was the Father's will that He drink of the cup of crucial sufferings and cruel death. 

He did not succumb to His love for hiding anything about Him whose making known would bring Him disadvantage, when His judges demanded to know whether He was the Messiah, to answer which truthfully would bring upon Him a death sentence; but knowing that it was the Father's will that He avow Himself such before the Jewish highest court as a testimony against them, He, despite His human love of secretiveness, made the confession. He did not allow His love for gaining and retaining possessions to divert His talents from God's service into money-and property-making, but He repudiated every suggestion of enriching Himself at the expense of God's cause. He

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did not allow His love for food to induce Him to misuse His Messianic powers of miracles to satisfy His hunger by changing stones into bread or making water out of air, against God's will for Him to use miraculous powers for others only and not for self. When loyalty to God's cause called upon Him to deny Himself that degree of health which healing the sick made Him sacrifice, as He bore our infirmities and carried our diseases in taking out of His own body the virtue necessary to heal the sick, He gladly denied Himself His love of health. When loyalty to God's cause in effecting reconciliation between God and man called upon Him to die as man's substitute, He willingly denied Himself His love of life and laid it down for man's redemption. When God's cause required that He do not defend Himself from attacks that sought His life, no word of self-defense fell from His lips before the Sanhedrin and Pilate. He refused to indulge His love for aggressiveness that could have destroyed His mortal enemies in the garden of Gethsemane, in the high priest's home, in the praetorium and on Calvary. Thus He successfully denied Himself the indulgence of every one of His selfish sentiments, as they sought to control Him, by submitting His human cravings selfward to God's will, and thus successfully took that step of self-denial pertaining to His selfish propensities. 

And with equal success He denied self of the selfish use of His social propensities. As a perfect human being He had, e.g., the social sentiment of love for the opposite sex and was, while being tempted at every point of character, apart from sin (Heb. 4:15), tempted along this line. There was some woman whom He loved with a perfect human love, whom He would gladly have made His wife; for if He was tempted at all points like us, sin apart, He was also tempted on this point. That woman very likely was Mary of Bethany. But knowing that faithfulness to His mission forebade Him to marry or to allow His love for the opposite sex to control Him into disloyalty to God's 

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cause, He denied Himself the possession of a sweetheart and a wife, and, therefore, denied Himself the human privilege of being a husband, and by the same act and for the same reason denied Himself the joys and privileges of fatherhood; though He had a perfect love for children, as can be seen in His calling them to Himself and holding them close to His bosom, "hearted them," as Luther feelingly translated the pertinent words. He denied Himself His perfect human love of close association with His mother, brothers and sisters, in order to be faithful in doing the work that His heavenly Father gave Him to do. He gave up the pleasure of comradeship with earthly friends at Nazareth when it was due to embark on the great mission for which He became carnate and of mingling there as a friend among friends. He denied His love for His Nazareth or any other earthly home, which must have been dear to His perfect heart, in loyalty to His Messianic calling. Yea, therefore He became, as it were, a vagabond, a tramp preacher, who pathetically contrasted Himself, the Father's only begotten Son, with foxes and birds, as being better off than He as respects a home, saying, "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His head" (Matt. 8:20). Loyalty to His mission of truth, righteousness and holiness made Him, e.g., at Nazareth, etc., antagonize His fellow citizens to the degree that aroused murder in their hearts and lives against Him; and thus He denied Himself the indulgence of His love for native land and fellow citizens as such. Accordingly, we see that He denied Himself as to the indulgence of His selfish and social affections whenever their indulgence ran athwart His loyalty to God's will and the interests of His cause. 

And He also denied the world its will, whenever it sought to control Him. When His mother intruded into the exercise of His office, as she did at the wedding at Cana of Galilee, He rebukingly refused to allow her to direct His course. When she and his brothers, under 

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the impression that He was beside Himself, sought to dissuade Him from carrying out His mission, He disregarded their busy-bodying interferences and steadfastly went about His work, yielding not an inch to them. When He was importuned to become a judge and a divider of an inheritance, He declined to submit to this pertinent worldling's will, saying, "Who made me a judge or divider over you?" When one tried to frighten Him to leave His work undone in Galilee, with the threat that Herod was seeking to stop Him, He refused to submit to that one's will and sent a message to Herod refusing the request. When His disciples, especially Peter, sought to subject Him to their will not to become a martyr, He rebuked them and then steadfastly set His face toward Jerusalem. To His fellow townsmen who sought to subject Him to their will, even unto an attempted lynching, He refused to own their will as His and went out of their midst unharmed. When the contradiction of sinners in the form of scribes, Pharisees and the multitude sought to break His will as to fulfilling God's work, He refused to assent. And when on another occasion, contrary to God's plan, the multitude sought to make Him a king, He declined their offer. When the Jewish rulers desired to make Him cause the multitude and the children to cease praising and hailing Him, he refused their will, assuring them that, if these ceased their acclamations, the very rocks would cry out, since the prophetic Word forecast of the occasion: "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem." Nor are we to think that His submission to arrest, to binding, to being led a captive to trial and condemnation by the Jewish court, to trial and condemnation by Pilate, to mockery, scourging, cross-bearing, crucifixion and death, was a violation of His world denial. Rather, it was a submission of His will to God's will, wherein the Father was pleased to test His obedience to the utmost; and hence His consecration did not require Him to deny the world's will in

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this matter. Accordingly, He took faithfully the first kind of steps in walking the narrow way. 

The second kind of steps that Jesus took in walking the narrow way is meditation on God's Word. As a perfect man Jesus had a perfect memory, which implies that His reading and study of the Old Testament from His youth up to manhood until just before His consecration had fixed it fully in all its parts in His memory. Accordingly, when He retired to the privacy of the wilderness He had the Old Testament perfectly in His mind as a matter of memory. But while as a result He understood the letter of the Old Testament as a perfect natural man could, e.g., its histories and the Law's features, their inner meanings as types of things to come He did not understand. The bulk of the prophecies were at that time a closed book to Him. He doubtless had a good understanding of the earthly doctrines, precepts, promises and exhortations of the Old Testament in so far as they were due to the Jews to understand. But the spiritual significances of these He did not as a natural man comprehend. Before such thoughts of the Old Testament could be opened to His eyes of understanding, He had to be begotten of the Spirit; for it alone can search out the deep things of God imbedded in the Bible (1 Cor. 2:10). Not understanding the details, not even all the generalities, of His mission at the time of His baptism, He, of course, felt the need of coming into an exact knowledge of these, that from it He might know what His ministry required of Him to be, to do and to bear; for He needed for the purposes of His ministry to understand the doctrines, precepts, promises, exhortations, prophecies, histories and types of the Bible, particularly as they applied to Him, His work and those with whom He was to work and from whom He was to bear. Hence during His 40 days' sojourn in the wilderness He studied these lines of thought in their relation to His person, character and work, particularly; but not exclusively, as they pertained to His earthly ministry.

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There were parts of all three divisions of the Hebrew Old Testament that pertained to Him (Luke 24:27, 44, 45). And the bulk of these He learned to understand during the 40 days in the wilderness. He doubtless there learned of His sin-atoning death as typed by Adam's falling asleep just before Eve was separated from Him, by Abel's sacrifice and death, by Isaac's offering up, by Joseph's providing the corn to save life, by the paschal lamb, the atonement-day bullock, its subsequent blessing work and other sacrifices typing Him. Thus He in the wilderness learned that as Christ He had first to suffer and then afterward enter into glory. In the wilderness He learned to understand the Church as His joint sufferers and reigners. In the wilderness from the types and prophecies He learned to know and understand the 21 different offices that He as Savior was to exercise. The Kingdom in both its phases there became clear to Him. There He came to know that some would not believe in Him during His earthly ministry, and that someone would betray Him. He there learned what uses He might make, and what uses He might not make, of his miraculous powers. He there came to understand the two salvations, as well as His two advents. As a Jew He had before His consecration come to understand the nature of the soul, death as the penalty of sin and the unconsciousness of the dead, as well as the oneness of God; but doubtless deeper insights into these were given Him in the wilderness, as well as into other teachings of the Old Testament understandable, at least in part, by the natural man. His anointing making Him quick in the understanding of God's Truth, particularly in those parts that pertained to duty and disinterested love toward God, the brethren and the world of mankind, including His enemies, He made very rapid progress in learning God's plan in the wilderness. And when He emerged therefrom He was very learned, more so than the human teachers that He previously had, in the knowledge and understanding of the Word. 

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Nor was His study of it done merely as an intellectual exercise. It was done primarily out of duty and disinterested love for God, the brethren and the world of mankind. His love for the Word was also a strong motive impelling Him to meditate thereon. The Word was indeed within His heart, affections, as well as in His head (Ps. 40:8). He delighted, as a godly man, in the law of God; and, therefore, He meditated thereon day and night (Ps. 1:2). Ps. 119 above all other Scriptures describes prophetically the Christ's delight in, love for, and study of the Word; therefore it describes these in Jesus also. We will quote some of its expressions on these lines of thought: "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin" (11). "Teach me thy statutes" (12). "I have rejoiced in the way of thy testimonies" (14). "I will meditate in thy precepts, and have respect unto thy ways" (15, 78). "I will delight myself in thy statutes; I will not forget thy word" (16). "Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law" (18). "Hide not thy commandments from me" (19). "My soul breaketh for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments (20, 40). "Princes … speak against me; but thy servant did meditate in thy statutes" (23). "Thy testimonies also are my delight and my counsellors" (24, 143). "Quicken me according to thy word" (25). "My soul melteth for heaviness; strengthen me according to thy word" (28). "I have chosen the way of truth; thy judgments have I laid before me" (30). "I have stuck unto thy testimonies" (31). "Teach me, O Lord, the way of thy statutes" (33). "Make me to go in the path of thy commandments; for therein do I delight" (35). "I seek thy precepts" (45). "I will speak of thy testimonies" (46). "I will delight myself in thy commandments, which I have loved" (47, 48, 70, 77). "Remember thy word … upon which thou hast caused me to hope" (49). "Thy word hath quickened me" (50). "I have not declined from thy law" (51, 157). 

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"I remembered thy judgments" (52). "Thy statutes have been my songs" (54). "I have not forgotten thy law" (61, 83, 93, 109, 141, 153). "Teach me good judgment and knowledge; for I have believed thy commandments" (66). "The law of thy mouth is better to me than thousands of gold and silver" (72, 127). "I have hoped in thy word" (74, 81, 147). "Mine eyes fail for thy word" (82). "Unless thy law had been my delights, I should then have perished in mine affliction" (92). "Thy commandment is exceeding broad" (96). "O how love I thy law; it is my meditation all the day" (97, 148, 159, 163, 165). "Thou through thy commandments hast made me wiser than mine enemies" (98). "I have more understanding than all my teachers; for thy testimonies are my meditation" (99). "I understand more than the ancients, because I keep thy precepts" (100). "How sweet are thy words unto my taste! yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth" (103)! "Through thy precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way" (104). "Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, a light unto my path" (105). "Thy testimonies have I taken as an heritage for ever; for they are the rejoicing of my heart" (111). "I hate vain thoughts; but thy law do I love" (113). "I keep the commandments of my God" (115, 117). "I esteem all thy precepts … to be right; and I hate every false way" (128). "Thy testimonies are wonderful" (129). "The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding to the simple" (130). "I longed for thy commandments" (131). "Order my steps in thy word" (133). "Thy testimonies … are righteous and very faithful" (138). "Thy word is very pure; therefore thy servant loveth it" (140). "Thy law is the truth" (142, 151). "The righteousness of thy testimonies is everlasting; give me understanding" (144). "I beheld the transgressors, and was grieved, because they kept not thy word" (158). "Thy word is true … endureth for ever" (160). "My heart standeth in awe of thy word" (161). "I rejoice in thy word, as one that findeth 

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great spoil" (162). "My soul hath kept thy testimonies; and I love them exceedingly" (167). "My tongue shall speak of thy word; for all thy commandments are righteousness" (172). "I have chosen thy precepts" (173). "Thy law is my delight" (174). Certainly, in this, the longest of the Psalms, the love of the Christ, Head and Body, for God's Word is graphically described, and that from many standpoints. In reading these passages it is well for us to remember that in them judgments mean doctrines; precepts, charges; commandments, laws; statutes, exhortations; testimonies, histories and types. The motives from which Jesus studied the Word are in Ps. 119 well described. 

