127. A Prayer Of Our Savior.

A Prayer Of Our Savior. The Prayer as recorded.—Matthew 26:39-42. The Answer.—Luke 22:43.

Dr. Chalmers on this subject says, (and we prefer to quote the words of this sainted man,) “I know I am treading on the confines of mystery; I cannot tell the battle our Savior fought, I cannot compute the terror or the strength of his enemies, I cannot say, for I have not been told, how it was that they stood in marshaled and hideous array against him; nor can I measure how great the firm daring of his soul, when he tasted that cup in all its bitterness, which he prayed might pass away from him; when with the feeling that he was forsaken by his God, “he trod the winepress alone.” With his three disciples, Peter, James, and John, in the garden of Gethsemane, our Savior is exceeding sorrowful in view of his sufferings and death. Oh the deep mystery of those tears—the mystery of those prayers! Could nothing else but these, O man, lift up thy ruined, withered soul to heaven? Could nothing but the groan, the sigh, the agony, of God’s only Son, restore thee to his love and favor? Let us not dare to tread where an angel’s desire may not be gratified, but listen in awe, and reverence to the Savior’s prayer.

“It passed not, though the stormy wave Had sunk beneath his tread;

It passed not, though to Him the grave Had yielded up its dead. But there was sent him from on high A gift of strength for man to die. And was his mortal hour beset With anguish and dismay?

How may we meet our conflict yet, In the dark narrow way?

How but through Him that path who trod?

‘Save or we perish!’ Son of God.”