it may be cut down. These trees are very large, and appear pollarded from extreme age: they are wild olives, and their stems very rough and knarled. They are highly venerated by the monks of the Latin convent, who do their best to protect and preserve them '.

Jesus now came hither, not, as was His wont, to enjoy the pleasant evening hour in converse with His chosen ministers, but, knowing all things that should come upon Him, to behold them "offended because of Him;" to witness the treachery of one companion, and the cowardly desertion of all the rest; and in His own sacred Person to endure an agony, such as no human sorrow can ever equal,—such as could only have been borne by Him, on whom it has pleased God to lay the weight of all mankind's transgressions. Jesus probably meant to prepare Himself here, by prayer and meditation, for the approaching sufferings of which He had a full view. Out of the eleven who then attended Him, our Lord selected three,Peter, James, and John '. These three disciples had, at the transfiguration, seen His mortal body suddenly "clad with light, as with a garment;""they beheld His glory, the glory of the Only-Begotten." They are now called upon to behold Him encompassed with the infirmities of a man, and beset by the powers of

1 Dr. Hartwell Horne. 2 Dean Howard. 3 Bishop Horne.

darkness; humbled under the load of our sins; "exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. He enjoins them to tarry where they were, watching and "He said unto them, Pray, that ye enter not into temptation." He Himself withdrew from them, "about a stone's cast, and kneeled down and prayed." Now, it will be remembered that, after His temptation, it is said, "The devil departed from Him for a season." We may, therefore, well believe that no slight portion of the great affliction, of the Agony in the Garden, here recorded by all the Evangelists, was caused by the suggestions of the same spirit of evil, now in this season returning again to tempt Him, by endeavouring to turn Him aside from the great end for which He came into the world, hiding from His eyes the joy that was set before Him, and magnifying the terrors and the bitterness of death. terms in which the Evangelists describe His devotion on this occasion are the strongest that could be used. As soon as He came to the place, He desired His disciples to pray. The state and suffering of His mind parted Him even from the select few He had chosen. He withdrew about a stone's cast, and fell on His face, and prayed. Three times He came back to His disciples, and returned again to prayer. Thrice He kneeled down, at a distance Bishop Horne.

4

Dean Howard.

The

Was

from them, praying the same words. Being in an agony, He prayed more earnestly; drops of sweat fell from His body, as it had been great drops of blood: yet, in all this, throughout the whole scene, the constant conclusion of His prayer was, "Not My will, but Thine be done "." What was it, what could it be, that lay thus heavy on the soul of the Saviour of the world? Was it the fear of death? it the pain, shame, and torment felt beforehand, of His ensuing crucifixion? Such a thought were poor and base: thousands of His blessed martyrs have welcomed tortures not less than these with smiles and gratulations. No; it was the sad weight of the sins of mankind: it was the heavy burden of His Father's wrath for those sins which thus pressed down His soul, and wrung from Him these bitter expressions of sorrow'. The former part of our Lord's petition, "If it be possible, let this cup pass from Me," is the voice of our human nature, yielding to those feelings which God had planted in man, and which prove how strong our mortality was in Christ; yet He, who was become man, and was about to be betrayed, forsaken, blasphemed, and crucified; who had the evil one aggravating His mortal weakness, and who yet could have obtained from His Father "more than twelve legions of • Archdeacon Paley. ' Dr. Hales. Dean Stanhope.

angels" in His defence, utters but the submissive words, "Not as I will, but as Thou wilt "." Where is the wise disputer of the world, who says that pain and affliction are not evils? Bring him to Gethsemane: there shall he see a just Man, and perfect; a Man whose conscience reproaches Him with no vice or folly; a Man assuredly entitled to every comfort, which the consciousness of perfection, of perfect virtue, and of perfect wisdom, can bestow: he shall see this wise, this good, this perfect Man, this Man in union with Divinity, overwhelmed with grief and tribulation. Surely, He bears our griefs; He carries our sorrows; He undergoes the chastisement of our peace. Who then can say that affliction is not an evil, according to the arrogant maxims of a vain philosophy? It may be borne with humility, as the punishment of sin; it may be endured with fortitude, as the instrument of good; it may be accepted with thankfulness, as the discipline of God, by which He trains His sons to virtue, and fits the virtuous for glory: but we must confess that it is that which the most perfect natures do the most abhor; and which it is the wisdom of man, with due submission to the dispensations of Providence, to shun'. 'Bishop Horsley.

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Dr. Ogden.

SECT. CXLV.-Christ is Apprehended.-Matt. xxvi. 47-56; Mark xiv. 43-50; Luke xxii. 47-54; John xviii. 3-12. WHEN, from time to time, He sought the place where He had left the favoured disciples, whom He had selected to be witnesses of His agony, He found them not watching unto prayer, as He had enjoined them, nor in a condition to offer Him sympathy and support, but stretched on the ground, with heavy eyes, "sleeping for sorrow." "The spirit indeed was willing, but the flesh was weak ;" and "they wist not what to answer Him"." He had scarce awakened them the third time, when the traitor, and "with him a great multitude with swords, cometh thither with lanterns and torches.' Judas, according to a sign given, that his confederates might distinguish Jesus from the rest, steps up to Him, and kisseth Him; for, he said,

Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is He: hold Him fast." Our Lord then immediately came forth, and said, "Whom seek ye? They answered Him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto them, I am He:" and thereupon they went backward, and fell to the ground. After so remarkable a display of the majesty of His very words, it was a signal evidence of their obduracy to resume and prosecute their scheme. He might have easily eluded their pursuit; and "they which were about Him, said unto Him, Dr. Lightfoot.

2 Dean Howard.

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