and began to be sore amazed, and to be very heavy; and saith unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with Me. And He was withdrawn from them about a stone's cast, and and, again, of the Transfiguration (Matt. xvii. 1), which should be a preparation for the victorious issue of the present humiliation, and for Christ's rising again.

7. began, etc.-Bishop Pearson says, "These words in our translation come far short of the original expressions, which represent Him suddenly, upon a present and immediate apprehension, possessed with fear, horror, and amazement, encompassed with grief and overwhelmed with sorrow, pressed down with consternation and dejection of mind, tormented with anxiety and disquietude of spirit." He who "bore our griefs and carried our sorrows was, before, a man well acquainted with trouble. But there now fell upon Him the burden of the atonement of the sins of the world. The word amazed is a strong term; it expresses the horror and shuddering of His Spirit, as the prospect of death came upon Him who was "the Life;" and as the weight of human sin oppressed Him who was Himself without sin. He had to bear the punishment due to all sin, and to every sin; "the Lord had laid on Him the iniquity of us all;" and His mind shrank from contact with sin, and from the displeasure of God against it, and from the presence of death. For now Satan, who had " departed from Him for a season," returned, when every man's hand was against Him, and when God had awaked the sword of divine justice against the "Man who was His fellow" (see xxvii. 5), for the sin which He bore in making atonement for the sinner.

He

8. unto death.-See xvi. 15. Not merely that it appeared to Him that He must die under the pressure of this sorrow; but He required the ministration of an angel messenger from heaven, to give Him physical strength to bear it. Christ would not now, any more than in the wilderness, use His miraculous power for His own deliverance. would not shrink from anything which was coming upon Him. But, though the strength necessary was supplied to Him to bear more than man could physically endure, the very agony of this sorrow, and the mental strain of the whole week, did its work upon Him; it brought about His death more speedily than could have been expected from the severe suffering of crucifixion. In six hours death came, although the sufferings of the crucified have been known to be prolonged beyond the ninth day. (See xxxi. 4, 36, 37, 54.)

9. watch with Me.-For their own sake. (See note 4.) But doubtless He, as man, appreciated the value of human sympathy, and desired it. The context shows this. (See note 10.)

10. withdrawn from them.-Gk. "torn scarcely endure to leave them at this juncture.

away," as if He could The expression shows

kneeled down, and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, Abba, Father, all things are possible unto Thee; take away this cup from Me: nevertheless not what I will, but what Thou wilt. And there appeared an angel unto Him

His deep reluctance to quit them; and further, His desire for their sympathy. They were not, therefore, close witnesses of His ineffable agony; in the clear moonlight they must, until sleep overpowered them, have seen something of His gestures of suffering. They saw Him first kneel down (Luke xxii. 41), and then, as the bitter waves of agony rolled over Him, He threw Himself prostrate; He fell on his face on the ground." (Matt. xxvi. 39; Mark xiv. 35.) A close attention to the words here gives much insight into the act of agony.

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11. this cup. (See xxix. 21.) The agony of His Passion, and the death which closed it; this cup must never be forgotten in our reception of its memorial cup in the Lord's Supper. It has been often noticed how cheerfully many martyrs have gone to their death of torture for the sake of Christ; and how many have even aspired to the death of martyrdom, rather than to the life of witness in our Lord's service; whilst Christ Himself seems bowed to the earth, and prostrated in spirit, in the contemplation of His sacrifice. The reason is evident: our Lord went to His death in perfect calmness and fearlessness, and in all things that manhood could endure, or heroism inspire, He was perfectly self-sustained. But none but He could know what death and sin were to One who was sinless, and was the Lord of Life. Christ's Gospel does not set a value on the affecting to depreciate or despise realities of such profound gravity. Christ's example teaches us not to hide (though not to parade) natural feeling; and therefore, though Christ did not hesitate to die, there being no relaxation of His willing submission, He would have been pleased had it been within what was possible to God's righteous and just will, that He should otherwise accomplish the mission of redemption. In Heb. v. 7-9, this prayer and agony of our Lord's is noticed. It is said that Christ was heard in that He feared" (i.e. " by reason of his reverential awe "); His prayer was accepted, and His reverential submission to the Father's will was now, as ever, well pleasing in His sight, "who was able to save Him from death," by the interposition of legions of angels for His deliverance from His enemies; but who had decreed that, "though a Son, He should learn obedience by the things which He suffered." The result is that He became "the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him," as He obeyed God. There is not that tone of triumphant confidence, in this prayer of His agony, which breathes in the great prayer of intercession; but its issue has been the victory and the glory of which He there spoke.

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12. what thou wilt. Thus Christ puts into practice, for our example, the submission which He taught us to profess in prayer: "Thy will be

from heaven, strengthening Him. And being in an agony He prayed more earnestly: and His sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground.

done on earth, as it is in heaven." We see here the exercise of the two wills of Christ, the human and the Divine will. (See xvi. 19.) The last was identically one with the Father's will; the other, by prayer and resignation, brought more and more intimately into coincidence with the Divine will. The passage has been the text of much controversy, especially during the prevalence of the Monothelite heresy (which asserted that there was but one will in Christ), which is here absolutely refuted. "Here He manifests a double will; one indeed human, which is of the flesh; the other Divine. For our human nature, because of the weakness of the flesh, refuses the Passion; but His Divine will eagerly embraced it; for it was not possible that He should be holden of death."

