over, the bitterness of death was to some extent past. 2. The loneliness of our Lord in his sufferings. In all this the Saviour was alone—as much alone in the garden as on the cross, in his agony as in his crucifixion. Sleep on now, he said; you have let the opportunity of sympathizing with and sustaining me pass by. Such, at least, is one not unnatural interpretation of the words. Miserable comforters ye have been, yet I blame you not; the spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. Sleep on now—it matters not; for the struggle is over, and over without your co-operation; of the people there was none with me. I have trodden the winepress alone, from first to last. They had been saddened by the prospect of losing their Lord and Master, by his pathetic discourses, by his touching intercession, and by his present supplication, and in consequence they slept. 3. Swamary. In summing up the lessons to be learnt from this subject, we are taught (1) the terrible nature and fearful evil of sin. It was the cause of our Lord’s agony—of the intense struggie, the overwhelming sorrow, the bloody sweat. The three chief ingredients in that bitter cup were, first, the unspeakable and indescribable load of human guilt; for though guilt in its moral demerit is not transferable, yet in liability to punishment it is. On the Lamb of God was laid the sin of the world, and he took it away ; on our great High Priest were laid the iniquities of us all; the pressure of our transgressions rested on his head, as the sins of Israel on the head of the scapegoat. But another element entering into the cause of his agony was the temptatiou of Satan. The hour of darkness had come, the powers of darkness were doing their worst, the hosts of darkness rushed to the conflict. What fiendish power they exerted, what fiery trial they occasioned, what foul temptations they suggested, what fearful struggle they engaged in, we cannot even conjecture. A third element, and the worst of all probably, was the hiding of his heavenly Father’s face; it commenced in the agony, continued during the crucifixion, and culminated in those words of awful import, “ My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” But (2) the next great lesson is connected with prayer. And here we find several important particulars suggested by the prayer of our Lord in his agony—the matter of prayer, the manner of it, the posture in it, the spirit of it, the intensity of it, and the success of it. From the matter of the Saviour’s prayer we learn the allowableness of supplicating relief from circumstances of distress or disaster, as far as is consistent with God’s will and expedient for us. The manner sanctions not vain repetition, but only such repetition as great earnestness frequently employs. The postwre was kneeling, then prostration even on the cold and clammy ground, The spirit was that of perfect submission to the Divine will, with devout and holy resignation to his Father in heaven: “ If it be possible, let this cup pass from me.” The intensity included increasing earnestness; it was the outpouring of the heart with continued importunity and augmented fervour. ‘The success consisted not in the removal of the cup but of the fear, and in communicated strength and encouragement fortifying for the coming ordeal. Again, (3) there is an affecting contrast. While all within was storm, all without was calm. Nature all around was tranquil; the moon was shedding her mild radiance over the top of Olivet, the Garden of Gethsemane, and the valley of the Kidron; no wind was blowing, no leaf was stirring, aud no ripple moving. All was hushed in silent awe and wrapt in profound astonish- ment at the bloody baptism with which Jesus was baptized that night—J. J. G.
Vers, 53—72. Parallel passages: Matt. xxvi.57—75; Luke xxii. 54—62; John svili, 13—27.——The denial by Peter. I, THE CAUSES THAT LED TO PETER’s sIN. 1. The first couse of Peter’s sin. The first cause, as we may infer from this very chapter, was self-confidence. Our Lord foretold the smiting of the Shepherd, as predicted long before in ancient prophecy—of himself the good Shepherd, appropriating the title; and along with the smiting of the Shepherd, he foretold, as a consequence, the scattering of the sheep. Peter, yielding to the impulses of his own ardent and impetuous nature, repudiated the notion of desertion thus implied. He did so in a manner that involved au invidious comparison of himself with others, and an overweening opinion of his own strength of will and purpose of fidelity, “ Although ” («al e/, equivalent to “even if,” viz. a supposed case not likely to exist; <i «al read by Tregeiles, equivalent to “although,” viz. 2 case really existing) “all shall be offended, yet will not 1,” were his somewhat boastful or egotistical words. The smiting of the Shepherd may be a stumbling-block to others—io all of them, but not to me; the others may fall over it, yet will not I
oH. xIv. 1—72.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MARK. 297