Thou great winsome God, we have seen Thy beauty in this Jesus. We have heard Thy music in His voice. We feel the strong pull upon our hearts and wills of Thy presence in Him. We cannot resist Thee if we would. We would not if we could. We are coming a-running to keep tryst with Thee under the tree of life thou art planting down in our midst. We will throw ourselves at Thy feet in the utter abandon of our strongest love, Thy volunteer slaves. III. The Great Experiences of Jesus' Life 1. The Jordan: The Decisive Start. 2. The Wilderness: Temptation. 3. The Transfiguration: An Emergency Measure. 4. Gethsemane: The Strange, Lone Struggle. 5. Calvary: Victory. 6. The Resurrection: Gravity Upward. 7. The Ascension: Back Home Again Until---- The Jordan: The Decisive Start <u>The Anvil of Experience.</u> Experience is going through a thing _yourself_, and having it go _through_ you. And "through" here means not as a spear is thrust through a man's body, piercing it, but as fire goes through that which it takes hold of, permeating; as an odor goes through a house, pervading it. A man _knows_ only what he experiences; what he goes through; what goes through him. He knows only what he is _certain_ of. And he is certain of only that which he _experiences_. It is one of the natural limitations of our humanity that it is so. Even the primary knowledge of space, and time, and so on comes in this way. A man knows space only by seeing or thinking through space. He knows time only by living consciously through some moments of time. Such knowledge is primary only in point of time. Experience is weaving fact into the fabric of your life. The swift drive of the double-pointed shuttle, the hard push of the loom back and forth _goes through you_. Experience is sowing truth in actual personal occurrences. The cutting, upturning edge of the plow, the tearing teeth of the harrow, go on inside your very being, while perhaps the moments drag themselves by, slow as snails. Experience is hammering truth into shape upon the anvil of your life, while the pounding of the lightning trip-hammer is upon your own quivering flesh. It is seeing that which is most precious to you, so dear as to be your very life, seeing that in a furnace, seven times heated, while you, standing helplessly by, hope and trust perhaps, and yet _wonder_, even while trusting, wonder _if_--(shall I say it the way your heart talks it out within?), or, at most, wonderingly watch with heart almost stopped, and eyes big, to see _if_ the form of the Fourth will intervene in _your_ case, or whether something else is the Father's will.