13. an angel.-In this we see Christ "made a little lower than the angels," who thus ministered to Him, "for the suffering of death." Though much of Christ's prayer was probably heard by the disciples, and the earlier part, at least, of His agony witnessed by them in the clear moonlight of that hour, the words "He kneeled down ;" and, presently, He "fell on His face;" and, again, "He prayed more earnestly;" and the remark that the sweat of agony gathered on His brow, and fell in "great drops of blood to the ground"—are all touches of an eye-witness, details on which it is unlikely our Lord would speak. (See note 10). But they may not have seen this angel, who appeared unto Him." They were now in the deep sleep of sorrow and exhaustion; either He told them of this visitant, or the Holy Spirit revealed it for record in the Gospel of St. Luke: eyes asleep to the duties of the world are not likely to be cognizant of angel visitants. The means of relief which men feel in answer to prayer in times of trial and danger, or perplexity, is doubtless here made clear: it comes from heaven by the ministration of the angels, who minister, by God's command, to those who are heirs of the salvation which Christ wrought for them; to man an invisible, though a real, source of strength.

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14. more earnestly. He had now received the strength which He needed, to bear up against the strain of sorrow and agony, without being overcome by it; and so He contended more earnestly against the powers of evil. Ancient liturgies take up this watchword " more earnestly" as a call to prayer; it occurs frequently during divine service in order to rouse the congregation to closer and more fervent devotion. We meet with the same call in our Liturgy, where it is rendered in the words "Let us pray."

15. drops of blood.-Not merely the cold sweat of agony fell in large drops, but these were tinged with blood. There are instances

And when He rose up from prayer, and was come to the disciples, He found them sleeping for sorrow, and said unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? couldest not thou watch one hour? Watch ye and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. The spirit truly is ready, but the flesh is weak.

known in medical records, though they are very rare, of the same extraordinary experience; and they occurred in instances of the extremity of agony and mental distress. The fact of intense perspiration, in the cold of night, at this season of the year, would alone bespeak very great agony of mind. Bishop Pearson here applies Ps. xxii. 14, and remarks, "The heart of our Saviour was as it were melted with fear and astonishment, and all the parts of His body at the same time influenced with anguish and agony; well might that melting produce a sweat, and that inflamed and rarified blood force a passage through the numerous pores."

16. for sorrow.-Christ was strengthened and supported by the exercise of prayer: He went to the disciples to receive their sympathy, but He found them sunk in that peculiar stupor which masters those who have sustained some severe mental shock. It is well known how those under sentence of death, even if criminals, have frequently been roused, to go to their place of doom, from slumbers as profound and peaceful as those of children. Great sorrow, especially in bereavement, is frequently followed by the same unconscious sleep. But the disciples should have nerved each other against this depression and drowsiness; they gave way against Christ's example and His parting caution. Not even the request, "Watch with Me," affected them sufficiently to keep them waking.

17. unto Peter.-He must have felt the personal force of the question, "couldest not thou watch," as he had so prominently asserted his devotion; and he must have seen the danger in which he stood, when he could not sustain even so inferior a trial.

18. one hour.-Not perhaps a definite expression of time. Peter could not withstand a natural oppression for so much as one hour, in his Lord's company; how then could he endure the assaults of the powers of evil, and die a martyr's death in His cause, when Christ was removed from him?

19. the spirit, etc.-We need scarcely suppose (though some writers so observe) that our Lord says, "I know your inclination is good, and I can make allowances for your natural infirmity." He speaks not so gently of the want of faith and devotion they now displayed, a failure which might cost many their heavenly crown. He cautions them that, even when the will is in union with the will of God (which theirs was not yet perfectly), the infirmities of the body offered great vantage-ground to the adversary. As man (though in

But

He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done.

And He came and found them asleep again: for their eyes were heavy, neither wist they what to answer Him. And He left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words.

Then cometh He to His disciples, and saith unto them, Sleep on now, and take your rest: it is enough, the hour nature sinless, which they were not), He Himself felt how needful was earnest prayer to God, and thorough vigilance; and He spoke out of the force of His own experience of the force of temptation, in which He gave them His example of endurance. They had been too presumptuous in spirit to be approved as "ready; " and it could minister little strength to them, and to others in like need, to have allowance expressed for weakness, against which, however natural, they ought to have contended earnestly. Denial and desertion of their Lord followed, only too naturally, from self-confidence, and from want of watchfulness and of prayer.

20. the second time.-S. Matthew carefully marks the threefold prayer and contest, so coincident with the previous threefold temptation of our Lord. The second time He prays in more decided acquiescence with the trial before Him. The former prayer had evidently gained its response, and He was strengthened by communion with God. The disciples (for He returned to seek their sympathy and some proof of their devotion) were again in deep sleep; and they could not answer Him when He reproached them: they at least offered the humility of silence.

21. the same words.-We do not offend God by the repetition of set forms of urgent supplication, as our Lord's example lies in the use of "the same words" in which we have been accustomed to pray. And we may evidently gather that success in prayer is to be attained by repeated supplication for grace, which we may miss by asking only once that our petitions may be granted. The argument is strong in favour of liturgical forms; and, as our Lord's words on this occasion bear so great an affinity to those of the Lord's Prayer, we have a justification, if not the actual reason, for the repetition of that prayer in the services of the Church.

22. sleep on now.-There is some difficulty in the abruptness of expression here; but the sense appears to be, "It is too late now to urge you to pray with Me, and to watch; the time for this is past: sleep, therefore, if sleep you must and can. But the hour is come at last look up! your Master is betrayed; the betrayer and his associates are upon us. Rise up at once, let us meet them!" We see and feel