APPLICATION, 1. This representation of our Saviour’s character is peculiarly fitted to awaken our reverence, gratitude, and faith. As we trace our Saviour’s career of active benevolence, our minds are constantly impressed with his unselfishness and pity, his willingness and power to relieve the wants, heal the disorders, pardon the sina, of men. But when we behold him in suffering and anguish, and remember that he con- sented to this experience for our sake, for our salvation, how can our hearts remain untouched ? The innocent suffers in the place, and for the benefit of, the guilty. If we are the persons benefited, how sincere should be our thanksgiving, how lowly our -adoration, how ardent our faith, how complete our devotion! 2. In the demeanour of our Saviour in the garden there is much which we shall do well to imitate. His patient endurance of grief and trouble encountered in the path divinely appointed, the absence of any hatred or vindictiveness towards his foes, his forbearance with his unsympathizing friends, and, above all, his submissive prayer offered to the Father,—all these are an example which all his followers should ponder and copy. Whilst we cannot suffer as he did for the benefit of the whole human race, our patience under trouble, our pere severance in resignation, and consecration to the will of God, are qualities which will not only prove serviceable to ourselves, but helpful and advantageous to some at least over whom our influence may extend. 3. Nothing is more fitted to deepen our sense of the enormity of human sin, nothing is more fitted to bring our sinful hearts to penitence, than the contemplation of the dread scenes of Gethsemane. Jesus was oppressed by a burden of sin—the sin of others, which we may take as an example of the sins of mankind, and ourselves—all of which he then bore. The coldness and callousness of the eleven, the treachery of Judas, the cowardice of Peter, the malice of the priests, the fickleness of the multitude, the injustice of the Roman governor, the unspiritual and unfeeling insolence of the rulers,—all these in this awful hour pressed heavily upon the soul of Jesus. But these were only samples of the sins of humanity at large, of the sins of each individual in particular. He took all upon hig own great heart, and bore them, and suffered for them, and on the cross submitted to that death which was their due penalty. In what spirit should we contemplate these sufferings of cur Redeemer? Surely, if anything is adapted to bring us in lowly contrition before the feet of God, this scene is pre-eminently so adapted. Not indeed in abject, hopeless, terror, but with humble repentance and confidence. Jor the same scene that reminds us Of our sins, reminds us of Divine mercy, and of the Being through whose sacrifice that mercy is freely extended to every contrite and believing suppliant. This is the language of every Christian who is a spectator of these unparalleled woes: “ He loved me, and gave himself for me!” 4, And what more fitted to awaken within the breast of every hearer of the gospel a conviction of the greatness and sufficiency of the salvation which is by Christ unto all who believe? There is no extenuation of the seriousness, the almost desperateness, of the sinner’s case; for sin evidently needed, if this record be true, a great Saviour and a great salvation, The means used were not trivial to bring sinners to a sense of their sin and need, to make it consistent with the Divine character to pardon and accept the contrite sinner. “Ye were redeemed... with the precious blood of Christ!” Therefore, without hesitation or misgiving, receive Jesus as your Redeemer; “ be ye reconciled to God 1”
Vers. 43—52.— Betrayal and arrest. The agony and the betrayal are most closely related. Neither can be understood apart from the other. Why did Jesus so suffer in the garden, and endure sorrow such that there was none like it? Doubtless it was because he was anticipating the approaching apprehension, and all the awful events which it involved. His soul was darkened by the knowledge that the Son of man was about to be betrayed into the hands of sinners. And how came Jesus, when the crisia arrived, to meet his foes so fearlessly, and to bear his pain and ignominy with patience so inimitable. so Divine? It was because he had prepared himeelf in solitude, by
246 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [on. x1v. 1—T72,
meditation, prayer, and resolution; so that, upon the’approach of his foes, his attitude was one of meekness and of fortitude. We observe here—
L AN EXHIBITION OF HUMAN SIN. It seems as if the iniquity of mankind reached its height at the very time when the Saviour bore it in his own body, in his own soul, As the awful and sacred hour approached when the Good Shepherd should lay down his life, sin appeared almost omnipotent; the Lord confessed as much when, upon his apprehension, he said to his captors, “ This is your hour, and the power of darkness.” Observe the combination of the various forms of sin manifested on this occasion. 1. The malignity of the conspirators is almost incredible. The chief priests, scribes, and elders had long been plotting the death of the Prophet of Nazareth. It had all along been the case that his truthful and dignified assertion of his just and lofty claims, and the performance of his best deeds, excited their worst feelings. ‘They had especially been angered by his miracles of healing and help; both because they led the
ople to regard him with favour, and because they were a rebuke to their own