them asleep ; se .Jesus was left alone in his agony. 2. Nuture and cause of their sleepi- vess. And yet ++ was not a sleep of stupidity, or insensibility, or want of sympathy, in any sense, ‘Tae cause was the very opposite. And here it is noteworthy that while the other evangelists record the fact, Luke, the beloved physician, alone assigns the cause. How characteristic of his profession! From his skill in physiology be here tells us that “ he found them sleeping for sorrow ;” just as afterwards, from his knowledge ot psychology, he accounts for disbelief from joy where he says, “ While they yet believed not for joy.” And so it was from very sorrow that they slept. It is not an unusual expexience that sorrow acts the part of a narcotic, and sadness causes sleep; thus the psalinist says, “ Reproach hath broken my heart, and I am full of heaviness.” Anda merciful arrangement it is that men under such circurnstances can sleep for a season and forget their sorrows. 3. Different explanations. The words which Jesus addresses to his drowsy disciples have been variously understood. Some take them (1) interro- gatively,—Do ye sleep now and take your rest? This seems favoured by the parallel in St. Luke, “ Why sleep ye?” As though he said,—lIs it a time for indifference or indul- gence of this sort? Is a time of present distress and approaching danger a suitable season for sleep? Others take them (2) asa sort of sorrowful irony, as if he said,—Sleep on now if ye can, andif that be possible, in such perilous circumstances. But (3) many prefer taking them as a permission slightly tempered with reproof, viz.,—Sleep for the interval that remains. I can now calmly watch and wait alone; the season of needful sympathy is past. He thus implies, moreover, according to Chrysostom, that he has no need of their help, and that he must by all means be betrayed. We may suppose that between this and the following verse some interval of time elapsed, and that then Judas and the band approached when Jesus roused the disciples with the words, “ Rise, let us be going.” The whole is thus, no doubt, perfectly consistent and clearly intelligible. Intermediately, however, oceurs another difficult expression, éréye:, which in the active voice refers sometimes to local distance, and sometimes signifies to have back, or get again, or receive in full, and so to be satisfied. According to the first signification, the word is here rendered by some personally and with reference to Judas—(a) he is yar off , or (0) in relation to the crisis of the agony—it is past; while (c) the great majority of interpreters, in accordance with the second meaning of the word, translate it imper- sonally—it is sufficient, or enough. Thus understood, if taken in close connection with what precedes, the sense is,—Sleep on now and take your rest: it is enough; your wutchiny is no longer required; but, if connected with what succeeds, it signifies,—It is enough: you have had sufficient sleep ; the houris come. By combining (3) and (c) we get what on the whole is most in agreement with both text and context; thatis to say,— Sleep during the rest of the interval that may be allowed you, and take your rest; I require you to watch no longer. Then, after the lapse of a short interval, or even as an after-thought occasioned by the sight or sound of the enemy’s approach, he checks himself in the additional] words, “The hour is come . . . rise up, let us go.”
Vl. Tue CHIEF OBJECT OF THE AaGony. 1. Preparation. One great object of the agony was, a8 we conceive, preparation for the final, fearful struggle near at hand. The Saviour was to brace hiinself for the conflict. Hence the difference between the agony and crucifixion was this: The agony was, if we may so say, the prelude, the crucifixion the performance ; the one was—with reverence be it spoken—the rehearsal, the other the reality ; the one was the anticipation, the other the accomplishment; the one was the will, the other the work. The language of the one is,—I am willing—I am going to suffer, and so put an end to sin; that of the other is,—I have already and actually suffered, and so put away sin for ever. The grand issue of Gethsemane was preparedness for future and final suffering, and, if put in words, it would be,—I am ready, and in no way reluctant to suffer; while from Calvary proceeds a shout of triumph over suffering endured to the uttermost and attainment of finality as expressed in the words, “Tt is finished.” In the agony we see the sinless human nature of our Lord shuddering in sight of sin, and on the brink of fearful sutfering because of sin, though not his own ; in the crucifixion we see the same nature sustaining the load of human sin, and succumbing under the consequent suffering and sorrow, yet victorious even when vanquished, and conquering by being slain. ‘I'he agony was a forecasting of the final struggle; it was going over all beforehand—going over all in mind, in spirit, and in body too; the crucifixion was the suecessful realization of the same. Once the agony was
296 THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. [on. xiv. 1—72,
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