"My meat," said He, "is to do the will of Him that sent me, and to finish His work." In this simple purpose of the Saviour's mind and conduct we have a beautiful example. Nothing is so difficult, in days like these, as the maintenance of a pure and simple mind. Duplicity, deception, and selfishness pervade all ranks and conditions of men. You find them in the shop, in the market-place, in the family, and alas! in the church itself; and nothing but a resolute resistance, directed and sustained by the grace of God, can make the Christian proof against these evils. O imitate the Saviour. Mark out for yourselves a definite line of conduct, consistent with your Christian profession, and adhere to it firmly, in spite of custom or contempt, and in the prospect of death itself. Simplicity produces unity. There is nothing complex in the character and life of Christ. Every part is in perfect keeping with the whole. His teaching, His miracles, His conduct, illustrate each other, and combine to prove His true Messiahship, and exhibit the perfection of His life. If there were glaring inconsistencies in the history of Jesus--if the four Evangelists had written documents which could not be harmonized--if the moral teaching, and the moral conduct of Christ were at variance--if His pretensions were not justified by His works--then we might deny His Messiahship, and disregard Him as our Great Example. But it is not so. What He taught He practised; what He promised he performed; the work He came from heaven to accomplish He actually "finished," even to the shedding of His blood. "The cup which my Father hath given me to drink," said He, "shall I not drink it?" Thus the example of Christ forbids all fickleness and falsehood. It condemns all false appearances; and says to all His followers, with an authority and force which even the words themselves do not contain, "Let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil." What a wonderful and glorious change would the observance of such a rule effect in the church, and in the world! "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus."