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shrinking from death and sufferings, of which He foreknew every particular, to which all flesh and blood, even sinless, must needs be liable.

But it is clear, that we want some further explanation still. It will doubtless strike every well-informed person, that hundreds of martyrs have been known to suffer the most painful deaths, without any such demonstrations of mental and bodily agony, as are here recorded in the case of our Lord. How are we to account for this? How are we to explain the remarkable circumstance that our Lord appears to have felt more distressed, than many a martyr has done in the prospect of being burned alive, or even when at the stake?

I believe that these questions can never be satisfactorily answered by any Socinian, or by any upholder of the modern strange opinions about Christ's death. I believe that the favourite new theory, that both in death and life, we are meant to see in Jesus only a great example of self sacrifice and self-denial, utterly breaks down here. It makes our blessed Lord show less calmness in his last hours, than many of his poor weak servants have shown, when they were martyred.

The only satisfactory explanation of Christ's intense agony is the old doctrine of imputed sin. He had engaged to die for our sins. His death was a vicarious death. As our substitute, He was about to bear our iniquities, to suffer for us, and to pay our debts to God with His own blood. He was about to be counted a sinner, and be punished, that we might be counted righteous, and be delivered from punishment. The sin of the world began to be laid upon Him in a special manner in the garden. He was being" made a curse " for us, by bearing our sins. This was the principal cause of His agony and bloody sweat. The words of Isaiah were being fulfilled :- It pleased the Lord to bruise Him; He hath put Him to grief."-"The Lord made the iniquity of us all to meet on Him." (Isai. liii. 10, 6.)

The following quotations on this most important subject are worth reading.

Baxter says, "This agony was not from the fear of death, but from the deep sense of God's wrath against sin; which He as our sacrifice was to bear; in greater pain than mere dying, which His servants often bear with peace."

Sir Matthew Hale, quoted by Ford, says, “Christ stood under the imputation of all our sins; and though He was personally innocent, yet judicially and by way of imputation, He was the greatest offender that ever was. As our Lord was pleased to be our representative in bearing our sins, and to stand in our stead, so all these affections and motions of His soul did bear the same conformity as if acted by us. As He put on the person of the sinner, so He put on the same sorrow, the same shame, the same

trembling, under the apprehension of the wrath of His Father, that we must have done. And as an imputed sin drew with it the obligation to punishment, so it did by necessary consequences, raise all those storms and compassions in the soul of Christ, as it would have done in the person of a sinner, sin only excepted."

[His sweat...great drops of blood.] It is observed by all the best commentators, that there is good medical evidence that such a mixture of blood and sweat as that here recorded, can take place, and has taken place, in cases of great mental and bodily distress.

It is worthy of remark, that St. Luke is the only one of the four evangelists who mentions the circumstance now before us, and that he was himself a physician.

Theophylact observes, that this bloody sweat is one among many strong evidences that our Lord's body was a real body, like our's, with flesh, blood, and all other things pertaining to man's constitution. He observes also, that it supplies an unanswerable argument against the heresy of those who maintained that our Lord's body was only a seeming, or "phantastic" body, but not a real one.

And

An unworthy question has been started by some as to the manner in which St. Luke knew of this bloody sweat, when our Lord was manifestly alone at the time of its occurrence. we are gravely told, as a solution of the supposed difficulty, that probably "the marks of such drops would be visible after the termination of the agony!" Questions like this are calculated to strike a blow at the root of all inspiration. If we are not to suppose the Gospel writers recorded anything except what they obtained from eye-witnesses, or saw with their own eyes, we shall take a miserably low view of the real nature of the inspiration of Scripture. We need not doubt that in this, and many other instances, St. Luke simply wrote down what was revealed to him by the Holy Ghost, and that in supplying or withholding facts in our Lord's history, he was not dependent on mere human information, but was entirely guided by God.

The whole subject of this verse and the preceding one will be found very fully and ably discussed in the Commentary of Calovius, the Lutheran commentator.

45.-[Sleeping for sorrow.] Let it be noted here, that St. Luke is the only evangelist who mentions the cause of the disciples being asleep. Flesh and blood cannot endure much either of sorrow or joy, without giving way. The same three who slept in Gethsemane were the three who slept at the transfiguration. 46.-[Rise and pray.] Bengel remarks here with much shrewdness, that a standing posture of the body is best suited for overcoming drowsiness in prayer.