The Word was indeed the man of His counsel. Its study was His instruction, making Him the wisest of men, the truest of teachers, the best of counsellors, the purest of souls, the clearest of thinkers, the greatest of expounders and the best of preachers. Its study comforted Him in all His afflictions, imparting hope to His heart, fortitude to meet His enemies, courage to war a good warfare. Its study gave Him faith to understand His mission, strengthening Him in every good word and work, nerving Him to perform His exhausting labors, emboldening Him to meet opposition and giving Him firmness to meet trials and temptations and resignation to overcome in His final crucial sufferings. Its study enabled Him to carry out the consecration that He made, to deny self- and world-will, and in all ways, times, places and circumstances to take God's will as His own. Its study gave Him peace amid turmoil, self-control amid disturbing conditions, perseverance amid overawing obstacles and difficulties. Its study gave Him victory when others went down to defeat, steadfastness when others wavered and fled, longsuffering when others acted exasperatingly, endurance when others opposed. Its study enabled Him to give up home and the associations of earthly loved ones and become, as it were, a tramp preacher, with no home or resting place of His own, and to endure alienation, 

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practical exile, hatred from enemies, forsakement by His own and betrayal by a favored friend. Its study gave Him power to exercise perfectly duty and disinterested love to God, the brethren and the world, including enemies, a love that shrank from no labor, gave up for no danger, disdained no human depravity, yielded to no hardship, succumbed to no trial, surrendered to no temptation or opposition and ceased at no suffering! Its study gave Him power to obey His Father's every wish, every suggestion, every charge and every command, flinching not in any particular, despite losses, disappointments, delays, others' sins, faults and weaknesses, hardships, necessities, strifes, alienations, siftings, divisions, treacheries, disloyalties, envies, oppositions, sorrows, pains, sicknesses, persecutions, even the cross itself! Yea, its study empowered Him to exercise every intellectual faculty to further His mission, to cultivate and keep fixed every spiritual affection on heavenly things, to operate every grace perfectly and to keep His new will in complete control of all operations of mind and heart. To Him that Word was the power of God, as well as the wisdom of God, unto His salvation of the high calling. He always, everywhere and in all circumstances found it to be "the good word of God." Accordingly, He successfully meditated upon the Word and thus He took the second kind of the narrow way's steps. 

The third kind of steps that Jesus took in walking the narrow way was spreading God's Word, i.e., teaching, preaching, expounding, proving, illustrating and applying God's Word to the needs and conditions of His hearers, as well as refuting opposing errors. In His spreading that Word He touched upon every form of it. Thus He stressed its doctrinal features: God, Christ, the Spirit, creation, Law, man, sin, the fall, the curse, covenants, ransom, repentance, faith, justification, consecration, election, free grace, the Kingdom, the second advent, the Harvest, the day of wrath, restitution, judgment, resurrection, final rewards and punishment. 

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In spreading God's Word He stressed its character-developing features, counselling faith, hope, obedience, self-control, patience, duty and disinterested love Godward and manward. Inculcation of meekness, humility, hunger and thirst after righteousness, honesty, goodness, reverence and holiness held a large place in His ethical teachings. So, also, did self-denial, cross-bearing, longsuffering, forbearance and forgiveness. He emphasized generosity, simplicity, candor, tact, courage, aggressiveness, temperance, selflessness. Fidelity in all one's duties, privileges and relations formed a good part of His teachings. In all of them He exalted God and God's laws. His discourses and conversations were replete with God's promises and with exhortations against sin, error, selfishness and wordliness, as they were full of encouragements to wisdom, power, justice and love. He always pointed out the weightier things of the Word, without, however, neglecting its lesser aspects. He quoted and expounded prophecies, e.g., Isaiah and Daniel, and also delivered some not hitherto given. Many of His illustrations were gathered from Old Testament histories, from nature and from life; and His discourses abounded in typical allusions, e.g., the flood, Jacob's ladder, Lot, his wife, Sodom, Moses' lifting up the serpent, the manna, David, Elijah, Jonah and the great fish, etc. He spread the Word! 

His motives and manner therein were certainly commensurate with the work. He certainly was holy in bearing the vessels of the Lord. Love for God in His person, character, word and works animated Him in declaring God's plan. Love for that Word and the work of witnessing to it likewise filled His heart as a teacher, preacher, expounder, prover, illustrator and applier of the Word and as a refuter of opposing errors. Love for His disciples figured largely in His telling out the Truth. Pity love stirred in Him, when He saw the multitude as sheep fainting and scattered, to speak to them and to prepare helpers to minister to them in the work that He did to fit the Twelve and the Seventy as heralds 

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of the Kingdom. It was pity love that moved Him to clothe His teachings in parables when their import was too deep for the public or would injure them, if opened up to them before they were in mind, heart and will prepared to receive them. There was a tenderness in His manner, a sympathy in His heart, a graciousness in His language and an unction in His facial expressions and vocal intonations that could have had no other source than Divine love and mercy. He knew how to speak a word in season to the weak and discouraged, a word of comfort to the poor, the distressed and the bereaved. With the utmost gentleness did He treat the weak, the faint and those out of the way. Surely, the bruised reed He did not break, nor quench the smoking flax. Most winsomely and encouragingly did He invite those that labored and were heavy laden to come to Him and rest. How kindly was His manner with the rich young ruler, even though the import of His words discouraged him who loved riches more than God and men. No wonder that His hearers "marveled at the gracious words that proceeded out of His mouth," and that enemies sent to arrest Him were so carried away by His words and manner of their expression as to desist from their errand and report to their superiors, "Never man spake as this man." There was a mingling of humility, dignity and majesty in His personality that so awed the multitude that came to arrest Him that on seeing and hearing Him speak they fell backward to the ground. How beautiful and instructional was His sermon on the mount! How sublime and beautiful were His final discourse and prayer in the upper room, despite the cross then casting its cruel shadow over Him! He was indeed "the faithful and true Witness." 

His methods in His witnessing were striking. He blended tact and candor in His presentations. He condescended to those of lowly estate, as can be seen by His manner, words and illustrations in speaking to the Samaritan woman at the well. He held not Himself aloof from His hearers, however degraded and besotted

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with sin they were, as can be seen in His consorting with publicans and sinners and graciously allowing the sinning but repentant woman to wash His feet with her penitential tears and to dry them with the tresses of her hair, in preparing to anoint them. To the unbegotten He used the best illustrations available to give some idea of His thoughts to those who could not grasp them in their entirety, as we see Him doing to Nicodemus. In giving His deeper thoughts He withdrew from the multitude, as we see in the case of His sermon on the mount, in the case of His explaining His parables to the disciples after they had been uttered in the hearing of the multitude and in the case of His final discourse, the one delivered in the upper room, just before the Gethsemane agony. In His teachings He generally proceeded from the known as a stepping stone to the unknown. Goodly comparisons ofttimes characterized His teachings, as in the discourse on the water of life, at the well, that on manna in the synagogue at Capernaum, and that on the shepherd and his sheep, at Jerusalem. At other times most striking contrasts marked His utterances, as can be seen in the sermon on the mount and His woes denounced on the scribes and Pharisees, e.g., straining out a gnat (A.R.V.) and swallowing a camel, devouring widows' houses and making long prayers for a pretense, tithing the least grains and passing by judgment and the love of God, etc. Please note the figures and contrasts in the following: "Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves; be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves." He used His unparalleled power over language in accommodation to the differences in the hearers' capacities. Markham, the author of the poem, The Man with the Hoe, made a comparison of similar thoughts of Jesus and Shakespeare and showed that Jesus expressed such thoughts in better forms than did Shakespeare, who is generally recognized as the world's supreme literary light. Certainly, His methods of presenting the Truth were unexcelled for the purposes that He had in mind. 

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In studying His narrow way's step of spreading the Truth it is in place to consider His hearers and His treatment of them. His hearers for our present purposes may be divided into three classes: (1) disciples, more prominent and less prominent, (2) the multitude and (3) the clergy. He gave the most weighty of His teaching activities to His disciples, as was quite the thing to do. And in His teaching them He aimed on developing their minds, hearts and wills in the direction of their life's work, while He was with them on earth and while He would be away from them in Heaven. The Twelve and the Seventy, as His most prominent disciples, He trained for the present and future, by teaching them the message that He desired them to deliver, by giving them miraculous powers as a support of their work and, especially, by giving them methods and character fitness for their work. Hence He gave to them a deeper knowledge of these things than to others. Matt. 10 is a good sample of His training them in methods for their work; and throughout His stay with them He gave them heart lessons for them as individuals and as public teachers of the Truth. Jesus expounded to them the message of the Kingdom, prayer, religious liberty, holiness, features of His person, character and office, self-denial, cross-bearing, the graces, especially love, faith and humility, the spirit in which they should live and serve, the evil of the clergy, the rejection and affliction of Israel, the mission of the Spirit. All of this trained them to be saints and servants of the Word. The purposes that He had in mind warranted His giving a large part of His time and strength to His disciples, especially to the Twelve and the Seventy. But He gave considerable of His time and strength to the multitude. In this He had a twofold purpose: (1) to give them a testimony of sin, righteousness and of the coming Kingdom, both in its militant and in its reigning aspects; and (2) to draw out from among them responsive hearts unto discipleship for their being prepared for membership, first, in 

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the embryonic, and second, in the born Kingdom. Thus He preached, taught, conversed, associated with the multitude. In their interests in part He wrought His miracles; and many of them with their fleshly views were more or less deeply impressed. Yet He led them not to delusive hopes, and, therefore, tested them, e.g., by His talk on the typical and antitypical manna in the synagogue at Capernaum, and sifted out the unworthy. At some places and circumstances He spoke only in parables to them, reserving the explanations for the disciples. Part of His preaching and teaching was to and of the clergy, who then consisted of the priests, Pharisees, Sadducees and scribes. His contacts with them were mainly controversial; for they were the ones who made Him endure the contradictions of sinners. They gathered to Him as hornets, stinging Him at every turn; and increasingly He was forced to rebuke them until He gave them, in Matt. 23, the most scathing denunciation that ever fell from the lips of man. 

Jesus spread God's Word under all kinds of circumstances of place, time and conditions. Hence He spread it at every place where He could, in harmony with God's will, find hearers. Thus He traveled throughout Galilee in country, village, town and city, as well as in those of Judaea, on his journeys. He even did it on one occasion at the Samaritan well and village. He spoke it in synagogues, private homes, in the open air, on land and sea, at the wayside and in the temple. Sometimes He preached it to immense public audiences, sometimes to His disciples alone, particularly to the Twelve, sometimes to but one individual, e.g., Nicodemus, the Samaritan woman, the rich young ruler, Mary of Bethany, etc. He did it by day, by night, early in the morning, late at night, as in the case of Nicodemus, and under the hot rays of the noon and afternoon sun. He preached in all seasons of the year, in all kinds of weather, to all kinds of hearers and in all forms of speech accommodated to the varied capacities of His hearers. He did it in good report and in evil

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report, in responsiveness and unresponsiveness, in popularity and unpopularity, in easy conditions and in hard conditions, to repentant and unrepentant ones, to the rude and polished, to the learned and unlearned, to the loyal and treacherous, to friend and enemy, in weariness and painfulness, in hunger and thirst, as a deceiver and yet true, always bearing about in His body the sacrificial death. And the results of His preaching were in harmony with God's will. He gave a good testimony as to sin, righteousness and the coming Kingdom to all of His many hearers; and to the Israelites indeed, who were responsive to His call and teachings, He gave an understanding of the deeper things, mysteries of the Kingdom, as their capacities enabled them to take in, reserving many things for their enlightenment until the Holy Spirit would come. In number they totaled at least over 500. To all of these, in addition to increasing their store of Biblical knowledge, particularly on the Kingdom, which was the main theme of His teaching and preaching, He ministered character culture, as to good natural men, along the lines of the human graces and to the overcoming of the grosser defects of their natural depravity. And the bulk of these, though sorely tested by His death, and troubled at first by the news of His resurrection, remained loyal, at least for over 25 years (1 Cor. 15:6), some of them finishing their course earlier. Many others were deeply impressed by His preaching, and were at Pentecost and shortly afterward brought to a full decision as disciples by the Apostolic preaching. Thus, if not many truly believed under His earthly ministry, it was not without good fruitage (John 12:37, 38); for those won by it became the nucleus and up builders of the Church. 

The fourth kind of steps that Jesus took in walking the narrow way was exercising and crystallizing God's Spirit perfectly. In connection with His anointing we saw that, as a perfect human being, He had before His Spirit-begettal developed all of the human graces, as well as had strengthened and balanced them; but had 

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not yet crystallized them, which occurred during the 3½ years of His ministry. During that time He was tested under the Mosaic Law as a Jew and under the natural law as a human being; and overcoming perfectly in His human trials, He crystallized His human character, and thus wrought out for mankind a perfect human righteousness to be its righteousness. At the same time as His human character was being tested and crystallized under the Mosaic Law and natural law, His new-creaturely, character was being tested and crystallized under the covenant of sacrifice. We also saw that His begettal made His graces spiritual, as well as gave them spiritual strength and balance, and gave each of His affections a spiritual capacity. The higher primary graces, now by the Spirit-begettal made spiritual and dominating as such over His other graces and over His now spiritually capacitated selfish and social sentiments, detached His human selfish and social affections from their earthly objects, and attached them to their corresponding spiritual objects. He continued these two things throughout His 3½ years' ministry and as a result crystallized His selfish and social sentiments into heavenly affections. Moreover, by His loyalty in maintaining His new-creaturely affections and graces in activity, strength and balance amid all His activities, trials, temptations and sufferings, He crystallized them before He reached Gethsemane. His final experiences, beginning with His Gethsemane agony, and ending with His death, were the trials, temptations and sufferings whereby His crystallized character experienced its final tests, which were faithfully and perfectly met, resulting in His demonstrating to God's complete satisfaction His unbreakable loyalty to do God's will perfectly under all circumstances. 

Let us look a little more closely at these two things—His exercising God's Spirit as a new creature and His crystallizing that Spirit as a new creature—as the ways that He practiced God's Word. His exercising God's Spirit implied that by the higher primary graces— 

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faith, hope, self-control, patience, piety, brotherly love and charity—He abhorred, avoided and opposed evil. Evil was to Him in all its general forms—sin, error, selfishness and worldliness—and in all the particulars of these general forms most repulsive—He hated iniquity. He, therefore, avoided it with more aversion than He would an adder, and opposed it with all the power of His graces, especially His higher primary graces. He showed these three attitudes toward evil in the temptations that He underwent in the wilderness, particularly in the three main forms of those temptations: selfishly to use His miraculous powers, to use faker methods to attract attention and to submit to Satan in ruling over the kingdoms of this world. And while thereafter the tempter left Him a while, He returned with other and many temptations, as He implies by His word to the disciples: "Ye are they that continued with me in all my temptations." Though He was tempted in every point of character, amid every temptation He maintained the same abhorrence and avoidance of, and opposition to evil, as it sought to overcome Him, and thereby overcame it. He likewise showed the attitude of opposition to evil in others, flowing from that abhorrence of it that His higher graces wrought in Him. In His teachings He opposed it, exposing its exact nature and effects, as He sought to make it repulsive to His hearers. The controversies into which He entered were on His part an expression of such abhorrence and opposition. His rebukes of sin, especially the sin of hypocrisy, flowed from the same attitudes in Him. His struggles against the perverted religiosity of His time flowed from the same source. Even His miracles were in part performed from His abhorrence of the effects of sin and the curse. The stinging rebukes with which He overwhelmed the hypocritical clergy flowed in part from His hatred of, and warring against evil. His ministry, wholly on its destructive side and partly on its constructive side, was an expression of hatred and avoidance of, and battling with evil. In

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this respect He crystallized character against evil. 

But He exercised the Holy Spirit in its expression of good in its relation to constructive good, and this as an expression of the balance of His higher primary graces and of their domination over all His perceptive, remembering, imagining and reasoning faculties and over His affections and other graces. This exercise expressed itself in supreme duty and disinterested love to God, duty and disinterested love to the Truth and its Spirit, and such a love for the brethren and even for the world and His enemies as laid down life on their behalf. Deeply did He exercise sympathy for the faint, lost and scattered sheep of Israel and for others, a sympathy that expressed itself in exhausting teaching and preaching on their behalf, that expressed itself in pouring out life in cures of body, mind and heart on their behalf, in freeing many of them from the possession of demons, that even wrought miracles of increasing a few loaves and fishes to more than enough to feed on one occasion 4,000 men, besides women and children, and on another occasion 5,000 men, besides women and children, that shed tears at Bethany over the spoils that death had taken from the home of Mary and Martha and at Jerusalem over its impending fate, and that felt keenly the grief of the widow of Nain and of Jairus and his wife. He exercised appreciation as to Peter's confession, the rich young ruler's keeping the commandments ("He loved him"), the faith of the centurion and the Syro-Phoenician woman, the repentance of the harlot who with penitential tears washed His feet and with her glory, her tresses, wiped them, the studiousness of Mary of Bethany, sitting at His feet learning of Him, and her tender love anointing Him for His burial with the costly spikenard. He exercised His Holy Spirit in innumerable Acts of kindness to His disciples, in body, mind, heart and will, of mercy on the multitudes of sick and unfortunate, in taking upon Himself their diseases and infirmities and pouring out upon them health of body and strength, 

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and of numerous teachings, preachings, conversings, rebukings, correctings, comfortings and encouragings, as each case coming under His attention required. 

But duty and disinterested love in its various elements and expressions is not the only grace of Jesus' Holy Spirit that He exercised. He exercised all other graces of the three classes of graces. Next to love He exercised faith more than He did any other of His higher primary graces; for His whole life was one of faith in God, as to His person, character, word and work. His mental appreciation of, and heart's reliance upon God, in person, character, word and work, were thus a prominent characteristic of Jesus. His consecration was based upon it, as well as upon love; and it showed itself in His journey from Nazareth to Jordan. His wilderness experience certainly showed His confidence in God, particularly as to His Word and works. What a remarkable expression of faith was His starting out on His Messianic mission of proclaiming the nearness of the embryonic Kingdom! For it implied the inauguration of a change of dispensation from the Law Covenant to the Grace Covenant, the rejection of Judaism and the start of Christianity, all to be brought about by the cross and "the foolishness of preaching." Such was indeed a sublime operation of His faith; and every step of the way, as seen in the seven steps of His traveling the narrow way, was a step of a sublime faith. Was it not faith that animated His teaching, preaching, prophesying and miracle-working, as well as accepted unquestioningly the teachings of prophecy and type as to His mission? Was it not faith that marked His contacts with the doubting multitude, His believing disciples and the inimical clergy? Was it not faith that made Him set His face steadfastly toward Jerusalem, where He knew that the cross awaited Him? Was it not faith that made Him overcomingly face the band sent for His arrest, the chief priests, the Sanhedrin, Pilate, mockery, scourging, the way to Calvary and crucifixion? Yea, was it not faith in God's 

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character and word that enabled Him to enter the very jaws of death and hell, with the assurance of victory over both for Himself, the Church and the world? Yea, verily, He demonstrated throughout His narrow way His mental appreciation of, and heart's reliance upon God, in His person, character, word and work. 

He exercised in His Holy Spirit the grace of fortitude, strong bravery, whose heart is hope of victory; for it is written of Him, "Who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame." That joy contained a number of elements: (1) His hope of pleasing His Heavenly Father; (2) the hope of His personal victory over His enemies, the devil, the world and the flesh, unto heirship of God and the Divine nature; (3) His hope of teaching, justifying, sanctifying and delivering the Church, the Great Company, the Ancient and the Youthful Worthies, as the four elect classes; (4) His hope of ministering restitution to the World; (5) His hope of suppressing all evil and those who would not separate themselves from evil; (6) His hope of giving the race to God, eternally free from evil and fixed in good; (7) the hope of becoming with the Church God's Agent and Vicegerent in the execution of all God's purposes in the Ages of Glory following the Millennium. These seven hopes mightily energized Him to do and finish the work on earth that God gave Him to do, to face all forms of difficulties, overcome all sorts of opposition and surmount all kinds of obstacles. They enabled Him to fight the good fight of faith against sin, error, (natural) selfishness and worldliness, as these were manipulated against Him by the devil, the world and the flesh; and they nerved Him to meet all His trials and temptations unscathed. They made Him calm amid the greatest oppositions, dangers, pains, disgraces and rejections. Yea, they enabled Him to endure the cross and death themselves. He exercised in His Holy Spirit self-control to such a degree that He ruled Himself in self-containment in good days and in evil days, in good report and in evil report, in popularity 

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and in unpopularity, as a deceiver yet true, as poor but making many rich, and as devoid of human ambition but filled with heavenly ambition. Finally, of the higher primary graces He exercised in His Holy Spirit the grace of patience, not merely longsuffering, as many mistakenly understand patience to mean, but perseverance in well-doing in spite of obstacles, which it cheerfully endures. Such patience marked every one of the seven steps by which He trod the narrow way, and was powerful enough in Him to enable Him to persevere therein in the face of the greatest difficulties, the severest of hardships and the most stubborn of obstacles ever to be encountered by any of His footstep followers. Such patience helped to make Him finally victorious. 

Our study so far has shown that our Lord exercised perfectly in His Holy Spirit all seven of the higher primary graces. And He did the same with His lower primary graces. In all His conduct toward His disciples and all others, especially His judges, He retained His self-esteem in self-confidence, self-satisfaction and self-respect. Always did He seek God's approval, as He retained His peace even amid the most contrary experiences, e.g., before the chief priests, Sanhedrin, Pilate and on the cross. His cautiousness we see when He avoided needless danger, e.g., in connection with the mob at Nazareth that desired to lynch Him, in His addresses to the multitude, in His leaving Jerusalem when His enemies sought to lay hold on Him before His time. His secretiveness was evidenced in His withholding from the multitude and His disciples too strong meat, deferring it until they were ripe enough to receive it, in many cases deferring it until after Pentecost (John 16:12-15). It is seen in His frequent use of dark speech, figure and parable, in His withholding His announcement of His Messiahship, in His course of saying almost nothing in His trials before the chief priests, the council and Pilate. His providence is seen working in His conserving the fragments after feasting the two multitudes, sending the disciples to buy 

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food from the Samaritans, providing the tax money, arranging for a treasurer for Himself and the Apostles, the foal and the colt for His entry into Jerusalem, for the passover celebration just before His death and for a home for His mother as one of His last acts. His appetitiveness is seen in His partaking of food and drink, on account of which His enemies falsely charged Him with gluttony and drunkenness, especially in His feasting on the Word of God and opportunities of service as His real meat (Matt. 4:4; John 4:32-34). His love of life is seen in His shielding Himself from the murderous designs of enemies before the due time, guarding His health, and especially in His laying hold on eternal life and maintaining His spiritual life. His self-defensiveness was exercised in His Holy Spirit by avoiding the machinations of His enemies and defending His character, teachings and works from their attacks. And His aggressiveness was exercised in His attacking error and wrong practices in others and His natural selfishness and worldliness in Himself. Accordingly, He exercised His Holy Spirit in his activities and uses of His lower selfish primary graces. 

He did the same thing with those of His lower social graces that He could use in earthly and spiritual relations. He suppressed the activities of His human sexliness, husbandliness and fatherliness, because to have used them would have made Him unfaithful to His heavenly calling. But He used His spiritual sexliness in wooing a Bride for Himself. In acting as God's Representative in bringing others to Spirit-begettal, He acted as a spiritual husband to the Covenant, as implied in Paul's designating himself as fathering certain ones from the same standpoint (1 Cor. 4:15; Phile. 10). And as a part of the Covenant He was a part of the mother of Jehovah's children (Is. 54:1-17). Thus the three human social graces that He suppressed from acting at all were compensated for by His exercising their spiritual counterparts. Certainly, these three spiritual social graces He has been exercising in the

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noblest ways, as we who have been recipients of the actions of these three graces by experience know. How tender has been toward us His symbolic courting! How benevolent has His fathering us as God's Representative been! How tenderly has He acted toward our spiritual mother during our embryonic condition in that mother! And how tender has His mother love in the Covenant been toward us! The same graces has He exercised all through the Age toward the pertinent ones. He exercised real filiality toward His earthly mother in consigning her to the care of the loving John, though He did not permit her to dominate Him in His office. And to the Covenant as His spiritual mother He certainly showed the filiality of faith, love, honor and obedience. We may be sure that He manifested real brethrenliness to His earthly brothers and sisters, though there is practically no notice given of this during the time before His ministry, and scant notice of it during His ministry. But He exercised real brethrenliness toward His brethren in the faith, yea, so much of it as to lay down life for them, as well as for the world. This He shows to us yet, though no longer in the flesh. He was then, and still is the Friend that sticketh closer than other brothers, and thus He then exercised friendship. And what a friend He has been to the whole world, expressing His friendship in its highest form by laying down His life for them! He loved the home that God was preparing for Him—His resurrection body, and was glad to lay down His human home and body to obtain it. And His love for His earthly country and countrymen was manifested by His ministry confined to them and by His weeping over its and their prospective desolation. And with all the greater love did He love His heavenly country, the Truth and its Spirit, and the citizens of that heavenly country. Thus Jesus in His Holy Spirit exercised all of the lower social graces, and that unto the perfection that received the Father's smile of approval. 

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Jesus in His Holy Spirit exercised the secondary graces, both those resulting from His higher primary graces suppressing the efforts of the lower primary selfish graces to control Him, and those resulting from the former suppressing the efforts of the lower primary social graces to control Him. His humility resulted from His higher primary graces suppressing the efforts of self-esteem from controlling Him. In fact, His whole course from Jordan to hades was one of humility, as it is written, "Having taken the form of a slave, after becoming in the likeness of men and after being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, after becoming obedient, until death" (I. V.). Was it not humility to become a homeless teacher and preacher, dependent on the kindness of those to whom He ministered? Was it not humility to associate with the poor, the publicans and the sinners? Was it not humility to endure the contradictions of sinners, the cavils of the scribes, Pharisees and the priesthood and to stand the weaknesses of His disciples? Was it not humility for Him to perform the service of the most menial servant when He washed His disciples' feet, after it was manifest that none of them had the humility to perform this service? Was it not humility that enabled the Lord of glory to submit to arrest, unjust trials, condemnations, mockery, buffeting, scourging, cross-bearing, crucifixion, as a malefactor amid malefactors, and most shameful reviling and death? Certainly, as in all other exercises of the graces, He is the greatest example of humility in human history. His modesty, resulting from His higher primary graces suppressing the efforts of His approbativeness to control Him, was manifest in the unostentatiousness of His words and acts, in the simplicity of His appearance and carriage and in the reticence that marked His dealings with the great and the little. His industriousness, arising from His higher primary graces suppressing the control of His love of rest, ease, comfort and pleasure, shines out of His much preaching, teaching, counseling, traveling, 

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watchfulness, prayer and miracle-working, whereby in 3½ years preceding Gethsemane He used up almost as much vitality as Adam did in 928 years under the curse. His courage, springing from His higher primary graces suppressing the efforts of His cautiousness to control Him, enabled Him to undertake the hardest of missions, address the largest audiences, face the greatest dangers, yea, even of death everlasting, if He did the least imperfection, brave the fiercest opposition, hatred, cruelty and shameful sufferings and death, in a conflict with the most cunning of foes—Satan. 

