necessary to defend themselves against the cold. His firm heart was ready to break, and immediate death was threatened; but knowing that much remained to be accomplished, it was his prayer that the cup might for a time pass from him. His prayer was heard. An angel appeared to strengthen him, and he regained composure to act with propriety before his judges and the people, and to suffer what he endured before he reached the cross. On the cross the scene of Gethsemane was renewed ;—the cup was again presented to him, and there he drank it to the very dregs. On Calvary his distress reached its height, and drew from him the bitter exclamation,-"My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?'—Matt. chap. 27, v. 46. Mysterious dereliction! only to be accounted for by the nature of his death. . . . He at last expired under the curse, not so much in consequence of the exhaustion of nature by bodily pain and the loss of blood (for in the article of death he cried with a loud voice, and Pilate marvelled when he heard of it), as in consequence of the extreme pressure of mental torture; Matt. chap. 27, v. 50; Mark, chap. 15, v. 44. This was too racking, too exquisite for nature to support,—it literally broke his heart. That sorrow which is the very soul of the curse terminated his life, and thus discovered the nature of his sufferings, together with their great and glorious design."*

The mortal tendency of the mental sufferings of Gethsemane is, however, placed beyond all doubt by the authority of the apostle Paul, who in his epistle to the Hebrews states of Christ, that-" in the days of his flesh he offered prayers and supplications, [accompanied] with tears and loud cries, to him who was able to save him from death, and was heard on account of [his] pious fear:

* Dr. David Russell, Letters, chiefly practical and consolatory, etc.; vol. i. pp. 7-9.

[that thus,] although he was a son, he learned obedience from his sufferings, and when [at length] perfected, became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him, having been proclaimed by God a high-priest after the order of Melchisedek."-This interpretation of the pas sage is adopted by the writers above-mentioned, and by many others."I apprehend "-says M'Lean,-" that the deprecations and supplications here mentioned, are chiefly those which he offered up in the garden of Gethsemane, and also on the cross."-"It must have been "-observes Rambach," a petition in which he was heard, which cannot be said if he prayed for the removal of all his sufferings in general." "I do not suppose,"-remarks Dr. Doddridge,-"our Lord here prayed to be excused entirely from sufferings and death. It appears to me much safer to expound it as relating to the terror and severity of the combat in which he was now actually engaged. This throws great light on Heb. chap. 5, v. 7;— 'He was heard in that he feared.'"*" What then asks Dr. Moses Stuart,-"was it in respect to which he was cloakovoleìs, heard or delivered? The context necessarily limits the hearing or deliverance to something in his petitions which appertained to suffering, which was an object of dread. What could it be but the dread of sinking under the agony of being deserted by his Father? Matt. chap. 27, v. 46. Great as his agony was, he never refused to bear it, nor did he shrink from tasting the bitter cup. Luke, chap. 22, v. 42; Matt. chap. 26, v. 39. And does not Luke, chap. 22, v. 43, explain our eioakovoθεὶς ἀπὸ εὐλαβείας, [he was heard on account of his pious fear,]-There appeared unto him an angel from heaven strengthening him, ¿vioxúwv aiтóv.'-This was the only

* M'Lean, vol. i. p. 163;-Rambach, vol. i. p. 56;-Dr. Doddridge, Family Expositor of the New Testament, vol. ii. p. 483.-Hebrews, chap. 5, v. 7-10.

kind of deliverance he sought for, or on the whole desired; Luke, chap. 22, ν. 42. πλὴν μὴ τὸ θέλημά μου, ἀλλὰ τὸ oòv yevéo0w [nevertheless, not my will but thine be done.] The dread in question was, like all his other sufferings, incident to his human nature, and the fact shows that he suffered under it to a high degree; but he did not shrink from it, and so he was heard or delivered in respect to the object of his petition in regard to it."*

