brings us, when it declares that "the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." The word "came" is in itself suggestive of a previous sphere and state which He exchanged for our world, a sphere and state wherein no seeking nor saving was required, because there all live secure and blessed in God. But much more suggestive is this word when coupled with the name "Son of Man." It is not accidental that our Lord makes use of this self-designation in a connection like this. Elsewhere also we read that "The Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister and to give his life a ransom." And in a number of other passages the title is associated with his abode in the world of heaven, whence He descended to these lower regions of ours. In the prophecy of Daniel, where first the phrase "Son of Man" is used to describe the Messiah, twice a "coming" is affirmed of the Person so designated: "There came with the clouds of heaven One like unto a son of man, and He came even to the Ancient of Days." Now, while our Lord often identifies the "coming" thus described with his return to judgment, yet He likewise once and again retrospectively associates it with his first advent, when He came out of the glory He had with the Father before the world was. Being told, therefore, that it was the "Son of Man," who came to seek and to save, our first thought surely should be of that unspeakable grace of our Lord, who, being rich as God alone can be rich, yet for our sake became poor as sinful man only can be poor, that by his poverty we might be made rich. The depth to