His candor and sincerity, eventuating from His higher primary graces suppressing the efforts of His secretiveness to control Him, made Him stand out as supremely unique in His above-boardedness in speaking the unpopular truth, whether advantageous or disadvantageous to Him, and made Him rebuke wrong in small and great and advocate right and truth, regardless of their being desired or not desired by His hearers. Of course, it could come only from a heart free from hypocrisy and full of sincerity. He, therefore, desired no axes to be ground that would have made Him curry favor with poor and rich, little and great, weak and strong, unwise and wise, ignorant and learned. It was His love of truth, righteousness and holiness that made Him sincere and thus candid. His liberality, coming from His higher primary graces repressing the efforts of His providence to control Him, made Him most openhanded in bestowing from His own vitality gifts of health, amendment of defective organs, delivering from demonic possession and cure of mental, moral and religious ills. Thus freely He gave of His time, health, strength, means, influence, reputation, comfort, talents and graces, with which He blessed and enriched others at cost of impoverishing self. His temperance, arising from His higher primary graces suppressing the efforts of His appetitiveness to control Him, was so strong that, buried in thought and study, He abstained from food and drink 40 days and nights. At other times

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the conditions of His work brought hunger upon Him. Despite His great temperance as to food and drink, His enemies had the effrontery to charge Him with gluttony and drunkenness. His self-sacrificingness, proceeding from His higher primary graces dominating the efforts of His love for life to control Him, evidencing itself in His long and exhaustive labors, journeys, healings, fastings, watchings, prayers and endurance of all sorts of trialsome experiences, was so great that in the short space of His 3½ years' active ministry He was fully 99% dead by the time that He came to Gethsemane. His longsuffering, springing from His higher primary graces dominating the efforts of His combativeness to control Him, was always in evidence. How it shone out brightly over against the ununderstanding of disciples and others! How it displayed itself amid the stupidity of many with whom He had to deal! How marked it was amid the naturally exasperating circumstances into which He was brought, occasioned by the follies of the people, the contentions of the disciples, especially for preeminence, and the criticisms, bickerings and contradictions of the scribes, Pharisees and clergy! How marvelous it was at the time of His arrest, binding, unjust treatment by the chief priests, Sanhedrin, Pilate, abandonment by His disciples, denial by Peter, the mockery and tortures of the soldiers and the spectators at His crucifixion! Such longsuffering! 

He was also forbearing, which came from His higher primary graces overcoming the efforts of His aggressiveness to control Him. He could have prayed for 12 legions of angels to confound His enemies and deliver Him out of their hands, but refrained therefrom, willing to drink the cup to its dregs, as desired by His Father. He allowed not wrath to arise in His heart against His unjust judges, tormentors and crucifiers, but forbore with them in wonderful self-collectiveness. He bore with the fickle multitude that on Monday hailed Him as the Messiah and on Friday called for His death. O, how full of forbearance was He, the

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Lamb of God! So, too, was He full of forgiveness, which proceeded from His higher primary graces conquering the attempts of His destructiveness to control Him. He cherished no malice toward Judas for betraying Him, toward the chief priests and Sanhedrin for excommunicating and declaring Him guilty of death, toward Peter for denying Him, toward Pilate for handing Him over to the will of cast-off Israel and toward His crucifiers. He freely forgave Peter; and He prayed forgiveness upon all who had to do with His murder! Accordingly, we see that Jesus exercised every one of the secondary graces that are manifested by His higher primary graces suppressing the efforts of His lower primary selfish graces to dominate Him. The same is true of the lower primary social graces. By suppressing through His dominating graces the efforts of His sexliness to control Him He exercised chastity. By the same graces fully restraining the efforts of husbandliness and fatherliness from controlling Him He exercised subhusbandliness and subfatherliness. By conquering through His higher primary graces the efforts of His mother and brethren to control Him He suppressed the efforts of parentliness and brethrenliness to control Him and thus exercised suffiliality and subbrethrenliness. By overcoming through His controlling graces the efforts of friendship to rule Him He exercised the grace of subfriendship. By repressing through His higher graces the efforts of domesticity to control Him He exercised the grace of subdomesticity; and by His suppressing through His controlling graces the efforts of patriotism to dominate Him He exercised suppatriotism. Thus He exercised all of the secondary graces related to His lower primary social graces. 

Finally, He exercised in His Holy Spirit all of the tertiary graces, and that perfectly, even as He exercised perfectly all the primary and secondary graces. The following are the tertiary, or compound graces: zeal, meekness, joy, obedience, reverence, gentleness, goodness (magnanimity), contentment, resignation, moderation, 

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impartiality and faithfulness. These arise from higher primary graces combining themselves with secondary graces, and in a few cases with certain tertiary graces. As a human being Jesus had all of these, and, of course, as a new creature He had them. Nor did He let them lie dormant in Himself, but kept them in vigorous activity whenever His circumstances called forth their exercise. His zeal in study is seen in His wilderness activities; and His zeal in service is seen in the energy, constancy and aggressiveness of His teaching, preaching, traveling and healing, and is especially noted in His cleansing of the temple. It even showed itself in His trials, temptations, perseverance and sufferings. His meekness was always in evidence toward God and the Truth. Certainly, He exercised the docility of meekness, in that He learned all that He knew from God. And His meekness toward the Bible as the source of the Truth evidenced itself in His zealous study of it and His being docile toward it. While the leadability of meekness He manifested in His ready subjection of His motives, thoughts, words and Acts to God and the Bible; not only amid easy and agreeable conditions, but also amid hard and disagreeable conditions, even as it is written of Him: "He is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before his shearers is dumb, so he openeth not his mouth!" Yea, He was the meek Lamb of God! Closely related to the two foregoing tertiary graces was another one—joy. He had a large measure, yea, a perfect measure of joy. He was anointed with the oil of gladness above His brethren. This joy in part flowed from the great hopes set before Him; but its main source was the oneness, especially that of love, in which He stood with the Father; whose will He delighted to do, in whose Word He delighted to meditate. He rejoiced in every feature of God's plan, accordingly in that part of it that hid the Word from the wise and the prudent and revealed it unto babes, babes because they had humility and meekness in good measure in their characters. Among other 

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Scriptures, Ps. 119 has much to say of His joy. The generality of His experiences were joyous, despite the fact that He was a man of sorrows, acquainted with grief, characterizations that belonged almost entirely, though not exclusively, to His final experiences from Gethsemane until He was dead. He was joyous. 

The tertiary grace of obedience was also His in perfect measure. As a human being before His consecration He was obedient to the Law Covenant, but His obedience entered into a higher stage at His consecration; for therein He not only continued to obey God's will of justice, but, accepting God's will of charity, He obeyed its every feature perfectly; for His consecration not only obligated Him to deny self-and world-will, but also to take God's will in all things as His own will. And this He did perfectly. Indeed, in taking every one of the seven steps of the narrow way He was simply obeying His consecration obligations. Thus His obedience to God expressed itself in self and world-denial, in studying, spreading and practicing God's Word, and also in watchfulness, prayer and endurance of evil according to that Word. He always, everywhere and in all matters studied to find out God's will and then resolutely performed it, thus always doing those things that were pleasing to God; and thus He practiced obedience in His Holy Spirit. Reverence is another tertiary grace that He in His Holy Spirit exercised. Its heart is supreme duty and disinterested love to God with all the heart, mind, soul and strength; and, among others, its less prominent features are humility, modesty and cautiousness, while its elements are appreciation, worship and adoration. Jesus had and exercised this grace perfectly. This is apparent from His reverent attitude toward God's person, character, word and work. It is manifest in His spirit of watchfulness and prayer. It is seen in the way in which He conducted Himself in His study, work and sufferings. This made Him put God first in all things. Note the reverence characterizing what is called the Lord's prayer in Matt. 6

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and His High-Priestly prayer in John 17. This spirit of reverence colored even His contacts with His disciples, the multitude and the Jewish clergy. It shed a holy sheen about Him in all that He spoke and did. It was the main feature of what John means when He said, "We beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace aged truth." 

Goodness, or to use a non-Biblical term of the same import, magnanimity, largeness of soul, was still another of His tertiary graces. Paul contrasts a righteous, with a good man. The former yields to everyone his rights, as He would have his rights yielded to him, while the latter not only yields to others their rights, but sacrifices his own in others' interests, regardless of the resultant loss to self. The former is more or less austere; the latter flows over from a gracious disposition. The former fills the measure evenly full; the latter to overflowing. Jesus did nobody the least wrong, rather yielded to each his rights; but He went far beyond that; for self-denyingly He gave up freely, generously, overflowingly and most graciously His own rights, in order to bless others. This goodness caused gracious words to proceed out of His mouth. His sympathies were ever in evidence; His generosity flowed out copiously from His kind heart, even as the Sacramento flows as a full-grown river out of the base of Mt. Shasta. His helpfulness was ever winsomely active; and His benignant face harmonized completely with His generous heart and liberal hand. His looks and manner must have been an everlasting benediction to responsive souls that beheld them. And this goodness not only exercised itself in the activities of His life, but also in its passivities, as can be seen in His reactions to the unbelief of the people, the misunderstandings, errors and faults of His disciples, and during the torments of crucifixion His prayers for His tormentors, His comfort of the penitent thief and His care for His mother's future. Contentment was another of the tertiary graces that marked His exercising His Holy

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Spirit. Never once do we hear a murmur pass His lips at His hard lot. He makes no complaint of those who so greatly wronged Him. Not even in His heart was the least murmur felt, nor the slightest complaint cherished. He was content with His lot, despite its hard and sad experiences, despite its losses, disappointments, weariness, hunger, cold, necessities, hardships, pains, sicknesses, persecutions and final mistreatments and sufferings. He would not have it otherwise than it was, unless the Father had willed it to be otherwise. Even under the fear that He would be unable to stand perfectly in His Holy Spirit the shame, disgrace and sufferings of His final experiences, He did not desire them removed, unless the Father willed it; and when the Father showed Him that He willed these experiences, in heart's contentment Jesus went forth to those experiences; and amid them His contentment with His lot made Him the calmest of all in His final scenes. 

Gentleness, another of the tertiary graces, was a fixed part of His character, both as a human being and as a new creature. This quality was in evidence in His dealing with the children whom "He hearted"; for had He not been winsome in His gentleness they would not have come to Him. It expressed itself in His dealing with the woman taken in adultery and with her accusers. How gentle He was in His rebukes and corrections of those who in weakness or ignorance or in both were out of the way! How gently He wrought His miracles! How gently He comforted the mourners, e.g., Mary and Martha! The bruised reed He did not break, nor quench the smoking flax. No wonder Paul could beseech the brethren "by the gentleness of Jesus"! This spirit of gentleness blessed the penitent, the forlorn and the unfortunate. Had he not been the soul of gentleness the women would not have been the last at the cross and the first at the tomb. Certainly, His gentleness must have been a factor in attracting such men as the Sanhedrinists Joseph and Nicodemus, and must have been a factor in drawing 

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forth from the centurion his conviction: "Truly, this man was righteous … the son of God!" So, too, was resignation a tertiary grace in His Holy Spirit; and, as such, He exercised it on all pertinent occasions. It showed itself in His setting His face steadfastly toward Jerusalem, where He knew that crucifixion with all its harrowing antecedents, concomitants and outcomes awaited Him. It was movingly felt by Him when He wept over Jerusalem's blindness and impending disaster. It was exercised by Him when He recognized that He was going to be betrayed by one of His chosen Twelve. It was felt by Him when the shadow of the cross loomed up before Him in all its awfulness, when, beholding that shadow, He cried out: "Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say? Father, save me from this hour; but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name" (John 12:27, 28). Please note the thought here: His soul is distressed at His foresight of the events of His last experiences; and for a moment He is at a loss as to what He should say. Then His poor humanity, the sacrificial victim, trembling at the prospect, desired to be freed from undergoing those fateful experiences: "Save me from this hour"; but immediately His New Creature asserts itself: "but for this cause [to give an atoning sacrifice] came I unto this hour." Then it takes, in full resignation, complete control of the situation, desiring that at any cost to Himself God be glorified: "Father, glorify thy name." That same resignation was active in the Gethsemane agony, in His arrest, unjust hearings before the religious and civil authorities, mockery, scourging, cross-bearing, crucifixion, agonies and death! 

Again, moderation, as another tertiary grace, marked Him. This grace made Him take a conservative, a wise view of principles, persons and things, and act accordingly. He was zealous without being a zealot, generous without being a spendthrift, meek without being craven, gracious without being weak, and condescending to the lowly without being fawning. Never do we find Him 

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going to extremes; for He well knew how to take the golden middle. His moderation did not make Him a trimmer, nor a compromiser of principle; but He knew how to take a broad view of things from an intimate knowledge of the persons, principles and things involved in each case. Accordingly, He knew how to take into consideration human weaknesses and ignorance in the various phases of human depravity, for which reason He made allowances for the differences in temperament prevailing among His disciples, and held back His enemies from extreme measure with Him until God's due time. He was moderate in His sentiments and in His teachings as a reading of them reveals, e.g., in the sermon on the mount and in His last discourse—the one in the upper room. Note the moderation in His manner and words when dealing with the woman taken in adultery and her accusers. He was moderate in dress, food, shelter. Even in anger and under opposition His moderation shone out brightly. Yea, He was perfect in this grace. He also had and exercised the tertiary grace of impartiality. Neither riches, rank, station, talent, influence, reputation, nor anything physical, controlled His judgment of persons. Even favors shown Him did not make Him forget to judge everything and treat everyone according to the principles of truth, righteousness and holiness underlying the conditions. It was, therefore, the Divine mind that controlled His attitude and Acts toward all. 

