(jod was so o\ersliadowed and overwhelmed by His consciousness of the sin and the consequent curse of the race which He so loved as to make Himself one with it, that He dreaded in Geth- semane to lose, and did on Calvary lose for a moment, the comfort and help of His Father's love. In this experience He exhibited the an- tagonism of God and sin, the necessary connexion between the expulsion of God and the invasion of sin in any consciousness, since His self-identifica- tion -with sinful man involved His self-isolation from the Holy Father. This, then, was the agony in Gethsemane, such a sense of the sorrow, shame, and curse of mankind's sin as His very own as became a dread of the loss of God's fatherly pres- ence. Although He at first prayed to be delivered from this, to Him, most terrible and grievous ex- perience, yet He afterward submitted to God's -will, as God's purpose in the salvation of mankind was dearer to Him than even the joy of His filial communion with God His Father. In this sur- render He was endowed with such strength from alx)ve that He finished the work His Father had given Him to do, and in His obedience even unU) death ottered the sacrifice of His life, which is a ransom for many, and the seal of the new covenant of forgiveness, renewal, and fellowship with God for all mankind. See also art. Dekeliction.
Literature.— The standard Commentaries and Lives of Christ ; Hastings' DB ii. Tlif.; Jonathan Edwards, Works, ii. SOUff.; Expos. Times, vi. [1894-1895], 433 f., 52-3 ; Expositor, 3rd str. v. ISOff.; Fairbairn, SdirficsiH the Life of Christ, 'Gethsemane,' where the explanation umubered (3) above is fully elaborated.
Alfred E. Gakvie. AGRAPHA.— See Sayings.
AGRICULTURE — The influence of the physical and climatic characteristics of a land ujion the character of its people has been a favourite theme with many Avriters. But we are more concerned here -with another marked feature— the profound influence exerted by the occupations of a people on their manner of thought and their modes of expressing it. Nowhere was this subtle influence more manifest than in the case of the Hebrews. Their occupations w ere largely determined by the characteristics of tlie land they
their thought and the 1:
were equally mouMiMl I
1, The place vf A;
inhabited, but -I- tliat was its vehicle upations. ia the life and thoucfht of the 7/. /-■.»■-.-- from the first the Hebrews were a pastoral, and from vei-y early times an agricultural people ; and these twin employments have lent their colour and tone to their literature, and shaped their profoundest thoughts and utterances regarding God and man. God is the Shepherd of Israel (Ps 80>) ; Israel is ' the people of liis pasture, and the sheep of his hand *^(95', cf. 74' 79'' IW). God is the Husband- man ; Israel is His vineyard (Is 5'"-). God is the Ploughman ; Israel is the land of His tillage (Is'28^"-, cf. ICo3«).
When we turn to the Gospels we find the same stream of thought in full flow. The highest Christian virtue is enforced by appeal to Him who ' maketli liis sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust' (Mt 5*=). The kingdom of God is set forth under such emblems as the sower going forth to sow (IZ^"), the wheat and the tares "rowing to- gether until the harvest (v. -■'"'•), the lord of the vineyard going out early in the morning to hire labourers (20"^), or sending to demand its fruits (21»''). Christ compares Himself to the shepherd who seeks his lost sheep until he finds it (Lk IS-"), or lays down his life for the sheep (Jn 10"). The multitude are, to His compassionate eve, as ' sheep not having a shepherd' (Mt 9^, Mk 6"). The
AGEICULTURl!:
AGRICULTURE
world appears to Him as a great field ' white unto harvest' (Jn 4'^), and awaiting the labour of the reapers (iVIt 9"'-). His relation to His disciples is expressed under the figure of the vine and its branches (Jn W-) See also art. HUSBANDMAN.
Noteworthy also is the place assigned by Biblical writers to the cultivation of the soil. It is re- presented as the duty of the first man. Adam, placed in the Garden of Eden, is 'to dress it and to keep it' (Gn 2"*) ; driven from it, he is sent ' to till the ground from whence he was taken ' (3=^). To Noali the promise is given that ' while the earth reraaineth, seedtime and harvest . . . shall not cease ' (8~). The land of promise is ' a land of wheat and barley ' (Dt 8"). The Golden Age will be a time when men 'shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks,' and ' they shall sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree' (Is 2'', Mic 4^-''). The glad- ness of the Messianic age is ' joy according to the joy in harvest' (Is 9^).
Nor was it only in their conception of the past and their anticipation of the fiiture that the in- lluence of agriculture made itself felt : it was the very foundation of their national and religious life. A pastoral age, it is true, preceded the agricultural, and the patriarchs are represented, for the most part, as herdsmen rather than culti- vators (Gn 37'^ 47^) ; and even as late as the be- ginning of the settlement in Canaan, the trans- Jordanic tribes are said to have had a great multitude of cattle (Nu .32'). But, on the other hand, we learn that Isaac, who had gone to Gerar, ' sowed in that land, and found in the same year an hundredfold' (Gn 26'-); while the first dream of Joseph shows that if he did not actually follow, he was at least familiar with, agricultural pur- suits (37'"'). But it was not till after their con- quest of the Land of Promise that the Hebrews became an agricultural people on any large scale. Prior to that time, however, agriculture was highly developed among the Canaanites (Dt 8*) ; and it may have been from the conquered race that they acquired it. Once learned, it became the staple industry of the country.