2. What did the sorrow of Christ consist in ? Physical pain formed one of its ingredients ; but we should not allow our minds
1 J. Stalker, The Life of Jesus Christ, 23.
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to dwell too much upon that. It is a stupendous mistake to enlarge so much as some poets and painters and emotional pulpit rhetoricians have done upon the mere physical accompaniments of the death of Jesus Christ — the crown of thorns, the Koman scourging, the pierced hands and feet. It is true that the Roman scourging (which, it will be remembered, was inflicted more than once upon the Apostle Paul) was one of the most terrible tortures ever invented by the cruelty of man ; and crucifixion was a most agonizing and lingering method of killing. The agony in the garden was appalling; but we have our Lord's own testimony when He was enduring it that it was not merely or chiefly physical pain that bowed Him to the ground. His words were, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." And we cannot believe that His mind and heart were overwhelmed simply by the fear of crucifixion. Peter and others of the disciples of our Lord have been crucified, and have suffered greater physical torture, in the form of punishment, than the Blessed One Himself ; for in His case the end came sooner than usual, and the authorities were astonished to discover that He was so soon dead. We know that Socrates, the Athenian philosopher, faced his martyrdom with perfect composure, and declined to avail himself of the escape from prison which his friends had planned. We know also that a multitude of Christian martyrs have with sublime fortitude given their bodies to be burned, and have confessed, amidst their dying agonies, that they received from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself the strength which enabled them to endure. No one of the four Evangelists lays any emphasis upon the bodily sufferings of Jesus. They say little of the physical pains of Christ ; and Nature drew a veil over the face of the sun during His last agony. How irreverent it is of any man to try to snatch that veil away and let in the vulgar glare of day upon the agony of Christ ! To dwell upon the details of His physical sufferings is to divert the thoughts of men from the main source and character of His sufferings.
^ Every suggestion of the unseen is precious, every door opening into it. And ah ! Protestant as I am, even image-worship does appeal to a part of man's nature. There is an old stone of granite by the roadside, as you wind up the hill at old Buda, upon which a worn and defaced image of our Saviour is cut, which
1 68 THE PERFECTION OF SORROW
I used often to pass. Below the granite block are the words (from the Vulgate version of Lamentations i. 12) — " 0 vos omnes qui transitis per viam, attendite et videte si est ullus dolor sicut dolor meus." The thorough woe-begoneness of that image used to haunt me long: that old bit of granite — the beau-ideal of human sorrow, weakness, and woe-begoneness. To this day it will come back upon me, and always with that dumb gaze of perfect calmness — no complaining — the picture of meek and mute suffer- ing. The memory of it comes up fresh as when I first looked upon it.1
II.
1. The necessity of sorrow in the life of Christ came from the spiritual character of His work. From the point of view of the disciples, and the popular conception of the Messiah, a certain amount of conflict and hardship could readily be allowed for. The Eoman could not be expected to yield without a blow ; and as it became clear that opposition from within His own nation was to be expected, temporary disappointments and misunder- standings would fall within the disciples' scheme of the future. They were ready for the hardships of an earthly struggle, i.e., to drink His cup as they understood it. They were not prepared for the cross, because they had not a deep enough conception of His work. Not Eoman or Sadducee, but sin, was the enemy ; Christ's aim was the establishment of a spiritual and universal empire. The national mission of the Son of David had passed into the world-wide mission of the Servant of Jehovah, and the means which might have sufficed for the one would no longer serve the other. His work moved on a higher plane, and the weapons of His warfare must be more mysterious and spiritual than any outward miracle. These weapons were the attractive and atoning power of service and sorrow. The cross, the life of service, and all it implied of sorrow and suffering, were necessary because He had come to give His life a ransom for many.
Tj It was with a great rush of emotion that Jesus first announced the coming of the kingdom. His message was em- phatically the " Gospel " of the kingdom of God. He commenced, like John, with announcing simply that the kingdom was at hand ; and there is no reason to doubt that there existed in the
1 "Rabbi" Duncan, in Colloquia Peripatetica, 41.
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