This does not mean that He treated everybody alike; for He certainly made broad differences between outsiders and His disciples. And he made differences between these also; for He made some of them Apostles, others evangelists, and others He gave no office at all; but in all this He was determined in His course by the applicable principles. His honoring John, Peter and James above the others of the Twelve was not from partiality, but from the fact that their characteristics, viewed from the standpoint of principle, warranted it. Again, His putting John first, Peter second and James

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third among the three was due to the principles underlying the case. His using Peter more than the other two in service was due to his greater zeal and aggressiveness. It was His impartiality that made Him pray all night before choosing the Twelve, that thus He might learn God's will on this subject. Thus in all His dealings it was principle that moved Him to choose and reject, to promote and demote, to favor and disfavor. 

We now come to the last of the tertiary graces: faithfulness, which also our Lord Jesus exercised in His Holy Spirit. He was faithful, first of all, to God; and by His faithfulness He demonstrated to God that Jehovah could depend upon Him under any and all circumstances to take His side, despite the utmost pressure that might be brought to bear on Him to break His faithfulness. God was His all in all. He lived for God; He labored for God; He suffered for God; and He died for God. His every thought, motive, word and act were surcharged with loyalty to God. This grace permeated Him through and through in all that He was and did for God. Accordingly, He was faithful in His self-and world-denial, in His study, spread and practice of God's Word, in His watchfulness, prayer and endurance according to God's Word. He was, therefore, faithful in His office as High Priest, Prophet, Redeemer, Justifier, Sanctifier and Deliverer, while in the flesh, as well as since He has come into the Spirit. He was faithful to the Apostles and Evangelists and the others of His disciples. He was faithful to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He was faithful to the few Gentiles with whom He came into contact. And when He cried out, "It is finished!" among other things He asserted that He had completed the demonstration of His faithfulness; and by that fact He completed the making of His calling and election sure. We say this, because faithfulness is the final and universal grace; for it permeates His every operation of the perceptive, remembering, imagining and reasoning faculties, His every affection of the heart, His every determination of

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the will and His every operation of all the graces. And it was Jesus' faithfulness throughout His course that brought Him into the crystallization of the best and greatest character of all God's sons. O, how glowing in the beauty of holiness was and is His character, the exactest image of the Father's glory in perfect wisdom, power, justice and love, each of these graces perfect in itself, each perfectly balanced with each other and in that balance dominating all His other physical, mental, artistic, moral and religious qualities unto unbreakable crystallization! Worthy is the Lamb, who faithfully took in all perfection every one of the seven steps of His narrow way, even to its end! 

In addition to all-outedness in taking the four steps of Christ's narrow way hitherto discussed, He was especially helped in taking them by two other things: watchfulness and prayer according to God's Word, which are respectively the fifth and sixth steps of His narrow way. A brief thought on these four steps, self-and world-denial, study, spread and practice of God's Word, flawlessly and perfectly performed, should convince us that He had to practice watchfulness and prayer, in order so to take these four steps; for the least departure from perfection in any or all of these four steps would have ruined Him and the outworking of God's plan. Hence He had to exercise the greatest carefulness on how He took them and had frequently to repair to the Throne of Grace for help to take them flawlessly and perfectly. And these two activities, therefore, greatly helped Him in taking them; and, of course, His doing such watchfulness and prayer was His taking the fifth and sixth steps of the narrow way. His future life and ministry and the execution of God's plan in its elective features toward the Little Flock, Great Company, Ancient and Youthful Worthies and in its free-grace features toward the restitution class of Law-bound Jews, faith-justified Jews and Gentiles and unbelieving Jews and Gentiles depended on His taking all of the steps of the narrow 

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Way unto the complete satisfaction of God. And these two steps were also very helpful to Him for taking the seventh and last step of the narrow way: endurance of evil in loyalty to, and accordance with God's Word. All this indicates the high importance of His exercising unto perfection watchfulness and prayer. We will now study these two steps of Jesus' pilgrimage over the narrow way, taking up first the consideration of watchfulness, which naturally precedes prayer. 

Watchfulness is the mental, moral and religious scrutinizing and guarding of one's disposition, thoughts, motives, words, acts, surroundings and the influences operating on him. Accordingly, Jesus' watchfulness was His perfect scrutinizing and guarding of His disposition, thoughts, motives, words, acts, surroundings and the influences operating on Him. As to His disposition, which was perfect, this implied that He carefully studied it to see that nothing sinful, erroneous, selfish and worldly found lodgement there and that wisdom, power, justice and love as His dominating graces held full sway there. As to His thoughts, this implied that He carefully studied them, so that any sinful, erroneous, selfish and worldly thought that Satan, the world or His flesh would suggest to Him would be quickly recognized and guarded against as such, and, therefore, quickly cast out of His mind, and that He closely scrutinized the true, the righteous and the holy thoughts that came into His mind, that they might after being recognized as such be kept there. As to His motives, it implied that He examined them in the light of truth, righteousness and holiness; and if He found any motive suggestion in any way to impinge against any one of them, He promptly expelled it and guarded Himself, so that only appropriate motives, affections and graces that perfectly promoted the glory of God, the fulfillment of His consecration, the blessing of man and opposition to evil influenced Him. As to His words and acts, this implied that He scrutinized them and guarded them, so that they would be free 

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from evil and full of good. As to His surroundings, this implied that He studied and guarded Himself as to them, so that amid them He might not think, feel, speak and act in any way unfitting to their demands from the standpoint of wisdom, justice, power and love dominating Him, but according to such dominated demands act aright amid them. Good, bad and indifferent influences from without operated upon Him at every turn. Accordingly, He had to examine them and guard Himself against the bad and indifferent ones and yield Himself to the good ones required by the higher primary graces to operate in those conditions. Accordingly, His watchfulness included afar-flung and careful activity always exercised by Him. 

The figure of a faithful sentinel is a good illustration of Jesus' activities in watchfulness. As a sentinel must not fall asleep, which would leave his position unguarded, neither could Jesus allow Himself to fall spiritually asleep—come into a condition in which His eyes of understanding would cease to see the things of God, His ears of faith also cease to perceive the subjects of faith, His spiritual scent cease appreciating the things of God, his spiritual taste cease delighting in the sweetness of God, His Spirit, the Truth, etc., His spiritual touch cease to feel the things of God, His spiritual hands cease to work for God, the Truth, the brethren and others, His spiritual feet cease to take the seven steps of the narrow way and His spiritual imagination run riot in speculations and fancies. On the contrary, as a sentinel has to remain awake at his post, so Jesus had to remain awake at His post—keep His eyes of faith open to see and His ear of understanding open to perceive the things of faith, His spiritual scent appreciative of His spiritual taste delighted with, and His spiritual touch in full sympathy with God, His Truth and Spirit, His spiritual hands active, His spiritual feet swift and His spiritual mind full as to God's Word and work. As a sentinel must challenge every one who would enter or leave the camp at his 

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post, so Jesus had to challenge every thought and motive that would enter or leave the camp of His mind, heart and will, and every word, act, surrounding and influence that would come under the preview of the camp of His mind, heart or will. As a sentinel must ask for the countersign from every one desiring entrance into, or exit from the camp at his post, so Jesus had to challenge every influence, thought or motive that would enter His mind, heart and will and every word and act that would leave them. As a sentinel must be skeptical of the professions of all, since all answer the challenge, "Who goes there?" with the statement, "A friend," while some are spies, or deserters, or soldiers without right desiring to leave or enter the camp, so Jesus, knowing that the devil, the world and the flesh sought with hidden deceit to inject evil influences, thoughts and motives into, and to draw out evil words and Acts from His mind, heart and will, and that God desired to inject good influences, thoughts and motives into, and to draw out good words and Acts from His mind, heart and will, was skeptical of all things that would enter or leave them, since all alike claimed to be "friends," and some He knew to be spies, deserters or unsanctioned ingressors or egressors. 

As a sentinel must demand the countersign, "Advance, friend, and give the countersign," with his rifle held in a ready position, to guard against a treacherous attack, as a proof that one is permitted to enter or leave the camp as he may desire, so Jesus had to require of each influence, motive and thought that would enter His mind, heart and will and of each word or act that would leave them that it give the proof of its right to enter or leave His mind, heart and will. This figurative countersign was the absence of sin, error, selfishness and worldliness from the pertinent influence, thought, motive, word and act, and the subjection of the influence, thought, motive, word and act to the higher primary graces, blended and dominating. As a sentinel listens carefully to the sound of what is given as the 

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countersign, so our Lord very carefully scrutinized, in keeping with His surroundings, His pertinent disposition, the influences, thoughts, motives, words and acts, to find out, if there was in them the presence or absence of sin, error, selfishness and worldliness and the presence of the subjection of His disposition, the pertinent influences, thoughts, motives, words and Acts to the higher primary graces, blended and dominating. As a sentinel, as a result of his investigation, renders a decision as to challenged ones' giving or not giving the countersign, so Jesus, as a result of His pertinent scrutiny, rendered a decision as to each challenged disposition, influence, thought, motive, word or act, on its giving or not giving the symbolic countersign. As a sentinel allows ingress or egress, as the case requires, to those giving the right countersign, so Jesus did with each pertinent disposition, influence, thought, motive, word or act—allowed it to enter or leave His mind, heart or will, as the case required. As a sentinel refuses ingress or egress, as the case may require, to anyone not giving the right countersign, so Jesus refused ingress or egress, as each case required, to any influence, thought, motive, word or act that did not square with the higher primary graces, blended and dominating. As a sentinel, if he has any reason to suspect the challenged one to be a spy or deserter, will secure his arrest, detention for trial and condigned punishment, so Jesus saw to the proper disposal of every inappropriate influence, thought, motive, word and act that attempted to enter, or in time of temptation to leave, His mind, heart or will. Thus in this He was a true sentinel. 

A true sentinel surveys the whole sphere of his post, keeping under his watchful eye the territory between him and the camp and beyond him and the camp, looking intently that no one approach within his post without his challenging him and requiring him to give the countersign, before permitting him to pass. Even if the one who wishes to pass is well known to him, yea, his best loved friend, he will not let him pass without his

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giving the countersign. This illustrates several things in Jesus' watchfulness. In the first place, nothing in Him escaped His watchfulness. It included His entire disposition, every one of His thoughts, motives, words, acts, surroundings and every influence operating on Him, and that in their entire compass. This means that He examined His fleshly mind, heart and will, as well as His new-creaturely mind, heart and will in all their details, and made them submit to the sway of balanced and dominating wisdom, power, justice and love. He did not merely examine and bring into subjection to His balanced and dominating higher primary graces certain features of His disposition, thoughts, motives, words, acts, surroundings and influences operating on Him; but He did this to everything of them. No matter how attractive to His humanity any selfish or social sentiment of His own or of others might have been, He subjected it to the same diligent scrutiny and disposal as His balanced and dominating higher primary graces required. Indeed, His watchfulness was thorough and all-embracing, showing no fear nor favor to anything sinful, erroneous, selfish or worldly; but He did favor wholeheartedly the domination of His new-creaturely will in His watchfulness. 

Again, the true sentinel remains on guard until He is relieved. No matter how long the hours of his sentinelship last, no matter if relief fails to come at the appointed time, no matter what the weather may be, whether it be hot or cold, rain or shine, he keeps his post until relief comes, watching everything that comes his way, and only then leaves off watching when the relief has taken his place. So with our Lord, He continued throughout the 3½ years of His ministry to watch. He did not do it for a little while and then, wearying of it, give it up, but kept it up at all times, in all places, under all circumstances, in every experience and in connection with every surrounding and influence. Thus He watched continually, everywhere, in dealing with all sorts of persons, in every activity and passivity

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of His experience, and did this until He had finished to the full what the Father appointed for Him to do, to bear and to suffer. So, too, when a sentinel sees the enemy approaching, or sees a mutiny arising within the army's own ranks, he forthwith sounds the alarm, arouses the army into preparedness against a surprise attack and into readiness to attack the approaching enemy or the mutineers, or to repel their attacks. So Jesus, as He watched, if He caught sight of the devil, the world or the flesh, through sin, error, selfishness or worldliness, advancing to attack, He immediately sounded the alarm, which aroused His new-creaturely thoughts, motives, affections, graces and will to repel the attack or to advance to attack the approaching enemy. And if His natural selfishness or worldliness sought to gain escape from self-denial or world-denial at the expense of His New Creature, and thus set up a mutiny within Him, He at once squelched it, as we see Him doing in the three great temptations in the wilderness (Matt. 4:3-10), those at Jerusalem in sight of the cross (John 12:27, 28) and on the cross, according to the description that Ps. 22:1-18 gives of the reactions of His perfect humanity to its crucifixion experiences; for vs. 1-18 give His human trials. 

