And when words have failed, He takes up His parable; “_My Father worketh, and I work_.” The lifework of Jesus is, He tells us, the Father’s work made visible. Gentle, healing Hands were laid upon the suffering; sufficient food was provided for the hungry; Feet, never weary, travelled hither and thither on errands of pity; Arms were open to gather in the little children; Eyes spoke of love and understanding where words missed their object; happy human fellowship was offered: and all was a parable of the work of the Father-God. [Sidenote: The Father-Gift] It was not a new thought to His hearers that the profoundest attribute of God is holiness, and that distinctions between right and wrong become acute in His presence; but it was a revelation to which the world of men has not yet become accustomed that the Father is so set upon goodness in the children who had miserably failed of it, that no sacrifice was too great, _even for Him_, to secure it; and that this austerity towards evil and purpose to subdue it, was the Father love in its highest exercise. In the Cross, symbol at once of man’s sin and of His own grace, our Lord is still speaking the parable of the Father’s “work.” “The Father worketh, and I work.” “God so loved the world that He gave”—JESUS. Muhammad felt after God, and attained the idea of His apartness, aloneness, immensity. Jesus knew God, and revealed to us that man had never been, and never could be, outside of God; and that the only true home of man’s spirit is in His presence, under His gracious rule; for man and God are actually _akin_, first by nature, doubly so through His Revealer and our Brother, Jesus Christ. _Therefore, we “believe in God the Father Almighty, AND in Jesus Christ His only Son our Lord.”_ 3. THE CHRISTIAN LIFE. “_Christianity is the bearing in upon us of a character until we find the character irresistible._” The study of the Muslim ideal of life throws into prominence several too-rarely considered peculiarities of Christ’s ideal life. [Sidenote: At-one-ment of Life] 1. There is, in Christ’s view, no division between the secular and the religious life. The beginning of His revelation of the Father’s work was His meeting of a difficulty at a village wedding feast, which thereupon became a sacrament; and from that time onward we find no trace of any distinction in His own Life or in His teaching. To Him all life was sacred; and consisted in loyalty to the Father, and service of the brethren, one undivided duty. “Inasmuch,” He taught, “as ye did your unconscious daily brotherly task, _you did it to Me_;” and “_I and the Father are One_.” [Sidenote: Freedom]