Matt. xxvi. 56. Then all the Disciples forsook him, andjled.
NEXT to the presence of God, there is nothing so comforting in affliction as the sympathy of friends. The kind offices of those we love afford us tenfold pleasure in those seasons when trouble has depressed
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our spirits. On the other hand, the unkindness of professed friends is a most painful aggravation of any sorrow which we may be called to endure. The accumulated losses of Job were sustained by him with a holy fortitude and resignation : but, when he found that he was forsaken by his dearest friends, and that they from whom he might have expected pity became his vehement accusers % he could no longer suppress the painful feelings of his mind. It must also have been a bitter ingredient in our Saviour's cup, that in the hour of his extremity he was abandoned by his own disciples, who were bound by every tie to follow him even unto death. We cannot even read the record in our text without a mixture of indignation and grief. It forces however upon our minds many profitable reflections, some of which will serve as the basis of our present discourse.
I. How weak is the resolution of fallen man !
[Man, as originally formed by God, was cajiable of carrying into execution whatever his judgment approved or his will decreed : but it is far otherwise with us in our present state. Any one who had heard the firmness with which the Disciples expressed their determination to cleave unto their Lord, and " to die with him rather than deny him," would have supposed it impossible that their resolution should be shaken. But behold, in the time of trial they all forgot their vows, and fled from him with precipitation and terror. The intrepid Peter, the beloved John, the bold and ambitious James**, are weak as the rest of their brethren.
The resolutions which we also form on particular occasions appear immoveable. How earnest are many, when lying on a bed of sickness, to redeem their time ; and how determined, if ever they should recover, to devote the remainder of their lives
to God ! Yet they are no sooner restored to health
than they go back to their former habits and companions, and
leave to a distant period the performance of their vows
It is thus also with many after an awakening discourse : they see how vain it is to render unto God a mere formal or hypo- critical service ; and they resolve that henceforth they will offer him an undivided heart But their hearts are not stead- fast in the covenant which they make ; and their lives are little else than a series of reformations and declensions without any solid improvement in the divine life ]
a Job xix. 13, 14. " Mark x. 38, 39.