The Alaska citizen., 1916-08-21

was made perfect through suffer ing, and He has taught all. who will learn of Him. that they are
 thus to be made perfect. Ever mindful of our humanity He knew
 the best way to point Us to the
 only goal of perfection-tha found
 in the way He obtained through
 suffering His choice of the Via
 Dolorosa was fully befitting, and
 it became" Him The cross. in
 stead of being scandal. and an impeachment to Christianity. is it. glory The way by which our Lead CT has gained perfection is no less the way whereby His followers are thus t0 gain it. The way Of the inner life is made perfect through suffering" Who shall say that there were not other lesser ways which might have been chosen in this perfecting of the Captain of our Salvation? God chose this way. and in such a divine undertaking would it not have been unsuitable, insofar as our finite judgment can see, to have made the way less than the noblest and most glorious way pos sible2 The crown was to be found at the foot of the cross. The tears of suffering were to be made into the seed from which Heavenly flow CTS would grow The pearl of greatest price" could be set only in the gold refined in the crucible of Calvary. The perfect beauty of the sunset. when the landscape is changed to the tints of Heaven
 and the birds are singing their sweetest carols, and the flowers are lifting their fragrance bent low ill the myriad of rain drops, and the cleansed atmosphere is aglow with shimmering radiance, follows an af- ternoon of darkness and storm. On the cross We hear the voluntary
 alienation" that was to proceed the shout of eternal victory. It was worthy of God to thus consecrate His own Son through suffering
 And it is worthy of God to per feet His people in salvation as well as His Son in Leadership, through suffering When Jesus had respond ed to the choice of the way, He laid down a principle for all His fol lowers to correspond to the eternal fitness of the way of pain. This is clearly stated by the Master in the familiar words: If any man will come after me, let him deny him and follow Me- What God has cleansed that call not thou common"
 The risen Lord declares that His new apostle, Paul. had been chosen to show that in suffering man this method for Himself and now He chooses the same method for His disciple under His own guid- ance and supervision. Paul's suf- fering was not an experiment, bus demonstration T will show him how great things he must suffer for my names sake" Not only by way of example will l show him, but will demonstrate to the world that, by my own supervision, my disciple shall learn to glorify me in suffering. It has always stood peculiar to the enemies of Christianity that the progress of the gospel was to be through the pain of the apostle. It is the law of the universe. Pain and progress have ever walked hand in hand in the history of mankind Develop ment in material and spiritual things have not failed to cause pain of readjustment. Just as inven- tiOns, which are to be a lasting benefit to mankind, disturb the so- cial equilibrium and throw men out of employment, much to their men tai suffering, so in all the realms in which men think the law holds good. The great sounding board Of the world is sacrifice. The great disturber of the world peace is sel- fishness. Selfishness is sin sac rifice is the means of salvation.
 In the earth visit of Jesus the hour of His humiliation and the hour of His nxaltation were not far apart. Upon the end of the stem, lined with piercing thorns, grows the rose, beautiful and fra grant. There is no rose without it's thorn. At the end of every da- of life fraught with the petty trials, annoying circumstances, bitter pain, is the rose of Divine approval as the head is pillowed but pardoned. It was a day of suffering, but a dry worth while Remember ng tha, the Masters hours of suffering and icy We're not far apart, we would expect that it would be similar in tue life of His apostle Paul lays bare the deep places of his soul when he tells us that over against the sucpassing glory o' being caught