Ill. THe Saviour’s sorRuw AND ITs souRcE. 1. The description of his sorrow. There is a climax in this description. He began to be sorrowful; his soul was sorrowful, exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. He was amazd, and very heavy. One of the words here employed is peculiar. It denotes, according to one derivation, satiety, but according to another a state and consequent feeling of strangership—a sort of home- sickness. How applicable to the Saviour’s sorrow! He must have been more than satiated with earth, aid homesick, if we may use the expression, for heaven. But, looking deeper down, we find three words descriptive of the liedeemer’s sorrow, which require closer ani more careful consideration. The original word for being sorrow/‘wl (Avmeia@as) is in this narrative peculiar to St. Matthew; that for being sore amazed or stunned (ékOapBcioba) is only used by St. Mark ; while those equivalent to very heavy (adnuoveiv), and *o the soul being exceeding sorrewful (repiAumos) even unto death, are common to
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cH. xiv. 1—72.3 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK, 291 ee
both. ™he first expression is one of frequent occurrence, but is here intensified by a subsequent compound and several adjuncts. Further, while the seat of this sorrow is the soul, the sorrow itself is exceeding and overwhelming, and enwraps the soul, the soul being distressed all round—grieved on every side (rep/). Nor is that all; it is so excessive that soul and body seem ready to part, or actually to part, under the pressure and the death-pang to be anticipated. If it be not the fulfilment of, it is at least in correspondence with, the words of the psalmist—
“The pains of hell took hold on me, I grief and trouble found.”
The next term, that peculiar to Mark, imports a complex state of feeling made up of horror and amazement, or extreme alarm and consternation, approaching to stupe- faction or being stunned, while here, again, an augmenting particle increases the notion to the highest degree. Once more, the former of the two words employed by St. Matthew and St. Mark in common, whatever origin is assigned to it, is used to denote 3 state of distress that combines at once dejection of mind and disquietude of spirit, or anxiety and anguish. 2. The cause of this sorrow. Now, those words and phrases employed in describing the Saviour’s sorrow, weighty as they are in themselves separately, when taken together represent an extreme of sorrow and a weight of woe which no utterances of human speech appear adequate fully to express. To this sorrow may be applied the words of the prophet, “ Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by? behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith Jehovah hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger.” It is now time to inquire into the cause or causes from which such sorrow sprang. To what must we attribute this sorrowfulness, this sore amazement, this extreme heaviness and exceeding sorrowfulness of soul even unto death? We may answer (1) negatively. To attribute it to fear of death wculd be a glaring outrage on all probability, and the gravest libel on the Son of God. Who has not heard of that Athenian sage who philosophized so calmly and conversed so pleasantly with his friends till the poison-cup did its work? Many a soldier, both in ancient days and modern times, has faced death fearlessly and unshrink- ingly. Many a soldier of the cross has displayed equal, and in cases not a few still greater, heroism. Not only men, but delicate matrons and tender maidens, have heroically braved the persecutor’s rage, and bidden him do his worst. In the days of the martyrs, many courageously and cheerfully encountered death in its most ghastly form. Some endured the most cruel tortures w:thout complaint. Some were torn to pieces by wild beasts. Some were left to look at the ocean’s tide as it approached nearer and nearer, rising higher and higher till they sank in the gurgling wave. Some were sawn asunder. Some were crucified with the head downwards. Some went upward from the stake in & chariot of fiery flame. And is it possible that the Founder of our faith had less fortitude in the near prospect of death than many of his weakest followers? Many, supported by a good cause and a good conscience, have despised death, and surrendered life unhesitatingly and unfalteringly. Many, of different ranks and different ages and of both sexes, have subinitted to a death of cruellest torture, undaunted and undismayed. Hundreds have in their last moments illustrated the words of the poet—
“Resting in the glorious hope To be at last restored, Yicld we now our bodies up To earthquake, fire, and sword ”
Is it, then, for a moment supposable that the servant should so far surpass his Master, and the disciple his Lord, that what caused the latter such agony and anguish was matter ol exultation and triumph to the former? We answer (2) afirmatively. What, then, was the cause of the Saviour’s sorrow ? Was his case different from any or all of those referred to? Yes, most certainly; they were wide as the poles apart. ‘T’hose illustrious heatheus, those great aud guod men, those noble martyrs, those death-defying followers of the Saviour, stuod each in his own ivt in the end of the days. Not so the Saviour : bis was a representative capacity ; he was the second Adam—his people's federal} Head. He came to give his life a ransom for many, to bear the sin of many, and to be pumbered with the transyresscrs. He came to take the place of the guilty, and to stand
292 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. fon. xrv. 1—72,
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‘ in the stead of millions. Then the sword of justice was to be unsheathed against the Shepherd, the man that was God’s Fellow. The Shepherd must lay down his life for the sheep, else they must perish, and perish entirely, and perish everlastingly ; “ for the wages of sin is death,” and “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.
“ Die man, or justice must Except some other as able and as willing pay The rigid satisfaction—death for death.”