L. 1 Now the feast of unleavened bread drew nigh, which is called the Passover. And it M. 1 came to pass, when Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said unto his disciples, Ye 2 know that after two days is the feast of the passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified. 3 Then assembled together the chief priests, and the scribes, and the elders of the people, 4 unto the palace of the high priest, who was called Caiaphas, and consulted and sought 5 how they might take Jesus by subtilty, and kill him. But they said, Not on the feast-day, lest there be an uproar among the people; for they feared the people. L. 3 Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. 4 And he went his way unto the chief priests and captains, and communed with them how 5 he might betray him unto them. And when they heard it, they were glad, and promised to give him money. And he said unto them, What will ye give me, and I will deliver 6 him unto you? And they covenanted with him for thirty pieces of silver. And he promised, and from that time sought opportunity how he might conveniently betray him unto them in the absence of the multitude. Mk. 12 Now the first day of the feast of unleavened bread, when the passover must be killed, the disciples came to Jesus, saying unto him, Where wilt thou that we go and prepare 13 for thee, that thou mayest eat the passover? And he sendeth forth two of his disciples, Peter and John, and saith unto them, Go ye into the city, and behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall meet you a man bearing a pitcher of water; follow him 14 into the house where he entereth in. And wheresoever he shall go in, say ye to the good man of the house: the Master saith unto thee, My time is at hand, I will keep the passover at thy house; where is the guest-chamber where I shall eat the passover with 15 my disciples? And he will shew you a large upper room furnished and prepared: there 16 make ready for us. And his disciples went forth, and came into the city, and found as he had said unto them: and, as Jesus had appointed, they made ready the passover.

SCARCELY had Jesus commenced his work, when covetousness lifted itself up against him; it everywhere intruded upon his path; it disputed every step that he took. It misunderstood and forsook him, in the person of the rich young man; it excited his holy anger in the person of the sellers in the temple; it hated him; it railed at him; it persecuted him in the person of the Pharisees; and in the person of Judas it tithed the fruit of his charity for the poor; it begrudged the honor destined to his burial; it betrayed him, it delivered him up, it sold him. Oh, prophetic crime, which casts a sad light upon the future of the Church of Jesus Christ! This same crime of him, who for thirty pieces of silver sold the blood of the Son of God, is the very crime which will show itself most active in depriving men of the ineffable benefit of this shed blood; for covetousness will oppose equally the salvation of the individual, the fidelity of the Church, and the conversion of the world. A. M.

M. 1. 2. Jesus sat down upon the Mount of Olives, over against the temple; and as the shadows of evening deepened in the valley of Kedron, he addressed to his wondering disciples the prophecies and parables preserved in the twenty-fourth and twenty-fifth chapters of Matthew’s gospel. It was after he had finished all these sayings that he said to his disciples, “Ye know that after two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified.” He had previously in his discourse been dealing with a broad and distant future, been sketching the world’s history, describing its close—giving no dates, leaving much as to the sequence of events shadowy and undefined. Now he turns to a nearer future, to an event that was to happen to himself; and in terms free of all indistinctness he announces that the day after the next he would be betrayed, and afterward crucified. H.

L. 3. Then entered Satan. But not yet in the full sense. The awful stages of it were these: 1. Covetousness being his master-passion, the Lord let it reveal itself and gather strength by intrusting him with “the bag,” as treasurer to himself and the twelve. 2. In the discharge of that sacred trust he became “a thief,” appropriating its contents from time to time to his own use. Satan, seeing this door into his heart standing wide open, determines to enter by it, but cautiously; first merely “putting it into his heart to betray him,” suggesting the thought to him that by this means he might enrich himself. 3. This thought was probably converted into a settled purpose by what took place in Simon’s house at Bethany. 4. Starting back perhaps, or mercifully held back, for some time, the determination to carry it into immediate effect was not consummated till, sitting at the Paschal supper, “Satan entered into him,” and conscience, effectually stifled, only rose again to be his tormentor. B.

5. Thirty pieces of silver.** The price of a slave that had been slain (Ex. 21 : 32). Thus the prophecy was fulfilled in which it had been particularly specified (Zech. 11 : 12, 13). The sum was equivalent to about fifteen dollars. D.

