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the Divine Man are veiled in impenetrable darkness, and form a subject which must be approached with deepest awe. The man who boldly speculates on this has lost all reverence, while he who stands before it in reverential love will be able partly to comprehend its mystery.
(2) The second point is, that while the sufferings of Christ are awfully mysterious, we may obtain some dim insight into their character and source by considering that, though Divine, Christ was also perfectly human — subject to all the sinless laws of our nature. We are spirits in human forms ; we know how the spiritual can suffer in the material, and have thus one requisite for forming a feeble conception of the source of the Saviour's sufferings.
^ Luther was once questioned at table concerning the " bloody sweat" and the other deep spiritual sufferings which Christ endured in the Garden. Then he said : " No man can know or conceive what that anguish must have been. If any man began even to experience such suffering, he must die. You know many do die of sickness of heart ! for heart-anguish is indeed death. If a man could feel such anguish and distress as Christ felt, it would be impossible for him to endure it, and for his soul to remain in his body. Soul and body would part. To Christ alone was this agony possible, and it wrung from Him 'sweat which was as great drops of blood.' " ^
1. Was the Cup the physical pain of His sufferings ? He endured physical anguish to a degree inconceivable by us ; for if it be true that the more sensitive the spirit the more it weakens the bodily frame — that intense and protracted thought diminishes its vigour — that mental labours waste its energy and render it susceptible of the keenest suffering, then we may well suppose that Christ in the agony of the garden and the cross endured physical suffering to an inconceivable degree. But apart from the frequent occasions on which He showed that His spirit was troubled, we may perhaps perceive that bodily suffering was not the chief source of His sorrow, from one fact, namely, that physical suffering is endurable, and by itself would not have overwhelmed Him. Man can bear bodily anguish to almost any degree. Granting the consciousness of rectitude, you can devise no pain which cannot be borne by some men. * Watchwords JruTu, Luther, \1.
ST. MARK 417
^ I have been struck lately, in reading works by some writers who belong to the Komish Church, with the marvellous love which they have towards the Lord Jesua Christ. I did think, at one time, that it could not be possible for any to be saved in that Church; but, often, after I have risen from reading the books of these holy men, and have felt myself to be quite a dwarf by their side, I have said, " Yes, despite their errors, these men must have been taught of the Holy Spirit. Notwithstanding all the evils of which they have drunk so deeply, I am quite certain that they must have had fellowship with Jesus, or else they could not have written as they did." Such writers are few and far between ; but there is a remnant according to the election of grace even in the midst of that apostate Church. Looking at a book by one of them the other day, I met with this remarkable expression, " Shall that body, which has a thorn-crowned Head, have delicate, pain-fearing members? God forbid!" That remark went straight to my heart at once.^
2. Was the Cup the fear of Death ? We cannot conceive that the overwhelming sorrow of Jesus arose from the prospect of His approaching dissolution. For the suffering of men through fear of death may be ascribed to two causes, — either the sense of sin, or a doubt regarding the nature of the future life. We can well conceive how a man who has a half dread lest death may be the extinction of being, or who knows not whether futurity will bring him blessedness or woe, should be overcome with a strange horror of dying. To such a man the uncertainty is terrible, as he feels death may be but the escape from ills that are bearable to ills that may be infinite. But we cannot suppose that anything like doubt or a fear of the change of death for one moment overshadowed Jesus Christ. For, take one illustration out of many, and compare the language of Clirist with that of the apostle Paul in prospect of dying, and we shall perceive that dread of the mere change of death could not have affected Jesus. Paul on the very threshold of martyrdom wrote, " I am ready to be offered."
^ Celsus and Julian the Apostate contrasted Jesus, sorrowing and trembling in the garden, with Socrates, the hero of the poison cup, and with other heroes of antiquity, greatly, of course, to the disadvantage of the former. *' Why, then," said Celsus, scornfully alluding to Jesus' conflict in the garden, " does He supplicate help,
^ C. H. Spurgeou. ST. MARK — 27
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and bewail Himself and pray for escape from the fear of death, expressing Himself in terms like these, ' 0 Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me ' ? " The Emperor Julian, quoted by Theodore of Mopsuestia, uses, if possible, still more scornful language: "Jesus presents such petitions as a wretched mortal would offer when unable to bear a calamity with serenity, and although Divine, He is strengthened by an angel." To these heathen philosophers Jesus, trembling and agonised in Geth- semane, seemed to come far short of the great men of classic antiquity.^