EXPOSITION XVII. THE INTERNAL SUFFERINGS OF CHRIST. JOHN XII. 27, 28.-"Now is my soul troubled; and what shall I say! Father, save me from this hour: but for this cause came I unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." "IT became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the Captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings." The sufferings to which the incarnate Son of God, as the substitute of sinners, was exposed, by the appointment of his Father, as the supreme righteous Governor of the universe, for the purpose of making him what he is-an all-accomplished Saviour in the possession of all the merit, all the authority, and all the sympathy, that are. necessary for the performance of all the parts of his saving work in the best possible manner--were numerous, varied, and severe. He was, by way of eminence, "the man who saw affliction by the rod of God's wrath,”—“ the man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief." With every form and degree of suffering, in which the holy displeasure of God against the sin of man is manifested, he was familiar, in so far as such suffering was com patible with his absolute innocence, his perfect holiness; and he could say, with an emphasis quite peculiar to himself, "Is it nothing to you, all ye that pass by: behold, and see if there be any sorrow like unto my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith the Lord hath afflicted me in the day of his fierce anger." His external sufferings were of no common kind. During his whole continuance on earth, from the manger to the cross, he seems to have been almost entirely destitute of the comforts and accommodations, and very scantily supplied with the necessaries of life. He was indeed "poor and needy." "The foxes have holes, and the birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man had not where to lay his head." He was the object of the malignant contempt of the upper classes of society, and of the contumelious abuse of the lower. Blasphemer and demoniacimpostor and madman-glutton and wine-bibber-friend of publicans and sinners-were the appellations commonly given him. He was worn out by fatiguing ill-requited labors--by hunger 1 Heb. ii. 10. 2 Matt. viii. 20. and thirst-by debility and exhaustion; and, in the tortures of the scourge, and the agonies of the cross, he experienced the utmost intensity of pain of which the human frame is capable. When we read the history of his sufferings, we cannot think it wonderful if the ancient oracle concerning him were fulfilled to the letter. "Many were astonished at him: his visage was marred more than any man, and his form more than the sons of men." Yet these visible sufferings were the least part of his sufferings. They were but, as it were, the imperfect external type of severer internal agonies. "The iron entered into his soul." A mysterious hidden fire, kindled by the breath of Jehovah, righteously displeased at the sins of men, consumed his vitals, as man's substitute--the victim for man's transgressions. The comparative severity of the two species of suffering may be judged of by the fact, that the pressure of external_calamity, however heavy, never extorted a complaint from Jesus: but the exceeding great weight of inward anguish wrung from him sobs and groans,-"strong crying and tears." His spirit was one which could sustain any bodily suffering; but the wounds inflicted directly on itself were found all but intolerable. Well has it been said by one of the fathers of the church, on this awfully mysterious subject, "The sufferings of his soul were the soul of his sufferings." The passage of Scripture which I have now read brings before our mind the Saviour's inward sufferings, his exercise under these sufferings, and his divine Father's approval of his exercise under these sufferings. The Saviour's inward sufferings are expressed in the brief, but impressive, exclamation, "Now is my soul troubled." His exercise under these sufferings is described in the words which follow: "What shall I say? Father, save me from this hour! But for this cause came Ï unto this hour. Father, glorify thy name." And the approbation of this exercise by his divine Father was manifested in a miraculous voice from "Then heaven, as narrated in the closing words of the text. came a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." To these three interesting topics, it is my purpose to turn your attention in the remaining part of this discourse; and I pray that the discussion of them may, by the accompanying influence of the good Spirit, prove a suitable preparation for that solemn religious observance, to engage in which is the great object of our coming together to-day-an observance in which is commemorated our Lord's "pouring out his soul unto death, making it an offering for sin "—for our sins-for the sins of many. I. THE SAVIOUR'S INTERNAL SUFFERINGS. The first topic to which the text calls our attention is the inward sufferings of the Saviour. "Now is my soul troubled." 3 Isa. lii. 14. When the mind is free from uneasiness, both from felt and feared evil, from the experience of present, and the apprehension of future, suffering, it is figuratively said to be calm or tranquil— like the bosom of the lake when not even a breath of wind ruffies its glassy surface; when anguish, and sorrow, and terror, take possession of the mind, then it is said to be troubled, agitated, or convulsed, like the ocean in a storm, or the earth reeling under the impulses of an earthquake. The plain literal meaning of the words before us is: 'I am suffering extreme inward anguish of spirit; I am oppressed with fear; I am tortured with anxiety; I am overwhelmed with sorrow.' The language used respecting Abraham, when the miseries of his descendants were, in prophetic vision, brought before his mind, is still more applicable to his illustrious descendant, in whom all the nations of the earth were to be blessed,-when he felt and feared the pangs of that sacrifice of expiation, that travail of soul, by which he was to bear, and bear away, the sins of his people. "An horror of great darkness fell upon him"-a thick and dark cloud intervened, as it were, between him and the light of his Father's countenance. This is not the only place in which we read of our Lord's trouble of spirit. In the thirteenth chapter of this gospel, at the 21st verse, we read that "Jesus was troubled in spirit, and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, That one of you shall betray me," and it is plainly but a higher degree of the same state of mind which we find described by the evangelists when they narrate the mysterious scene in Gethsemane, and represent the Saviour as being sorrowful, sore amazed, very heavy, in an agony; which he himself utters in these words, so instinct with anguish; "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death;" and which found an expression stronger than language could furnish, in the great drops of sweat like blood, which, during the intense cold of midnight, fell to the ground from his prostrate body." The original terms employed by the evangelists in describing this state of mind, are peculiarly full of meaning. I do not know that our translators could have found more appropriate and expressive terms in our language to render them by than those which they have employed; but they come far short of the force of the phrases used by the sacred historian. They are explained by one who well knew their force, as describing our Lord "as on a sudden possessed with 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." It is a natural, and a highly important and interesting inquiry, What was the cause of this deep mental suffering-this unutterable, this inconceivable, inward anguish? It is obvious that no cause can be found in our Lord's external circumstances, either 4 Gen. xv. 12. 