6. For a man to accuse Christ of nothing and not to complain of him while he betrays him, is to justify Him and to condemn himself. He who nourishes any passion in his heart is in great danger of delivering up Christ to his enemies upon every temptation. When a man hopes for anything from the world, he ought to fear everything from himself. Q.—The life of man furnishes many analogies that may help to clear up the enigmatical conduct of Judas. He who does not follow the impulses of good which he receives, but gives himself up to the selfish propensities which those impulses are meant to counteract, becomes finally and irrecoverably enslaved to them; all things that ought to work together for his good serve for his harm; the healing balm becomes for him a poison. This is the severe judgment upon which our free agency is conditioned; and to it may we apply the saying of our Lord: “From him that hath not, shall be taken away even that which he hath.” N.

In the absence of the multitude. The Jews, having an opportunity of seizing Jesus privately in the night, determined to have him examined by the high-priest and condemned by the Roman governor early in the morning, before the people came together. Therefore Judas sought opportunity to betray him in the absence of the multitude. W. G.

Mk. 12. The 15th of Nisan was the first day of the feast. But, as all leaven was scrupulously removed about noon on the 14th, in preparation for the feast, it was not unnatural to call this “the day,” or as Matthew and Mark have it, “the first day of unleavened bread.” So Josephus, in one place, makes the 14th of Nisan the first day of the feast, which he elsewhere fixes to the 15th; and he assigns eight days as its duration. S. (See variant opinion of Robinson: Section 155, J. 14.)

13. Sendeth forth Peter and John.** In sending them before the others, he could easily have indicated where the room was in which they were to meet in the evening. Instead of this he gives them a sign which was to conduct them to it. This way of ordering it, whatever was its real purpose, served effectually to conceal from the others the locality of the guest-chamber, and may have been meant to keep the traitor in the mean time in ignorance. H.

—A man bearing a pitcher of water. To bring home water is part of woman’s work, in the East. So singular would be the sight of a man thus engaged, that our Saviour here gives it as a sign to his disciples, that a man should meet them bearing water, as though in all the throng not more than a single instance of the kind would occur. N. C. B.

14. “Where is the guest-chamber where I shall eat the Passover?” the Master saith. It is a personal question, a proposal to the inner life of us all. It is an offer of the one infinite divine blessing, for, in receiving the Master, Christ, the Son of Mary and the Son of God, we receive all the real good there is in earth and heaven. There seems to be in this question just that twofold sound of invitation and authority, offer and command, which is always to be found in the word of the Saviour when he proposes to take up his abode in any of our hearts. He offers to come in if we will suffer him; for the act must be free. He commands us to suffer him, because he has a right there; and though faith holds the key, we cannot keep him out without disobedience to him, and guilt and misery following. This is what our Christian life—part a task and part a delight, part duty and part privilege, part drudging and part festival, part of law and part of grace—must always include, the proportions of the service of obligation and the service of joy constantly varying, according as we have more or less of the Master’s own spirit, and live nearer to him. F. D. H.

Section 137.—The Passover Meal. Washes the Disciples’ Feet.

The Guest-Chamber.

J. 55 AND the Jews’ passover was nigh at hand: and many went out of the country up to Jerusalem before the passover, to purify themselves. Then sought they for Jesus, and spake among themselves, as they stood in the temple, What think ye, that he will not come up to the feast? Now both the chief priests and the Pharisees had given a commandment, that, if any man knew where he were, he should shew it, that they might take him.

1. Then Jesus six days before the passover came to Bethany, where Lazarus was which had been dead, whom he raised from the dead. There they made him a supper in the house of Simon the leper, and Martha served: but Lazarus was one of them that sat at the table with him. Then, as he sat at meat, came Mary unto him, having an alabaster box with a pound of ointment of spikenard, very precious; and she brake the box, and poured it on his head; and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with 4 her hair; and the house was filled with the odour of the ointment. Then saith one of 5 his disciples, Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, which should betray him, Why was not this 6 ointment sold for three hundred pence, and given to the poor? This he said, not that he cared for the poor; but because he was a thief, and had the bag, and bare what Mk. 4 was put therein. And there were some disciples that had indignation within them- 5 selves, and said, To what purpose is this waste? for this ointment might have been 6 sold for much, and given to the poor; and they murmured against her. When Jesus understood it, he said unto them, Let her alone: why trouble ye the woman? for she 7 hath wrought a good work upon me. For ye have the poor with you always, and when- 8 soever ye will ye may do them good: but me ye have not always. She hath done what she could: for in that she hath kept this ointment and poured it on my body, she is 9 come aforehand to anoint it for my burial. Verily, I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, this also that this woman hath done shall be spoken of for a memorial of her.

