sufferings by bloody sweat, sti'ong crying and tears. As man He thirsted on the cross, and said, ** My God, why hast thou for- saken me ? " The infinite merit of His passion unquestionably arose from the inseparable union of His godhead and His man- hood. But the nature which is most prominently brought before us in His passion, is His nature as man.
43. — [TJiere appeared an angel."] This circumstance in our Lord's agony in the garden is only mentioned by St. Luke. It has given rise to many strange comments, and has even stumbled some Christians. It is a curious fact, that in the early ages ot Christianity, this verse and the following one were entirely omitted in some copies of St. Luke's Gospel. It was ignorantly supposed that they were so derogatory to our Lord's dignity, and so favourable to the Arian heresy, that they were not genuine. The omission was entirely unjustifiable. There is an immense l)reponderance of evidence to show, that the two verses were as much inspired as any other part of the Gospel, and were really written by St. Luke. The omission, moreover, was entirely needless, and the fears which gave rise to it, were fears without cause.
The object of the verse appears to be to supply additional proof that our Lord was really and truly man. As man. He was for a little time "lower than the angels." (Heb. ii. 9.) As man. He condescended to receive comfort from angelic ministry. As man, He was willing to receive an expression of sympathy from angels, which the weakness of His disciples prevented them from giving. The reality of weakness is never so shown as when a person becomes the object of sympathy and help. As very God of very God, and Lord of angels and men, Jesus of course needed no angel to strengthen Him. But as very man, in the hour of His greatest weakness, He allowed an angel to minister to Him.
The German notion that no real angel appeared to our Lord, and that this whole transaction took place in a trance or vision, is utterly untenable. At this rate we might explain away every fact in the Bible.
Lightfoot and others have a theory that the devil appeared to our ford in the garden, in a visible horrible form, anS that this angel appeai*ed speciAly to strengthen our Lord against him. There seems nothing to justify the theory, and nothing to be gained if we admit it.
44. — [In an agony, — dc, dc] There can be little doubt, that at this mysterious moment, our Lord's distress of body and mind was most intense and bitter. It is plain, that Satan was pe^ mitted to harass and assail him with peculiar and special temptations. The prince of this world had indeed come. It is per&ctly reasonable to suppose that as man, our Lord felt that