Jesus not only watched generally in all His experiences, but He did it with particular carefulness when He was specially tempted; for during temptations there was all the more need of watchfulness; for temptation times were danger times, as well as testing times. Jesus was tempted at every point of His character. His temptations, like all others' temptations, were appealing suggestions; for temptations are not merely suggestions; they are appealing suggestions, such suggestions as find in one something to which they come with appealing force. He was not tempted to sin (Heb. 4:15), for sin found nothing in Him to which it could make appealing suggestions. His temptations were along the line of His natural selfish and social affections. Thus in the wilderness His love for food, under the appeals of hunger, was used as the basis of tempting 

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Him to use selfishly, i.e., to satisfy His hunger, His miraculous powers, given Him to help others and not self. Thus there His love for gratifying His spiritual hunger for successful service ("I have meat to eat that ye know not of") was appealed to as the basis of tempting Him to use fakir methods to attract the attention of the multitudes; thus the appeal was to a lower spiritual selfish affection to misuse His ministerial powers, which, of course, was contrary to the spirit of a sound mind. Thus, also, His human love for life and His human desire to be free from human suffering were appealed to as the basis of tempting Him to obtain the Kingdom, which God had promised Him, if He would faithfully serve and suffer unto death, without suffering, but by being subject to Satan. This temptation also had an appealing effect on His humanity. But all three of these temptations, by Jesus' watchfulness in the light of the Word, stood stark naked before Him as suggestions that, despite their appealing power on His lower selfish affections, if followed, would make Him unfaithful to His consecration vows to remain dead to self and the world and to be alive to God. Hence His watchfulness, sounding the alarm that they were approaches of the enemy to attack, aroused by the Word His new-creaturely mind, heart and will to the battle, which, faithfully fought with the armor of God, resulted in victory for Him. Several others of the many temptations of Jesus given in the Bible will be briefly discussed. In John 12:27, 28 Jesus is set forth as fearing the death of the cross and as loving His human comfort and life. This was a temptation, an appealing suggestion, that laid hold on His human love for safety, ease and life; and Satan made these the basis of a tempting offer of escape from the cross. And the passage shows how his New Creature, reminding Him of His mission as requiring His crucifixion, conquered His human love for safety, ease and life. It was a glorious, hard-won victory. 

In Gethsemane the temptation to have the cup, not of death, but of the particular kind of death, public crucifixion, 

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with its shame and disgrace of excommunication and outlawry, removed, had as its basis, not the fear of His humanity, but the fear of His New Creature, i.e., the lower primary grace of spiritual cautiousness was the basis of the temptation; for Jesus there feared that He had not hitherto done perfectly and that He would not be able to stand perfectly the harrowing trials following Gethsemane, and thus feared that the whole plan, in His feared failure, would go by default and that He would not return from the dead. Therefore, He struggled for an hour to have that cup of shame and disgrace involved in the death of an excommunicate and outlaw on the cross to be changed, if God were willing thereto; but during the hour's struggle He was constantly resigned to God's will-"Not my will, but thine, be done." Thus fear of failure to have maintained and to maintain perfection, and consequently fear of the plan going by default and His everlasting non-existence, formed the basis of the temptation in Gethsemane. But He watched and prayed in the temptation. God giving Him the assurance of His support, His new-creaturely will suppressed the efforts of His lower primary grace of spiritual cautiousness to control His new will, and thus He overcame. In this temptation Satan made these powerfully appealing attacks: (1) that He had not hitherto done everything perfectly, (2) that He would not be able to stand perfectly the trials following Gethsemane, (3) that, therefore, as the way out, He ask for the removal of the cup, and (4) that He insist on His will being granted in this matter. That the first three of these suggestions had powerfully appealing effect we can see in the threefold asking for the removal of the cup; but that they did not appeal to Him to the degree of dominating His new-creaturely will to make Him insist on His desire being granted, we can see in the fact that at each of the three requests for the cup's removal He asked that it be not done unless it was according to the Father's will. His new-creaturely will, after an hour's struggle, He all the time continuing to watch, 

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recognizing that it was not God's will to grant His desire, which will required a demonstration of faithfulness in Him extended to the utmost limit, to remove the cup, was completely submissive to God's pertinent will. And the heart of His prayer was answered—grace sufficient to endure faithfully, as well as the assurance of His past faithfulness, and of the resurrection of His New Creature according to His Spirit of holiness. Thus for His piety He was saved from death, with the assurance that He might go forward and carry out successfully the plan of God. Gethsemane was His hardest temptation and trial, surely! But it was one of the new creature. 

According to Ps. 22:1-18, His new-creaturely will was tempted by every one of His lower primary selfish and social graces during the time He was on the cross; indeed, we are warranted in including all of His experiences following His Gethsemane struggle. The time from His capture until His death was probably 13 hours; and into those 13 hours were condensed testings of every one of His human and spiritual qualities. His sense of justice by the injustices heaped upon Him was sorely tested. It was not wrong for His human affections to desire deliverance from them; but it would have been wrong for His New Creature to have permitted these human affections to have controlled. It kept them under control, even though they struggled to prevail. His self-respect as a human being amid the outrages heaped upon Him during those 13 hours was trampled upon. His approbativeness was severely dealt with by His public rejection and insults. His love of ease was severely jolted by the sleepless night of His Jewish trial, the buffeting of the Jewish guard, the scourging, the cross-bearing and every minute's torture of His crucifixion. His love of safety, as well as His secretiveness, was trampled upon by His public mistreatment. His providence was trampled upon by His being bereft of every human possession, including His clothes. Surely, His hunger and thirst were not gratified during those hours. His self-defense

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was kept in abeyance, as was His aggressiveness, all of those 13 hours. His love of the opposite sex in the women who bewailed Him was suppressed. His filiality was sorely tried at the sight of His mother's grief, as she beheld Him, her life's pride, on the cross; and His brethrenliness and friendship were given harrowing experiences, as He saw some of His followers at the cross. The discomforts of the cross were a sad contrast to the home comforts for which His humanity yearned; and His patriotism was severely set at nought by the thought of His being cast off by His people and His soon cutting off from His native land; and the deepest draught from the cup of woe that His humanity had to drink was the sense of His abandonment from God. Under these hard experiences of His humanity His human mind was in deepest trouble, yearning for relief, as Ps. 22:1-18 shows. But, despite His flesh's intense yearnings for deliverance, His New Creature kept them under control. To maintain this control His New Creature had to watch with closest scrutiny and guardianship, lest His human cravings, so sorely wrought up, obtain the mastery, which His new will maintained victoriously, despite the temptations of the devil, the world and especially His flesh, pleading for relief in those 13 hours. 

Yea, He was tempted at all points of character, sin apart. If He were a God-man, He could not have been tempted, since according to that theory His humanity had no personality of its own, its personality being that of God, which He is by that theory alleged to be; for that would have meant that appealing suggestions to unfaithfulness were made to God—an impossibility (Jas. 1:13). But understanding that He was a perfect man with all the thoughts and affections of perfect humanity, who, however, had additionally in all the faculties of His mind, heart and will, spiritual capacities, spiritual affections, spiritual graces and a spiritual will, we can see clearly the conflict in the form of temptations, between His human, fleshly, mind and heart, His human will being dead by His consecration, and His 

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spiritual mind, heart and will, each struggling for controllership, which was successfully maintained by the spiritual will's overcoming the temptations of His flesh, a conflict that is common to all new creatures in the flesh (Gal. 5:16, 17). And how, we ask, was Jesus able to triumph in all His temptations? We answer, Among other things, by His faithfulness in watching. From our discussion of His taking the fifth kind of steps of His narrow way we have learned that His watchfulness consisted of two elements: scrutiny and guarding. His scrutiny, so far as it concerned Himself, consisted of self-examination, i.e., that part of scrutiny that made Him, Himself, its object; for He scrutinized Himself as to His disposition, thoughts, motives, words and acts, which, of course, was self-examination; but He practiced two features of scrutiny that were not a part of self-examination: His surroundings and the influences that operated on Him. However, He scrutinized these in part from the standpoint of their relations and effects on Him. He also scrutinized these two from the standpoint of their relations and effects on others, a thing which He did also as to His disposition His thoughts, motives, words and acts. His guarding was as to keeping Himself secure from harm from the temptations of the devil, the world and the flesh, by taking a successful oppositional stand toward their temptations, all of which required watching in both of its elements; and it was also as to keeping Himself faithful in practicing the other six kinds of steps of the narrow way. His guarding also operated toward those with whom He had to do, especially toward those over whom He had a supervisory office, e.g., the Apostles and evangelists particularly, and the other disciples generally. He had a guarding work toward outsiders of Israel, especially toward the Jewish clergy. A goodly share of His watching was devoted to seeing God's Word fulfilling and God's providences unfolding, especially in relation to Him and the cause of truth, righteousness and holiness. This kind of steps, like the other kinds studied above, He took perfectly. 

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The sixth kind of steps that Jesus took in walking the narrow way was prayer. His prayers were His uttered or unuttered heart's sincere desires going out to God for good things. Thus He had the heart of real prayer: sincere desires going out to God for good things. His prayers were sometimes uttered in words, sometimes unuttered. Yea, His heart always prayed, for it always desired the good things that God was pleased for Him to have. And they were utterly sincere, in that He desired only to have what God's will was for Him to have for God's glory. The good things that He desired were almost entirely spiritual, though they included such earthly things as He knew God desired Him to have. His prayers had all the elements of true prayer. These are seven in number: Invocation, praise, thanksgiving, acknowledgment of dependence on God, petition, communion and assurance. There was no confession of sin in His prayers, as there is in our prayers, because He had no sins to confess. Nor do we find all of the seven above-mentioned parts of prayer in every one of His prayers, e.g., in some of His prayers there are only invocation, thanksgiving and assurance, as can be seen in His prayer in Matt. 11:25, 26, wherein He thanked God with assurance that the plan was for the understanding of the humble and meek and not for that of those wise in their own esteem—the proud and the heady; and at Lazarus' tomb (John 11:41, 42) we see only these three elements, though the latter prayer implies that He had previously asked God for Lazarus' resuscitation. In His High-Priestly prayer in John 17, while there are invocation, petition and assurance present, the largest part of it is communion with God. In all His prayers there was the spirit of submission, which we can see especially in His Gethsemane prayers. His oneness of spirit with God made it the most appropriate and natural thing for Him to pray. We may be sure that He prayed regularly mornings and evenings, at meals and at every other appropriate time; for always did His heart's desires go out to God; and, as called for,

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they expressed themselves in words privately and publicly in ways appropriate to God and Christ. 

The needs of His New Creature, especially for knowledge and strength to take the steps of the narrow way, impelled Him to pray. He was encouraged thereto by the Father's bounty toward Him. God's invitations to Him to approach the Throne of Grace greatly influenced Him to come near to it for help in time of need. Then God's many promises to Him, especially to be found in the Psalms and the Prophets, particularly in Isaiah, emboldened Him to plead those promises as His to claim in believing prayer. God's willingness to hear Him was a mighty inducement for Him to pour out His heart's needs and desires to His Heavenly Father. And as He progressed in the narrow way and with that progress the answers to His prayers, ever increasing in number, were so many more encouragements to Him to lay His petitions before God; His sense of oneness with God in spirit greatly influenced Him to supplicate the God of all grace and goodness. Accordingly, Jesus had many inducements to approach God in prayer. The burden of His petitions for Himself were doubtless those contained in the Lord's Prayer, except the fifth petition, "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors," the reason for this omission being that He had no sin, for which to ask forgiveness. In the first petition, "Hallowed be Thy name," He prayed that He and the faithful might make their calling and election sure; for by so doing do they hallow, reflect glory upon God's name in all seven senses of the word name. In the second petition He prayed for the establishment of the Kingdom in its two phases, for each of the two sets of two classes belonging to each phase, to work restitution for the obedient. In the third petition He prayed that ultimately everlasting righteousness may be established for the Ages of Glory following the Millennium. Thus in these three petitions He prayed that the plan of God may be accomplished successfully in all its parts. In the fourth petition He asked God to supply Him 

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the Truth as spiritual food, as well as the needs of His body. In the sixth petition He prayed that God stand by Him in His temptations with needed helps of His Spirit, Word and providences; and in the seventh petition He prayed for grace to overcome Satan in his direct evil attacks and in his indirect evil attacks—through the world and His flesh, and to give Him victory throughout His course. As we consider these requests we recognize that they covered all His personal needs and, by adding the forgiveness of sins, the needs of the Church and the world in their relation to the Divine Plan of the Ages. 

