want may not be granted at once. The thing that tries us may never be removed and taken away. But the mere act of pouring out our hearts, and unbosoming our- selves at a throne of grace will do us good. The advice of St. James is wise and weighty : " Is any afflicted ? Let him pray." (James v. 13.)
Let us mark, in the third place, what a striking exam- ple our Lord gives us of submission of will to the will of God. Deeply as His human nature felt the pressure of a world's guilt, He still prays that, " if it were possible," the hour might pass from Him. " Take away this cup from me : nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt."*
* Men are so apt to run into error on the subject of the divine and human natures in Christ, that the following quotation may be worth reading.
" There are two distinct wills in Christ But although they be truly distinct and different one from the other, yet they are not contrary one to the other, but they are subordinate each to other ; the human will of Christ being always subject to His divine will, and most ready to be ordered and ruled by it. Therefore here we see that He doth submit His will, as He was man, to the divine will of God the Father, which divine will of the Father was also Christ's own will. This truth we are to hold and maintain against those old heretics, which were called Monothelites, because they held there was but one kind of will in Christ, namely His divine will. This heresy sprung up in the East- ern church about 600 years after Christ ; and it did very much mo- lest and trouble the church for many years. It was a branch of the gross heresy of Eutyches which sprung up 200 years before. This Eutyches confounded the two natures in Christ, holding that as there was but one Person after the personal union, so there was but one nature in Christ, viz. the divine nature, the human nature being swal- lowed up. To maintain this the better, his followers maintained that Christ had but one kind of will. This heresy was condemned by the sixth general council at Constantinople, as well as by other ancient councils. And the fathers of the church in those times, did confute it by these very words of our Saviour which we have now in hand." — Petler on Mark.
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We can imagine no higher degree of perfection than that which is here set before us. To take patiently- whatever God sends — to like nothing but what God likes — to wish nothing but what God approves — to prefer pain, if it please God to send it, to ease, if God does not think fit to bestow it — to lie passive under God's hand, and know no will but His — this is the highest standard at which we can aim, and of this our Lord's conduct in Getlisemane is a perfect pattern.
Let us strive and labor to have "the mind that was in Christ" in this matter. Let us daily pray and endeavor to be enabled to mortify our self-will. It is for our happiness to do so. Nothing brings us so much misery on earth as having our own way. It is the best proof of real grace to do so. Knowledge, and gifts, and convictions, and feelings, and wishes, are all very un- certain evidences. They are often to be found in uncon- verted persons. But a continually increasing disposition to submit our own wills to the will of God, is a far more healthy symptom. It is a sign that we are really " grow- ing in grace, and in the knowledge of Jesus Christ."
Let us mark, lastly, in these verses, how much infirmity may he found even in the best Christians. We have a painful illustration of this truth in the conduct of Peter, James, and John. They slept when they ought to have watched and prayed. Though, invited by our Lord to watch with Him, they slept. Though warned a short time before that danger was at hand, and their faith likely to fail, they slept. Though fresh from the Lord's table, with all its touching solemnities, they slept. Never was there a more striking proof that the best of men are but men,