It is indeed sufficiently evident that in this remarkable passage the apostle is speaking of the peculiar mental sufferings of Christ in the garden of Gethsemane, and not of the ordinary sufferings attending his seizure, trial, and crucifixion; which, as is manifest from the sacred narrative, he endured not only without dismay, but with the utmost dignity and firmness. That his mental sufferings proceeded not from men or demons, but from God, was stated by himself, when on his way to the garden he said to his apostles,-" All of you will this night be offended by me, for it is written,—' I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered;""— when he afterward entreated the Father to withdraw from him the fatal cup; and when, as this was impossible, he meekly asked, "The cup which the Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?"-This language exactly corresponds to his affecting demand on the cross,-"My God! my God! why hast thou forsaken me?"—and shows that in their general nature his mental sufferings in both instances were identical. Too violent to last long, they began and ended abruptly, continuing in the first case one hour, in the second three hours, leaving his mind during the interval comparatively calm and self-possessed. The scene at Gethsemane was a wise and necessary prelude to that at Calvary, a foretaste or trial, which prepared him for the

* Dr. Moses Stuart, Commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews, vol. ii. pp. 126, 127, 420-422.-See also Poole's Synopsis.

last awful conflict; and his conduct on the two occasions exhibits a marked and corresponding difference. In the garden these sufferings were absolutely new to him. Never before had his filial communion with God been interrupted. On suddenly losing it, and finding himself exposed without protection to the horrors of his responsibility, and the malignity of the powers of darkness, he was as it were taken by surprise, and nearly destroyed by consternation and distress. So the terms used by the evangelists literally imply. According to the apostle Paul, he had now for the first time to learn this peculiarly difficult lesson of obedience to the divine will, and found it almost insupportable. With tears and cries, he repeatedly prayed for relief to him who alone was able to save him from death, and by supernatural aid was strengthened and delivered. Thus instructed and experienced he endured these sufferings, when renewed on the cross, with less consternation and greater energy than before. Until near the end, when he uttered a few fervent exclamations, he was silent, and opened not his mouth; and, instead of being delivered from death, was left to bear the full weight of the divine malediction in helpless. agony, till by the rupture of his heart he completed that atoning sacrifice which he had undertaken to offer, and by which, as the high-priest of his people,-" he became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey him."*

The more minutely the subject is examined, the more perfect will be found the accordance between the sufferings of Christ, and the cause here assigned for them. These sufferings presented two successive stages,-consternation, and agony,-conditions which, although frequently confounded by commentators, are not only differ

*Matt. chap. 26, v. 30, 31, 36-44; chap. 27, v. 45, 46;-Mark, chap. 14, v. 26, 27, 32-39; chap. 15, v. 33, 34;-John, chap. 18, v. 11; -Heb. chap. 5, v. 7-9.

The natural

ent, but actually opposite to each other. contrast which subsists between the exciting and the depressing passions, as likewise between their respective effects, has been already mentioned. Excessive fear and grief debilitate and almost paralyze the body, while agony or conflict is attended with extraordinary strength. Under the former the action of the heart is enfeebled; and if, owing to constriction of the cutaneous vessels, perspiration ever occurs, it is cold and scanty. Under the latter the heart acts with great violence, and forces a hot, copious, and in extreme cases a bloody sweat through the pores of the skin. The testimony of Crichton on this subject is so apposite and decisive, that it deserves to be repeated. "In grief and sorrow," -he observes,-" in extreme anger, hatred, jealousy, and envy, the blood stagnates about the heart, a chilling cold spreads itself over the whole surface of the body, the blood forsakes the cheeks, and a tremor ensues."-On the contrary, under anger and other invigorating passions,-"the heart and arteries are excited to a preternatural degree of action, the blood is propelled with violence to the surface of the body, and circulates with force and rapidity through the smallest and most extreme arteries, and hence the burning heat which characterizes this sort of passion."-When Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall, his-" countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, so that the joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote one against another."-When Daniel was accosted in vision by an angel of surpassing majesty,-"his comeliness was turned into corruption, and he retained no strength; "—and when the apostle John saw Christ in his glory," he fell at his feet as dead."-On the other hand, when Samson, laboring under the united stings of shame, indignation, and revenge, agonized in the temple of Dagon, he recovered all his original might, threw down the