The answers to His prayers were conditional on His humanity's obedience to the natural law written in His heart and to the Mosaic Law, and upon His New Creature's obedience to His covenant of sacrifice, which implied faithfulness in all seven kinds of steps of His narrow way. And He yielded as a human being perfect obedience to the natural law written in His heart and to the Mosaic Law, which continued to make His humanity as a man and as a Jew acceptable to God as a sacrifice, with the result that anything that His humanity desired compatibly with its being sacrificed was granted it—food, shelter, raiment, as needed. And His fulfilling His covenant of sacrifice progressively in each one of the seven kinds of steps of His narrow way was rewarded by God in His having access to the Throne of Grace for the supply of every one of His new-creaturely needs. And always were His prayers for their supply answered (John 11:42). To Him especially, as the Head, and to the Church, as the Body, did the promise apply, "Call upon me in the day of trouble; and I will deliver thee; and thou shalt glorify me" (Ps. 50:15). His prayers, therefore, came before God as incense—most pleasingly acceptable, because they were surcharged with the graces, particularly those graces that were active amid His trials, temptations and tribulations. What sweetness must He have felt as He communed with God! What assurance of Divine acceptableness must He have experienced in

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His prayers! And what joy and love must have been His when He could speak to and with His Father; for He always knew in His heart of hearts that He was the Father's delight; and this was the fullest satisfaction to Him. From Jesus let us learn to use in His Spirit our privileges of access to the throne of grace; and then we will ever find a most Fatherly welcome there making for true communion! 

It will be profitable for our study for us to consider briefly some of Jesus' prayers. We have already briefly called attention to those of the petitions of the Lord's Prayer adapted to His use, and now will consider some others. He prayed at His baptism (Luke 3:21), privately while on a preaching tour (Mark 1:35; Luke 5:16), preparatory to choosing the Twelve (Luke 6:12), as to experiencing the transfiguration (Luke 9:28, 29) and for Peter (Luke 22:32), and publicly when feeding the 5,000 and the 4,000 men, besides women and children (Matt. 14:19, 23; Mark 8:6), over the bread and wine in the Lord's supper (Matt. 26:26, 27; Mark 14:22, 23; Luke 22:17, 19, 32; 1 Cor. 11:23-25), on receiving the report of the Seventy (Luke 10:21), on blessing the children, in Jerusalem (John 12:27, 28) and in Gethsemane (Matt. 26:36-44; Mark 14:32-39; Luke 22:41-44), explained above. In none of the foregoing cases, except on receiving the report of the Seventy, in John 12:27, 28 and in Gethsemane, are the words of His prayers given. It is to those that give the words of His prayers that we desire to add a few comments. When the Seventy returned and showed the various features of blessing wrought by their ministry, we gather from Jesus' prayer (Luke 10:21) that they reported that the meek and humble heard them gladly, but that the Pharisees and scribes did not make a favorable response. And this feature of their report moved Him to rejoice in spirit and pray, "I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes; even so, Father; for so it seemed

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good in thy sight." In this prayer no petition was made; but Jesus rejoiced in, and thanked God for that feature of God's plan wherein His wisdom, power, justice and love hid its elective features from the proud, heady and self-sufficient, and made them clear to the meek and humble. And this was for the good of both classes: the babes, because of fitness for trial under the plan's elective features, and the others, because of unfitness therefore, for whom its free-grace features will be suitable. Hence Jesus could rejoice as to God's present purposes as to both classes. At the tomb of Lazarus our Lord offered a remarkable prayer of thanksgiving without petition; however, this prayer implies that the petition had been previously offered: "Jesus … said, 'Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me; and I knew that thou hearest me always; but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me'" (John 11:41, 42). As Jesus here says, He offered this prayer of thanksgiving on account of the people there present, that the miracle that He would work might convince them that He was God's Messenger. How simple is the prayer! What assurance it expresses! How close does it reveal the oneness of the Father and Son to be! This thanksgiving unites simplicity and sublimity in a most marked manner. We have already commented on His prayers in John 12:27, 28 and in Gethsemane, hence will say no more thereon. 

The longest and most informing prayer of our Lord, recorded as His High-Priestly prayer, is given in John 17. In it there are only five petitions made, one for Himself, that the Father glorify Him (1, 5), three for the Apostles: (1) that they might all be one as the Father and Son are one (11), (2) that they might be kept from the evil one (15) and (3) that they might be sanctified by the Truth (17), and one for the rest of the Church, that they may be one as God and Christ are one (21). All the rest of the chapter consists of Christ's communing with the Father. Briefly would we summarize this communion! He mentions to the 

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Father that His hour has come (1), His commission as Savior (2), for what purpose the saved were to have everlasting life (3), His faithful performance of His ministry (4), His revealing God in the sevenfold meaning of His name to the elect Apostles given Him by God and their keeping God's Word (6), who knew Him in His office powers (7), to whom He gave God's Word committed to Jesus' ministry, who received them with the full assurance of His having left heaven for earth as God's Ambassador (8), He making them, not the world, the objects of His intercession as gifts to Him from God (9). He recognized His partnership with God and His being glorified in His Apostles (10), recognizing the nearness of the end of His stay on earth and His soon going to God, which moves Him to ask God by the exercise of His character to bring them into and keep them in oneness, as God and He are one (11). Then He tells the Father of His having kept them by God's character while with them, except Judas, the second-deather, whose perdition is Biblically forecast (12). About to go to the Father, He declares that He had clarified to them the Word, that they might share with Him His joy (13). He declares that their receiving from Him the Word has brought upon them the world's hatred, as it had brought the same upon Him (14). He was not asking that they be taken out of the world, but that God might keep them from the evil one (15), because they, like Him, were not of the world (16). Then He prays that they be sanctified in will, body and spirit by the Divine Truth (17), because, as He was by God, so they were by Him, sent on the Gospel-Age mission into the world (18), and for their Truth sanctification He had sanctified Himself in will, body and spirit (19). Please note how as a skillful Advocate He commends the Apostles to God's favor, by telling all the good possible of them and mentioning nothing evil against them. 

Having presented His three petitions on behalf of the Apostles, with commendatory remarks on them, He begins to pray for the rest of the Church, as believers 

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on Him through the Apostolic word (20), asking that they might all be one, like the oneness between God and Him, to the end that the world might in the Millennium be brought to faith (21), since the honor of the high calling, which the Father offered Him, was by Him offered to them, to the end of their becoming one, as God and He are one (22), a oneness that He describes as of the same Spirit as was in the Father and Him, for their perfection as one, to the end that Millennially the world might recognize Him as God's Messenger and that God loves the Church with the same kind of love as He gives to Jesus (23). Then He expresses Himself as being in full accord with God's plan to make them His partners in glory, honor and immortality and witnesses of His high place in God's gift, because of God's pre-creation love for Him (24). He recognizes God's righteousness and, despite the world's not appreciating God, He has always appreciated Him, and was by His own recognized as God's Ambassador (25). Yea, He has revealed to them, not only God's appellation, but also His nature, character, reputation, office, honor and word, and will continue to do so, in order that they might receive from God the same kind, though not the same degree, of love as He, Himself, has received from God, and that His Spirit may be in them (26). 

What a revelation of our Lord's able and faithful advocacy is this prayer! For simplicity, sublimity, communion, skillfulness in intercession, love and candor it eclipses any other recorded prayer. This prayer entered as heavenly incense into the very presence of God; and the Church as a product of the entire Gospel Age is the Father's answer to it. This prayer, offered just before Jesus left the upper room for Gethsemane, is all the more noteworthy for its contents in consideration of this fact. It is a blessed exercise for the Lord's people to sink themselves in contemplation of this matchless High-Priestly prayer of Jesus, the Advocate of God's people, and draw from it comfort.

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Above we have commented sufficiently on Jesus' prayers in Gethsemane and will, therefore, pass on to a brief meditation on His prayers on the cross. The first of these is His prayer on behalf of all who had to do with His crucifixion, except Judas, who did know what he did: "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do" (Luke 23:34). Some ancient MSS. omit these words; but Biblical Numerics proves their genuineness. Hence it was actually offered by Jesus, and proves His loving and forgiving spirit toward His enemies. But in contemplating this prayer we are not to go to the extreme of believing that Jesus prayed for the forgiveness of the willfulness in the sin of those who had to do with His death. As Jesus did not atone for the willfulness in man's sins, a privilege given the Great Company, but for the Adamic features of mankind's sins, i.e., sins of ignorance or weakness or a combination of both, this prayer was not offered for the forgiveness of the willfulness in the sins of His mistreaters, for the simple reason that He knew that God would not forgive it, but require them to expiate it by stripes, and hence He would not ask God to forgive it, as a thing against His will. And history proves that God did not forgive that willfulness, but made them suffer 1845 years for it. Jesus' very words indicate that He prayed for forgiveness of the ignorance in their sin—"for they know not what they do"; for had they known it, as Judas knew it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory (1 Cor. 2:8). The fact of the affirmative answer to Jesus' pertinent prayer is God's Gospel-Age preservation of Israel as still beloved for the fathers' sakes, while making them expiate by terrible stripes their involved willfulness. This prayer is an impressive proof that Jesus practiced His teaching that we are to pray for them which despitefully treat and persecute us! 

Jesus' second prayer on the cross was: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Matt. 27:46; Mark 15:34). If He were a God-man He could not have offered this prayer; for, according to that theory, 

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He was God and could not forsake Himself. But being a human being, in whom His New Creature as priest resided and whose New Creature was sacrificing His humanity as the sin-offering, we can readily understand this cry. It occurred just before He died, and was uttered by His humanity, not by His New Creature, as Ps. 22:1-18 proves. As Adam's substitute He had in His humanity to suffer all things that Adam suffered for his sin. One of the things that Adam had to suffer for his sin was abandonment by God. Hence Jesus as Adam's substitute had to suffer this part of the curse. Hence for a while His humanity suffered what was the climax of evil to a perfect sinless human being—abandonment by God; for when the force of the terrible thought of being abandoned by God was realized by Him, He cried out as a sinless human being the acme of the grief of His human griefs: "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" His brain, now that He was in the extremity of death, having almost no more life-principle to operate its thinking processes normally, could not understand why He, who had perfectly fulfilled the natural law and the Mosaic Law, should have been forsaken by God. But, as often occurs with the dying, shortly His little remaining vitality returned to His brain, and He recovered from this deep agony. The supreme agony of Jesus' New Creature was experienced in Gethsemane, and the supreme agony of His humanity was experienced in one of His last moments on the cross, when He recognized that as a human being He had been forsaken by God! His final prayer, "Father, into thy hands I commend [the Greek word means deposit] my spirit" (Luke 23:46), contained two thoughts: (1) that He deposited with the Father His new-creaturely right to life, for God to keep it safely until the time for His resurrection, when God would return it to Him, and (2) that He deposited His human right to life, for its use by Him after His resurrection in the Divine nature, in an imputation for the Church during the Gospel Age, and for an application for the world in the Millennium; and He 

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made the deposit in the full assurance of faith that God would keep both deposits for their intended uses. Certainly, our study of Jesus' prayer participations proves that He took the sixth kind of steps of His narrow way in perfection. 

We now come to the seventh and final kind of steps that Jesus took while walking the narrow way: perfect endurance of evil, from and in loyalty to God's Word, for and while taking the preceding six steps. It will be noted that this step was not taken alone, apart from the other steps; but it was taken while He was taking the other six steps. In the beginning of taking each stage of the other six kinds of steps, He was spared the enduring of evil until He had progressed somewhat in developing such stage; then after that stage was somewhat developed, endurance of evil for and while taking it set in; for we are to remember that every one of these seven kinds of steps had various stages of development; and He was permitted to take part of each one of these stages of development, relatively free from trialsome experiences, until it was sufficiently developed to undergo testing amid untoward experiences which required endurance. And such experiences He drew upon Himself by His faithfulness in the exercise of each stage of development in each of the six kinds of steps. And all of His endurance, of course, came upon Him because of His loyalty to God's Word and flowed out of such loyalty. As faithfulness marked each stage of these six kinds of steps and marked every bit of progress in each stage of these steps and in the whole of each stage, and thus was an ever-present grace in His character, so that faithfulness marked every feature of the seventh kind of steps that He took in His traveling the narrow way. Faithfulness was, therefore, not only His universal grace, i.e., one that acted throughout every feature and expression of His disposition, thoughts, motives, words, acts, in His surroundings and amid the influences operating on Him in all six kinds of steps of the narrow way, but was also, in its universality, His final

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grace, permeating every stage of the seventh kind of steps of His narrow way. We cannot think of any experience of His narrow way's journey but was thoroughly permeated by His faithfulness. And that permeation was perfect, in the sense of being complete and flawless. It is one thing to take the first six kinds of steps amid favorable, easy, pleasant, agreeable, encouraging, friendly and toward experiences; but it is an entirely different thing to take them amid unfavorable, hard, unpleasant, disagreeable, discouraging, unfriendly and untoward experiences. And Jesus took them amid both kinds of such experiences; and it was in connection with the second kinds of experiences that He had to exercise endurance. Some details on these second kinds of experiences will serve to clarify the seventh kind of steps of His narrow way: perfect endurance of evil, from and in loyalty to God's Word, for and while taking the preceding six steps. 

