You have read a story of Sir Isaac Newton, which, whether it be historically true or false, well illustrates, for it is very like a man, what is here brought to your attention, as showing how Jesus differs from a mere man. When Sir Isaac had nearly finished his deep and long-continued studies of the laws which govern the movement of the heavenly bodies, and was near enough the end of his great mathematical calculations to foresee the result and to realize that it would justify his sublime speculations concerning the controlling law of the material universe, he became so excited--cold philosopher and trained to self-control as he was--that he could not complete the simple processes involved in his formula. It was necessary to call in a friend to finish the easy work for him; for the moment the great astronomer was out of balance. Sir Isaac’s was exactly a mere man’s way; great inventors have gone mad when they were within one step of triumph. But Jesus was calm when speaking, in the simplest way, of the greatest truths of life and the most stupendous events that await eternity for their unfolding. No wonder those who, on one occasion, were sent to lay hands on him had only this answer when they returned to their masters without him: “Never man spake like this man.” CHAPTER IX. THE SON OF MAN AND SIN. When we compare the work Jesus proposed to do in the world with the schemes of earth’s greatest ones we cannot classify him with mere men. What did he think he came into the world to do? What did he consider his mission to be? We cannot be in the least doubt for the answer; there was no confusion in his thought, no ambiguity in his words. If we ask what Jesus thought his mission was we will easily find the answer--unparalleled by the thought of any, absolutely unique, stupendous, but as unmistakable in meaning as simple in the form of expression. We will answer in his own words: “The Son of man is come to seek and to save that which is lost.” “I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” “God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” “I came not to judge the world, but to save the world.” More forcibly, if possible, than in his words, his conception of his mission is shown by his work, his living, and his dying. St. Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles, gives us in a simple statement the whole history; it is, in a line, the biography of the God-man, “He went about doing good.”