Vers. 26—42. Parallel passages: Matt. xxvi 830—46; Luke xxii. 89—46; John xviii. 1.——The agony in Gethsemane. I. ScENE AND SEVERAL CIRCUMSTANCES CON- NECTED WITH THE AGONY. 1. Anticipation. From the entrance of our Saviour upon his public ministry his life was one of continued trial. All along symptoms of the approaching crisis appeared, all along the bitter cup was steadily filling, all along the clouds were gradually gathering. At length, towards the close of his career, the storm- clouds in all their fury burst upon him. After his last entrance into Jerusalem the bitter cup became brimful, and he was now to drink and even drain it to its very dregs, The anticipation of those sufferings he was to undergo had made a deep impression on his mind; forebodings of them had frequently disturbed his repose, dread of them over- whelmed his spirit. He foresaw all, he anticipated all, he in a measure foretasted all; accordingly, several days before his passion, he cried out, “ Now am I troubled; and what shall Isay? Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I to this hour;” or, a3 some erroneously read it, “ What shall I say? Shall I say this, Father, save me from this hour?” 2. Preceding circumstances. On examining the circumstances that precede the agony, we find that the Wednesday and the Thursday before the Passover our Lord himself spent at Bethany, while on the latter day his disciples went to Jerusalem to engage an apartment and prepare a lamb for the coming solemnity, When the evening of the day was come, Jesus also repaired to Jerusalem. Ha there joined the disciples,he sat down with them to the sacred feast which had been prepared, and which he purposed to render still more sacred by engrafting thereon (as we have seen) the new festival to be observed in remembrance of himself, a8 a memorial of his death, and in exhibition of his body broken and blood shed for many for the remission of sins. Such were the order and connection of events. The Passover had been observed—that Passover which he had desired so earnestly to eat with his disciples, The sacrament of the Supper had been instituted by our Lord, and kept for the | first time in company with his faithful followers. Subssquently he had delivered that touching and pathetic, yet most consolatory and truly svblime discourse recorded in the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth chapters of the Gosyei of St. John. He had poured forth, out of the fulness of his heart, that fervent and beautiful prayer contained in the seventeenth chapter of the same Gospel. He had warned the disciples against d i him in the hour of temptation. He had selected three of them specially to attend him in his sorrows. Then, late at night, after delivering the discourse and praying the prayer and making the arrangements referred to, he left the city for the scene of his agony, 3. The scene. The place where this occurred was a spot often frequented by our Lord and his disciples. On this account St. Luke does not designate the place by name; he merely says, “ When he was at the place.” St. John accounts for the traitor’s know- ledge of the place from its being a frequent resort of the Saviour: “Judas also,” he saya, “knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with his disciples.” The
oH. xIv. 1—72.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 289
place was a garden, little more than half a mile from the city of Jerusalem, and only a stone’s throw from the brook Kidron, situated on the western slope and near the foot of the Mount of Olives. That garden had not been laid out for the production of herbs, but as an olive plantation. The name of that garden, as given by St. Matthew and St. Mark, was Gethsemane, so called from two words meaning “ oil-press.” As just intimated, it appears to have been a frequent and favourite resort of our Lord and his disciples. To that spot he often went as a meeting-place with his disciples scattered through the city during the day, according to the meaning assigned by some to the term ovvixm, rendezvoused. Thither the Saviour often retired from the world, and to be alone with God. Thither he often repaired for prayer and meditation. There he often spent the night in intercourse with Heaven. There, amid the deep gloom of that solitary plantation, was the place of the memorable and most affecting scene to which this section refers. That garden, if tradition has rightly marked the site, remains to the present day. That enclosure still stands, surrounded by a wall formerly of loose stones but now plastered and whitened, and contains eight large and venerable olive trees. Up to the present time it is a gloomy and forsaken place, yet from its associations it must ever be to the Christian a sweet and sacred spot. To this day it is a peculiarly sombre as well as solitary place, with that rude stone wall enclosure and those grey old olive trees. It was here an event took place the full purport of which eternity perhaps can alone reveal. At all events, for suffering and sorrow it ranks next to the Cracifixion itself. But sad and sorrowful as are the memories associated with Gethsemane, it is invested with a sacredness that makes it unspeakably dear to every Chrigtiaa heart. * Gethsemane can I forget, And there thine anguish see, Thine agony and bloody sweat, And not remember thee?”