may we suppose was the agony of the holy Son of God — when all the sin of all the world was laid upon His head — when He felt Himself reckoned guilty, though without sin — when He felt His Father's countenance turned away from Him ? The agony of that season must have been*" something past understanding. It is a high thing. We cannot attain to a comprehension of it. We may believe it, but we cannot explain and find it out to perfection.
One thing, however, is very plain, and that is the im- possibility of explaining these words at all, except we receive the doctrine of Christ's atonement and substitu- tion for sinners. To suppose, as some dare to do, that Jesus was nothing more than a man, or that His death was only a great example of self-sacrifice, makes this dying cry of His utterly unintelligible. It makes Him appear less patient and calm in a dying hour than many a martyr, or even than some heathen philosophers. One explanation alone is satisfactory. That explanation is the mighty scriptural doctrine of Christ's vicarious sacri- fice and substitution for us on the cross. He uttered His dying ffly, under the heavy pressure of a world's sin laid upon Him, and imputed to Him.
Let us observe, lastly, in these verses, that it is possible to be forsaken of God for a time, and yet to be loved by Him. We need not doubt this, when we read our Lord's dying words on the cross. We hear Him saying to His Father, " Why hast thou forsaken me ?" and yet addressing Him as " my G-od." We know too, that our Lord was only forsaken for a season, and that even when forsaken He was the beloved Son in whom, both in His suffering and doing, the Father was " well pleased."