LUKE XXII. 47–53.

47 And while he yet spake, behold a multitude, and he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him.

48 But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss?

49 When they which were about him saw what would follow, they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword?

vant of the High Priest, and cut off his right ear.

51 And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him.

52 Then Jesus said unto the Chief Priests, and captains of the temple, and the elders, which were come to him, Be ye come out, as against a thief, with swords and staves?

53 When I was daily with you in the temple, ye stretched forth no 50 And one of them smote the ser-hands against me: but this is your hour, and the power of darkness.

WE should learn, for one thing, from these verses, that the worst and most wicked acts may be done under a show of love to Christ. We read that when the traitor Judas brought the enemies of Christ to take Him, he betrayed Him "with a kiss." He made a pretence of affection and respect, at the very moment when he was about to deliver his Master into the hands of His deadliest enemies.

Conduct like this, unhappily, is not without its parallels. The pages of history record many an instance of enormous wickedness wrought out and perfected under the garb of religion. The name of God has too often been pressed into the service of persecution, treachery, and crime. When Jezebel would have Naboth killed, she ordered a "fast to be proclaimed," and false witnesses to accuse him of "blaspheming God and the king.' (1 Kings xxi. 9, 10.)—When Count de Montfort led a crusade against the Albigenses, he ordered them to be murdered and pillaged as an act of service to Christ's Church. When the Spanish Inquisition tortured and burned suspected heretics, they justified their abominable dealings by a profession of zeal for God's truth.-The

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false apostle Judas Iscariot has never wanted successors and imitators. There have always been men ready to betray Christ with a kiss, and willing to deliver the Gospel to its enemies under a show of respect.

Conduct like this, we need not doubt, is utterly abominable in the sight of God. To injure the cause of religion under any circumstances is a great sin, but to injure it while we pretend to show kindness is the blackest of crimes. To betray Christ at any time is the very height of wickedness, but to betray Him with a kiss, proves a man to have become a very child of hell.

We should learn, for another thing, from these verses, that it is much easier to fight a little for Christ, than to endure hardness and go to prison and death for His sake. We read that when our Lord's enemies drew near to take Him, one of His disciples "Smote the servant of the high priest, and cut off his right ear." Yet the zeal of that disciple was very short-lived. His courage soon died away. The fear of man overcame him. By and bye when our Lord was led away prisoner, he was led away alone. The disciple who was so ready to fight and smite with the sword, had actually forsaken his Master and fled!

The lesson before us is deeply instructive. To suffer patiently for Christ is far more difficult than to work actively. To sit still and endure calmly, is far more hard than to stir about and take part in the battle. Crusaders will always be found more numerous than Martyrs. The passive graces of religion are far more rare and precious than the active graces. Work for Christ may be done from many spurious motives, from excite

ment, from emulation, from party-spirit, or from love of praise. Suffering for Christ will seldom be endured from any but one motive. That motive is the grace of God.

We shall do well to remember these things in forming our estimate of the comparative grace of professing Christians. We err greatly if we suppose that those who do public work, and preach, and speak, and write, and fill the eyes of the Church, are those who are most honourable. in God's sight. Such men are often far less esteemed by Him than some poor unknown believer, who has been lying for years on his back, enduring pain without a murmur. Their public efforts perhaps will prove at last to have brought less glory to Christ than his patience, and to have done less good than his prayers. The grand test of grace is patient suffering. "I will show Saul," said the Lord Jesus, "what great things he shall suffer for my name." (Acts ix. 16.) (Acts ix. 16.) Peter, we may be sure, did far less good when he drew his sword and cut off a man's ear, than he did when he stood calmly before the council as a prisoner, and said, "We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard." (Acts. iv. 20.)

We should learn, lastly, from these verses, that the time during which evil is permitted to triumph is fixed and limited by God. We read that our Lord said to His enemies when they took Him, "This is your hour and the power of darkness."

The sovereignty of God over everything done upon earth is absolute and complete. The hands of the wicked are bound until He allows them to work. They can do nothing without His permission.-But this is not all. The hands of the wicked cannot stir one moment before God

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