5 Matt. xxvi. 36-46. Luke xxii. 41-46. 6 Pearson. in the case before us, or when in the garden of Gethsemane. There was no scourge, no cross, no executioner, in either case. In the case before, there was much to awaken sentiments of satisfaction and pleasing anticipation. The multitude appear at least disposed to recognize him as the long-expected son of David, Messiah the Prince. He has entered Jerusalem, the divinelychosen seat of David's empire, in triumph, amid the joyful hosannahs of thousands, as the rightful inheritor of his throne; and, in the eager desire of the Greeks to see him, he has obtained an earnest of the fulfilment of the promise, "It is a light thing that thou shouldest be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will also give thee for a light to the Gentiles, that thou mayest be my salvation unto the end of the earth." These circumstances seemed calculated to excite a holy triumph in the Saviour's mind; and “He reso they did. They produced their appropriate effect. joiced in spirit," and said, "The hour is at hand when the Son of man shall be glorified." But how is it that all on a sudden his "harp is turned into mourning, and his organ into the voice of them that weep "?" How is it that he who had just said in triumph, "Now is the Son of man to be glorified," here says in deep distress, "Now is my soul troubled"? And even at Gethsemane we seek in vain for the cause of his inward sufferings in his external circumstances. He is in a place endeared to him by the most sacred and soothing recollections. It was the scene of his confidential intercourse with his disciples, of his still more intimate fellowship with his divine Father;-and there were none with him but his three disciples, chosen friends, to whom, of all human beings, with the exception of his mother, he was most fondly attached. He could not be experiencing remorse, which embitters, in many cases, life's sweetest enjoyments, and casts an appalling gloom over the fairest scenes of mortal happiness. His conscience, thoroughly enlightened, fully instructed, in every claim which the holy, just, and good law had on him, and exquisitely sensible to the slightest deviation from rectitude-could not find, on the retrospect of his whole life, a single action-no, not a single thought or feeling-which was not in perfect accordance with the will of God. In no case could he wish that he had thought, or felt, or acted differently from what he had done. The testimony of his conscience was, that he had kept his Father's word that he had glorified him on the earth. Words which, in the mouth of any other man, even the holiest, would have argued the most intolerable arrogance-the most deplorable ignorance-both of God's law and himself-were in his case the words of truth and soberness. "I have kept the ways of the Lord, and have not wickedly departed from my God. For all his judgments were before me, and I did not put away his statutes I was also upright before him, and I kept myself from from me. 7 Isa. xlix. 6. 8 Job xxx. 31. mine iniquity." "My meat is to do the will of him that sent me, and to finish his work.' It could not be the fear of his impending bodily sufferings, numerous, varied, and agonizing as he well knew they would be, that so troubled him (though no doubt their anticipation did produce uneasy feelings); for not merely did he know that these sufferings were soon to terminate, and that they would be more than compensated in the delights and glories of that state into which they were to introduce him; but we find that when the season of torture and death arrived, he was perfectly composed and firm in the midst of his sufferings. He discovered no weakness, no agitation, no fear, no perturbation then. He“ gave his back to the smiters, and his cheeks to them who plucked off the hair: he hid not his face from shame and spitting. He se his face as a flint; he was not discouraged."10 He complained not of the cruelty of his enemies; he sunk not under it. He "endured the cross; he despised the shame." It is surely not probable that the bare prospect of those sufferings which he so undauntedly sustained, should have so troubled his soul, so disquieted his spirit, so convulsed him with terror and agony. To account for our Lord's inward sufferings on any such supposi tion, is to do him foul dishonor. It were to sink him far below many of his followers. They have met the most cruel tortures with fortitude; and, instead of discovering dread or dejection, have manifested the most placid tranquillity and the most triumphant hope. There is but one way of accounting satisfactorily for this sudden, deep, inward distress. An invisible arm smites him, and that arm is the arm of the Omnipotent. On the head of that spotless, perfect man,-the man who is God manifest in the flesh,Jehovah has made to meet, as on the victim for human transgression, the iniquities of us all. Exaction is now being made, and he feels himself responsible to answer it. He has sorrow, for his hour is come, that hour in which he must become a curse, and be made sin in the room of man. Jehovah the judge, is about to complete this work, this strange work. The sins of men, in all their odiousness and malignity, are present to the Saviour's mind, and present to his mind as the sins of those to whom he is so closely related, with whom indeed he is identified, as sins for which he must make adequate expiation. The more he loved those in whose room he stood, the more would his trouble of soul be increased, just as we are more affected by the crimes of a relative or friend, than by those of a stranger. During this season of soul-trouble, he was deprived of all sensible manifestation of the complacency of his heavenly Father,—the life of his life,—the very element of his soul's happiness. The sun of consolation was totally eclipsed. He felt that he was just about to be given up to the will of his enemies, and to all that sin deserved, without one cheering ray of his Father's countenance 9 Psal. xviii. 21-23. John iv. 34. 10 Isa. 1. 6, 7 |