According to the Wot/enb. Frwjm., tlic <ry of .Tesus w.i3 a despairing confession that His cai-: ' • : '' ' 1 nl failed
Him. But He had foreseen the cr^'— - ifliion.
Accordinf^to Renan, it was wniiiL.' r ;ri^'rati-
tudeofnien: * He repented sufTtr- _ .''The
/of;io?i is indubitably authentic ; it i- - ' ; s ' abso-
lutely credible passages '(Sucyc. Urn. art. -(..ospcis, J lo9).
If Jesus was indeed the eternal Son of God, ' bearing our sins in his body on the tree '(IP 2--'), it is in no wise strange that His experience at that awful crisis should lie beyond our ken ; but some light is shed upon the mystery by the profound truth, so often reiterated in the NT, that it was necessary for Him, in order that He mi.gbt redeem the children of men, to be identilied with them in every particular of their sorrowful condition. That He might 'redeem us from the curse of the law' it was necessary that He should be ' made a curse for us' (Gal 3'=); 'it behoved him in every respect to be made like unto liis brethren, that he might prove a merciful and faithful High Priest'; and it is because 'he hath himself .suffered, having been tempted,' that ' be is able to succour them that are being tempted' (He oi". 18) The uttonuost strait in human experience is the p.'issaL'f' tlirnii.:li fho valley of the shadow of death, anl nntliiiu l.iit the sense of God's presence can lIpm' ii- h.irror (cf. Ps 23^). Had Jesus enjovcil the imisriousness that God was with Him in that dread extremity, He would have been exempted from tlie most awful exjierienre of the children of men, and Hi- -ym|^athy Mould have failed us preei>cly where it is most' needed. And therefore the sense of the Father's presence was withheld from Kim in that awful hour.
It was not necessary to this end that the Father should be angry with Him. When the eternal Son of God became man. He was made in every respect like unto His brethren ; and what differ- entiated Him from them was the closeness of His • ImtU. ii. 10. s 11.
intimacy with God and the singular graces where- with God endowed Him. He had a unique ac- quaintance with the Father's purposes, but He liad this because the Father showed Him all things wliich He did (Jn 5™) ; He had marvellous wisdom, Init it was the Father's gift (?"*• ") : ' the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's that sent me ' (14-') ; He wrought miracles, but of Him- self He could do nothing (b^) : ' the Father abiding in me doeth his works' (14'"). 'God,' says St. Peter, ' anointed him with the Holy Spirit and with power,' and 'he went about doing good, and healing all that were under the tjTanny of the devil J because God was u-ith him' (Ac lO^"). Had the Father at any moment refrained from His ministration and left Him alone, Jesus would have been even as the rest of the children of men. .Vnd thus is revealed something of the mystery of the Dereliction. That He might be one with the children of men in their uttermost strait, tlie communion of God was withheld from His beloved Son, and He passed through the valley of the shadow of death alone, without that presence which had hitherto cheered and supported Him (cf. Jn 10^=).
LiTEEATCRK.— Bruce, Humiliation of Christ, Lect. vii. ; Dale,
.Mever on Mt '.;.«>; Expos. Tunes, iv. lisas) 611 tr.; tairbairn, ■Studies in the Life of Christ, ' The Crucifixion ' ; Mrs. Browning, Cuxcper-s Grave. DAVID SMITH.
DESERT See Wildeksess.
DESIRE. — ' Our nature corresponds to our ex- ternal condition. Without this correspondence there would be no possibility of any such tiling as human life and human happiness : which life and happiness are, therefore, a result from our nature and condition jointly : meaning by human life, not living in the literal sense, but the whole complex notion commonly understood by tlie.se words' (Butler's Analogy, pt. i. cli. 5, § 1). This is one of the observations of Bishop Butler in which he anticipates tlie conclusions of modern science. The nature of man corresponds to external nature ; organ and environment, faculty and its sphere of operation arc in correspondence. Man is in rela- tion to the world in which he lives, and his whole life is a process of adaptation to the life of the Uni- verse. All the endowments of his nature, whether intellectual, emotional, or volitional, whether they are bodily or mental, may fruitfully be looked at as teleological, as a means towards the great end of living. The teleological relat-on begins in the individual ere consciousness awakens in him, and he is so constituted that he acts in relation to the environment ere he can consciously adapt liimself to it. Even consciousness may be looked at as part of a process of adaptation. Bishop Butler also remarks that ' the several external objects of the appetites, passions, and afi'ections, being present to the senses, or offering themselves to the mind, excite emotions suitable to their nature' {I.e. ch. 4, § 1). In his view there is not only a general correspondence between man and his en- vironment, but a special adaptation between the several aspects of nature and the particular char- acteristics of man. Appetites have theii' objects, and these objects excite emotions in man suitable to their nature. Passions and affections have also their objects and tlieir suitable emotions. Every external object makes its own appeal, and tlie in- ward nature of man makes a response in corre- spondence with the appeal. Nor does the Bishop limit the meaning of the word 'object' to those things which appeal to man directly through liis senses, and which are presented to him, as it were, ready made. That there are such objects it is not