desires openly to his heavenly Father, and spread his wishes unreservedly before Him. But like Jesus, he should do it all with an entire submission of will to the will of God. He should never forget that there may be wise and good reasons for his affliction. He shoxdd care- fully qualify every petition for the removal of crosses with the saving clause, " If thou be willing." He should wind up all with the meek confession, " Not my will, but thine be done."
Submission of will like this is one of the brightest graces which can adorn the Christian character. It is one which a child of God ought to aim at in everything, if he desires to be like Christ. But at no time is such submission of will so needful as in the day of sorrow, and in nothing does it shine so brightly as in a believers prayers for relief. He who can say from his heart, when a bitter cup is before him, "Not my will, but thine be done," has reached a high position in the school of God.
We see, thirdly, in these verses, an example of the ex- ceeding guilt and sinfulness of sin. We are meant to learn this in Christ's agony and bloody sweat, and all the mysterious distress of body and mind, which the passage describes. The lesson at first sight may not be clear to a careless reader of the Bible. But the lesson is there.
How can we account for the deep agony which our Lord underwent in the garden P What reason can we assign for the intense suffering, both mental and bodily, which He manifestly endured ? There is only one satis- factory answer. It was caused by the burden of a world's imputed sin, which then began to press upon Him in a peculiar manner. He had undertaken to be " sin for us»"