(3) The true heart of a son, whereby we cry, " Abba, Father," is due to the gift of the Spirit. Look at St. Paul's argument to the Galatians. There he states two things : first, that when the fulness of time came, God sent forth His Son into the world ; second, that because we are sons, God sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts.^
2. Our Lord's appeal to God as " Father " was evidence that He was not, even then, forsaken in His humanity. He experi- enced the deep depression, the spiritual eclipse, the midnight darkness, under which we may speak as if utterly desolate. But a feeling of forsakenness is no proof of the reality. As the sun is not altered when eclipsed, so God was as near in Gethsemane as on the Mount of Transfiguration. The Sufferer expressed this confidence when calling on Him as " Father." God has forsaken no one who utters this cry. The appeal is the response to His own call. If as a child I say, " My Father," He as Fathex has
* Expository Times, ax, 358.
414 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
already said, " My child." Mourning after an absent God is an evidence of love as strong as rejoicing in a present one.
Speak to me, my God; And let me know the living Father cares For me, even me ; for this one of His choice. Hast Thou no word for me ? I am Thy thought. God, let Thy mighty heart beat into mine, And let mine answer as a pulse to Thine. See, I am low ; yea, very low ; but Thou Art high, and Thou canst lift me up to Thee. I am a child, a fool before Thee, God; But Thou hast made my weakness as my strength. I am an emptiness for Thee to fill; My soul, a cavern for Thy sea.
"Thou makest me long," I said, "therefore wilt give; My longing is Thy promise, 0 my God."^
I.
His Assurance of the Father's Ability.
"All things are possible unto thee."
The words are without reservation and they must be accepted unreservedly. All things are possible to God always. There is no question of His power under any circumstances. The only question is as to His will " All things are possible unto thee."
It was so with our Lord on earth. " If thou wilt," said the leper, " thou canst make me clean." His answer was, " I will." Whereupon the leprosy departed from the man.
This is a most comfortable doctrine. There is nothing impossible with God. We never have to do with a baffled, helpless God. He is always able. And so, as the only doubt we can ever have about Him is His willingness, we know that whatever we do not receive is something that would not be good for us to receive. For we know that His will is to do us good. We know that He will never withhold any good thing from them that love Him.
The cup which was put into the hands of our Lord in ^ George Macdouald.
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ST. MARK 415
Gethsemane was so bitter that if He had not known absolutely that all things are possible to God, He would have thought that the Father could not help offering it. And that is actually how we look upon it. There was no other way, we say. We limit God's resources. We curtail God's power. We may say that there was no better way ; for that is self-evident. He took this way of redeeming us because it was the best way — the way of love. But if it were not that His will always is for the best — the best for us and the best for our Saviour — who can tell that He would not have chosen another way than this strange way of agony and bitter tears ?
It was the best way for our Saviour. When He was able to say, "Not my will but thine," He entered into rest. He despised the shame. And it is the best way for us. " Father, if it be possible," we say. But let us never, never end with that. For it is possible if it is His will. Let us always add — " Nevertheless, not my will but thine be done."
II.
His Petition.
"Remove this cup from me."
What was the Cup ? In considering this question, says E. L. Hull, we have to take account of two things at the outset :
(1) On the one hand, we must never forget that the Buffering of Christ is a mystery too profound for us ever fully to understand. The very fact that the Divine One could suffer is, in itself, beyond our comprehension. The fact that Christ's sufferings were vicarious, invests them with still deeper darkness. That in Christ the Divine was manifested in a human form, and was thus connected with the human, is the source of the profoundest mystery in His sufferings. We know that in man the soul and body mysteriously affect each other ; that the agony of the spirit will, by some inexplicable method, shatter the material frame ; but what effect the manifestation of Divinity had on a frail human body we can never understand. Thug it must not be forgotten that the sufferings of Christ as