Many were the kinds of experiences in endurance of evils that fell to His lot. One of these was losses. He lost His reputation, ease, safety, right of self-defense, possessions, strength, influence with many, health and life, and every one of His social privileges in human respects. His human qualities, in strong attachment to these, much stronger than fallen human qualities could feel attachment to them, made it hard for Him to endure these losses; yet He faithfully underwent them. Many were His disappointments. He felt deeply His disappointment over the little faith of some, the unbelief of many, the well-meant opposition of His family, the hostility of the priests, scribes and Pharisees, the fickleness of the multitude, the siftings that separated not a few from Him, the materiality of the public expectations as to the Messiah, the treachery of Judas, the forsaking of Him by all, the denial of Peter, the rejections by the clergy, the rulers and the people, and, above all, His temporary abandonment by God. Yet He endured all these things and did not let them sway Him from His loyalty. The restraints that the people's earthly-mindedness and the clergy's opposition 

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and persecution imposed upon Him were hard for Him to endure. The first restrained Him in what He could teach them, making Him restrain the free flow of His thoughts and words. The clergy's opposition and persecution imposed restraint on His speech, limited His sphere of activity, making Him avoid some places, and made Him guard His speech against their guile, e.g., the matter of paying tribute to Caesar or not; and the attempts to lynch Him at Nazareth by casting Him over a precipice and at Jerusalem by stoning restrained Him in His ministries in these places. The covetousness of those whose herds of swine were drowned restrained His labors in those regions. John's imprisonment and Herod's evil designs on Him likewise laid Him under restraint. Even the attempts to make Him a king imposed restraints on Him. These to one so zealous as He taxed His endurance. The faults of humanity, even the best representatives of them, as exemplified in His disciples, acted on His endurance. His perfect mental, artistic, moral and religious tastes as a human being must have made it hard on His humanity, as He contemplated human ignorance, error and superstition. Their bad tastes as to nobler things of beauty, harmony and sublimity in human relations must have grated on His refined human sensibilities. Their violations of the law of duty love to their fellows in home, society, state, business and sex must have been exceedingly trying on His moral sense. And, most of all, man's religious depravity, yielding to the creature the love and devotion that he owned to God, his blasphemies, hypocrisies, superstitions, errors, sectarianism, clericalism, formalism and lack of consecration and the rest of faith certainly rasped on His supreme love for, faith in, obedience to, and honor of God. All these faults gave Him as a perfect man and new creature much to endure. 

The hardships of Jesus' ministry gave Him very much to endure. His preaching and teaching so wearied Him that at times He had to withdraw from the people to rest and gain time to eat, which their

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thronging Him at times prevented (Mark 6:31, 32). His loss of sleep, His many journeys, taken in all kinds of weather by foot, and His taking out of His own body the vitality necessary to restore the depleted vitality of the sick, manned, halt and blind, thereby effecting the cure, to His own weakening, His watching and prayer, His bracing Himself against the contradictions of sinners—all gave Him hardships to endure, very hard on His endurance. Necessities of all kinds came upon Him; some were as to food, some as to rest, some as to foot journeys, in rain and shine, in heat and cold, by day and by night, all of these without the conveniences and inventions that reduce such necessities in modern life to a minimum, all quite taxing on His endurance. His temptations along the line of misusing His human rights, which were consecrated until and unto death sacrificially in God's service, required such careful watchfulness and fervent prayer as made Him exercise much endurance to cope with them. Particularly was this the case in His last 13 hours; for great was the concentration required to keep Himself aright amid them; and great was the exercise of will power necessary to meet successfully these temptations which, accordingly, made Him endure much in and from them. His sweating blood during the Gethsemane temptation and His agonizing cry, "My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" on the cross, are proofs of the great endurance that His temptations called upon Him to undergo. Opposition to His ministry, expressing itself in debates and contradictions, often accompanied by hatred, guile, and attempts at violence, gave Him much to endure; for these called upon Him to exercise properly controlled combativeness and aggressiveness, which, eating up much vitality, gave Him much to endure, e.g., His cleansing the temple twice, once shortly after His ministry began, and the other time shortly before its close, gave Him much exhaustion, as the Scriptures witness of at least the first cleansing, "The zeal of thy house hath consumed me." Consequently He had to 

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exercise endurance in those experiences. Any one who has had to undergo much opposition and contradiction and to meet them by counter opposition and refutation, as Jesus had to do in loyalty to His mission, knows how debilitating they are on nerve and vitality. Hence endurance is much taxed thereby. 

The siftings among His disciples that He had to witness, was another experience that required endurance on His part, to bear them. And to His kind, sympathetic heart these caused severe jolts, which He had to endure, e.g., the sifting that occurred in connection with His discourse in the synagogue in Capernaum on the manna, typical and antitypical. That discourse was too strong meat for many of His bearers, not a few of whom as a result gave up being His disciples. Their course deeply moved Him and prompted Him with deep pathos to ask the Twelve, "Will ye also go away?" How His sad heart must have been comforted by Peter's reply, "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou hast the words of eternal life." The sifting that turned the applauding multitude at His entrance into Jerusalem into the mob that demanded His crucifixion four days later was part of the experience that pained Him to the heart. Of course, such experiences called for the exercise of perfect endurance, in order for Him to be an overcomer therein. Alienations which He had to undergo certainly called upon Him to endure, if He would prove faithful therein. There was a slight alienation between Him and His mother, brothers and sisters, when they feared that He was beside Himself. He was pained as He saw it coming up in His relations with Judas. It began on a small scale with the priests, Pharisees and scribes, then increased, until within a few months before His death it had become intense. And this was hard to endure, but in faithfulness He bore it perfectly. This alienation in the last few months of His life grew into hatred, which became so extreme as to express itself in the injustices marking His arrest, trial before the Jewish court and trial before the Roman court, culminating 

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in its securing His condemnation to torture and the cross. He endured this hatred without returning it in kind; on the contrary, He cherished perfect love for His enemies; and to bear such hatred in the spirit of love, forbearance and forgiveness that He exercised showed endurance of evil in its highest perfection. The fickleness of the people and of His disciples was hard for Him to bear. At first He was very popular. His wonderful eloquence, kindly demeanor and great miracles made Him popular—so popular that at first the opposition of the clergy could not overcome it. So popular did He become that the people wanted to take Him by force and make Him a king. This was followed by siftings, as His dark speeches puzzled the people and sifted out others. The climax of this fickleness was evidenced within the short compass of four days, on the first of which they hailed Him as the Messiah and on the last of which they demanded and secured His crucifixion. His disciples' fickleness is manifest in all of them following Peter's example, pledging about 11 P. M. that they would go with Him into death and about 2 A. M. in danger's hour, not so extreme as death, forsaking Him. How pathetically did He express Himself over their leaving Him: "Ye … shall leave me alone" (John 16:32)! Judas' course was also one of fickleness trialsome to our Lord. This, too, tested His endurance, but in faithfulness He perfectly stood the test, as a faithful Overcomer. 

Sorrow was another part of the cup that He had to drain. One of the descriptions applied to Him by Isaiah was: "Man of Sorrows, acquainted with [literally, educated in] grief." We are not to think that it was only in connection with the final 13 hours of His earthly career that this description fits Him, though doubtless it applies then in more aggravated forms than before. All through His ministry sorrow gnawed at His tender, sympathetic heart. The many expressions of the curse with which He came into contact throughout His ministry made Him feel distress. The physical blemishes, so many examples of which He healed, made

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Him feel pain at heart for the ravages that the curse had wrought in the flesh of His flesh—humanity. This reached its culmination in the tears that He shed at Bethany, when He felt the griefs of the stricken family of His friends, when death had cut down Lazarus, His friend. The errors and ignorance of the lost sheep of the house of Israel wounded His tender heart and almost made it burst for grief at their fainting and undone condition. The opposition of the clergy and their ledlings was an added dreg in His cup of sorrow. A true lover of His people, His heart almost burst with suffering and His eyes overflowed with tears as He bewailed Jerusalem's blindness and its impending overthrow. So much did it pain Him that, on His way to Calvary He forgot His own condition and in commiseration of the daughters of Jerusalem who bewailed Him, He told them not to bewail Him, but their and their children's impending woes. Words fail us adequately to describe His sorrows in Gethsemane, before the Jewish and Roman courts, during His mockery and scourging, His journey to Calvary and His crucifixion, with its attendant shame, disgrace, pain and slow, lingering dying, culminating in death. He was indeed the man of sorrows, acquainted with grief! Never was there such sorrow experienced by any other mortal. And He endured it all faithfully and perfectly. Surely He endured the cross, despising the shame, and gained right-handship with God. 

He endured disfellowshipment from the house of Israel and outlawry from the judicial representative of Rome. The Israelites were God's chosen people; and it was by them considered the highest of earthly honors to be Israelites. They believed that this made them God's favorites; and to be excommunicated from Israel meant to them, not only the loss of that high favor, but additionally they believed that, if an Israelite would die excommunicate, without a reconciliation with and a reception again into Israel, he would have no part in the resurrection, but would remain dead forever. So did the clergy and their ledlings regard one 

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who died excommunicate. This, their view of Him, added sorrow to His other griefs; and when He became conscious of God's having abandoned His humanity, He perhaps had the same fear for Himself—that He would not return from the tomb. How great was the involved despair! He was the most obedient of subjects, and never lifted, nor would He lift even a finger against the powers that be. Despite this, He had to suffer the crucifixion sentence of a rebel, with its consequent outlawry, and as a result to endure the reproach and disapproval of the people heaped upon Him from their regarding Him as such. All of this because of His loyalty to the Word! Apart from the nervous prostration that He experienced in the garden, evidenced by His sweating blood, Jesus did not in His own person suffer any sickness of His own; but by taking out of His own body life-principle and giving it to those suffering from various sicknesses and infirmities to replace their depleted vitality, and thus effecting the cure, He suffered the weakness consequent on His giving up such vitality. Thus "Himself took our infirmities and bare our sicknesses." (Matt. 8:17). And certainly, this was very trialsome on Him, to bear which required much endurance on His part; and He exercised it in faithfulness perfectly. 

Persecution is mistreatment done one for his opinions and opinion-activities, especially for his religious opinions and activities. And Jesus had to endure such. Opening up a new dispensation, of necessity Jesus had to spread new views that seemed strange to those who sat in Moses' seat. And their accumulated errors, wrong practices and burdensome traditions being refuted by His new dispensational truths, and thus their prestige becoming undermined or in danger of becoming undermined, all of which their bigotry made them think to be of God's arrangement, they, of course, became His persecutors. They reproached Him to His face with all sorts of ugly, but untrue charges, even going so far as to charge Him with blasphemy. Behind His back they slandered Him widely. They

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reviled Him and stirred up the people against Him as a deceiver of the people, as an introducer of error among God's people. More than once they sought to put Him to death before His hour came. And, finally, their persecuting spirit became so exaggerated as to make them guilty of bringing Him to a martyr's death through the grossest breaches of Divine and human law. But He endured all His persecutions in the Holy Spirit in all perfection, never once returning reproaches with reproaches, revilings with revilings, threats with threats, misrepresentations with misrepresentations, slanders with slanders, malice with malice, hatred with hatred and violence with violence. In it all He preserved His faithfulness perfectly, and that under conditions of severest trials and temptations. His endurance often exercised itself amid the severest pains, even unto death. The rough laying hands on, and binding Him pained Him. His being smitten on the face and having hairs of His beard pulled out (Is. 50:6) increased this pain. His binding to be led away to Pilate, His scourging and crowning with thorns, His bearing the heavy cross on His lacerated back, the driving of the nails through His hands and feet, the jerk of the cross as it lit, falling to the bottom of the hole made for its support, the burning fever and thirst and the excruciating headaches of crucifixion, the paralyzing of His heart, proven by water and blood issuing therefrom—one and all gave Him severe pain; but in all faithfulness He bore it all perfectly. 

Let us sum up the evils that He endured, that we may obtain a bird's-eye view of them, the more succinctly to comprehend what He endured. They were losses, disappointments, restraints, the faults of others, hardships, necessities, temptations, opposition, siftings, alienations, fickleness of the people and even of the disciples, sorrow, disfellowshipment, outlawry, sickness, persecution and pain unto death. When the variety, the severity, the degree, the continuance, the concentration, the climax and the all-outedness of His trials are considered, it is easy to recognize that He

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was tested at all points of character to the very limit of the endurance of a flawless, perfect New Creature, as His humanity was tested beyond the power of endurance of a perfect human being's ability to preserve life, but not beyond its ability to remain sinless. And He did in His humanity endure sinlessly unto death, though His humanity could not stand the trials and yet remain alive. It was the victim that was in its sinlessness sacrificed unto death by the Priest, Christ's New Creature. How superhuman was the endurance of His New Creature! and how sinlessly human was the endurance of His humanity! We stand all astonished with wonder at His strength of character as a human being and as a New Creature. For His humanity to have endured all its sufferings and yet to have preserved its sinlessness in perfect human duty and disinterested love, is the height of human glory and sublimity. And for His New Creature to have endured all its sufferings and to have preserved, not only sinlessness, but perfect Divine duty and disinterested love, is the height of new-creaturely Divine glory and sublimity. Worthy is the Lamb that was slain! O, beloved brethren, let us consider Him, lest we become weary and faint in our mind. Behold the Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world! And behold Christ in His narrow way, that we may follow Him in our narrow way, as we take the seven kinds of steps that constitute our walking the narrow way after Him, our Forerunner. If we ever feel like relaxing our steps or even like ceasing to take them, let us consider Him, for our encouragement, as He took in faithfulness and perfection all seven kinds of steps of His narrow way: self-and world-denial, studying God's Word, spreading God's Word, practicing God's Word, watching according to God's Word, prayer according to God's Word and endurance of evil from loyalty to, and from harmony with God's Word. Then, if we so do, and also imitate Him in the same seven steps of the narrow way, we will overcome, as He also overcame.