the evil one in some form specially dreadful and terrible, as some have conjectured. There was something worse than all this—something more and bitterer still. There can be little doubt, though some seem to think otherwise, that the assaults of the Prince of darkness were peculiarly powerful at this juncture, and went to make up part of the bitterness of this cup. Of this we are not without some intimation from our Lord him- self, for before entering Gethsemane he says, “The prince of this world cometh,” and before leaving the scene of the agony he adds, “ This is your hour, and power of dark. ness.” From all this, and from the circumstance already adverted to, that Satan had relinquished his attempt only until another and more suitable season arrived, we have reason to conclude that Satan was again at work during the agony, that he was renewing with redoubled energy his fiery darts, deterring from the work that was being done, and at the same time in every way depreciating its worth. The conflict foretold in the garden of Hiden was to be fought out in Gethsemane; the heel of the Seed of the woman was to be bruised, and the head of the old serpent to be crushed. It was not strange, then, that the serpent should hiss most horridly, while uis head was thus being crushed. It were strange indeed if, when the spoiler was to be spoiled, the captor deprived of his prey, and captivity led captive, Satan should not rouse himself to one fearful, final effort to retain at once his power and his prey. His temptation then mingled in and embittered the draught which the Saviour was to drink and drain to its dregs. Whatever the nature of Satan’s suggestion may have been, whether resist- ance to the Divine will, or refusal of the destined draught, or desertion of the post assigned, or something yet more shocking, it is needless to inquire. It is enough to know that when our Lord tasted the cup he turned aside, so exceeding bitter was that mixture; a dark cloud passed over the serene spirit of the Son of God; his inward vision was obscured; the Father’s will became invested in mystery, and the cross in backness. 3. Other ingredients in the cup. Another ingredient in that cup was the withdrawal of the Divine presence—the hiding of his heavenly Father’s face. Sin shut man out of Paradise; sin excludes man from the favour of God. The Saviour took our sin upon him; he became our Substitute; he acted as our Surety; he stood in our stead, and eventually offered himself a Sacrifice for us. He thus exposed himself to the temporary withdrawment of the light of the Divine countenance. Nor can any- thing be more trying or more painful to a child of God than the loss of the Divine fellowship for a season. When deprived of the sensible enjoyment of Divine com- munion, he is comfortless. It was thus with Job (xxiii.): “ Behold, I go forward, but he is not there; and backward, but I cannot perceive him: on the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him: he hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him.” Similar is the complaint of the psalmist in the eighty-eighth psalm: “‘ Lord, why castest thou off my soul? why hidest thou thy face from me? I am afflicted and ready to die from my youth up: while I suffer thy terrors I am distracted. Thy fierce wrath goeth over me; thy terrors have cut me off.” Ifa child of God, a sinner saved by grace, feel so acutely the hiding of God’s countenance, how unspeakably more the sinless Son of God! This withdrawal of God’s presence—favourable presence—is one glement, perhaps a main element, in the misery of the world of woe, and forms no small part in the punishment of the lost. But this part of the Saviour’s distress had a positive as well as a negative side. Not only was there deprivation of the joys of Divine favour and fellowship, the overclouding of his heavenly !'ather’s face; there was in all probability some actual infliction of chastisement, as may fairly be inferred from the strong language of the prophet, when he says, “It pleased the Lord to bruise him; he hath put him to grief.” But of all the bitter ingredients in the cup of the Saviour’s suffering, nothing would pain him more than the sense of our sins being laid upon him, that he might be made sin for us; and the sight of that accursed thing, so abhorrent to his pure nature, as the burden he was to bear; together with the con- aciousness of the close connection of sin and death and hell. It was then that sorrow arose on every side; sufferings, with concentrated bitterness, overwhelmed him. The hatefulness of sin, God’s indignation against it, that loathsome load of human guilt he was to bear, the work he was to go through in order to remove it, the wrath of Heaven manifested against it,—all these ingredients mixed together in that bitter cup. 4, His supplication, It was then he prayed, “O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.” Here we find, side by side
294 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. (cu. xiv. 1—72.
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