J. 9 Much people of the Jews therefore knew that he was there: and they came, not for Jesus’ sake only, but that they might see Lazarus also, whom he had raised from the 10 dead. But the chief priests consulted that they might put Lazarus also to death; 11 because that by reason of him many of the Jews went away, and believed on Jesus.

THE inspiration of a loving heart has the gift of prophecy. Its insight is foresight, because it is taught of God. And what a rebuke to those who would bring down everything that is lovely and of good report to the hard utilitarian measurement, and, in the pretended interest of fruit, would strike off all the spontaneous blossoms of Christian affection! Ker.—The Lord’s eye beheld more in this anoint- ing than Mary could understand. She had done what she could; she had deposited her whole love in this sacrifice of anointing, but in holy simplicity she had done more than she knew. This is our Saviour’s manner; thus does he interpret the love of his disciples. Let us only do what we can, and then will he do what we cannot do; if we put into our doing all that we can, then will he put therein what far exceeds our power and thoughts. “In the works of the children of God there are often hidden myste- ries which they themselves understand not,” says an experienced Christian. How shall we marvel, when in the light of eternity we review our earthly course; when for the first time we shall fully under- stand all that God meant by what he led us to do through his Spirit! R. B.

J. 55. Many went, to purify themselves. Thousands of devout Jews came anxiously before the Passover to be made ceremonially clean and fit for the feast. All strict Jews were careful to go through ceremonial washings, purifications, and atonements, before eating the Passover. J. C. R. —57. That was not to be allowed to come to pass which his enemies were planning to effect, that they should bring him by force to Jerusalem; instead of that, he was to enter in triumph, and that too as Zion’s King, on Palm-Sunday. “Not on the feast- day,” they afterward said; but, nevertheless, the hour for the presenting of the sacrifice, full of grace and truth, was ordained to be on the great feast of deliverance. R. B.

2. Made him a supper.** All our human- ity, with all its possible moods and conditions, is somehow included and mastered and interpreted by him. He goes with us in our recreation as well as in the funeral procession; he sits in the full circle of health at festivals, as well as with the mourner by the new-made grave, or amidst the fragments of ruined plans; he comes to Bethany when the three there are well, not only when Lazarus is dead. All the rooms of our houses are for him, to come in and abide, as well as the chambers of sickness or of the laying out of the dead. F. D. H.

Martha served. The natural temperament of this good woman comes out here as elsewhere. She could not sit still and do nothing while her Lord was in her house. She must be actively stirring and trying to do something. Grace does not take away our peculiar characteristics. J. C. R.— This, with what is afterward said of Mary’s way of honoring her Lord, is so true to the character in which those two women appear in L. 10: 38-42, as

Bethany.

to constitute one of the strongest confirmations of the truth of both narratives. B.

3. Mary was not occupied like her sister in the active ministrations of the feast, but she sat and thought and gazed until the fire burned, and she felt impelled to some outward sign of her love, her gratitude, her adoration. So she arose and fetched an alabaster vase of Indian spikenard, and came softly behind Jesus where he sat, and broke the alabaster in her hands, and poured the precious perfume first over his head, then over his feet, and then—unconscious of every presence save his alone—she wiped those feet with the long tresses of her hair, while the atmosphere of the whole house was filled with the fragrance. It was an act of devoted sacrifice; and the poor Galileans who followed Jesus, so little accustomed to any luxury, so fully alive to the costly nature of the gift, might well have been amazed that it should have all been lavished on the rich luxury of one brief moment. None but the most spiritual-hearted there could feel that the delicate odor which breathed through the perfumed house might be to God a sweet-smelling savor; that even this was infinitely too little to satisfy the love of her who gave, or the dignity of him to whom the gift was given. F.

Poured it on his head. This act, however strange to us, was perfectly conformable to the customs of ancient times, not only in Asia, but in the more polished parts of Europe; and, among the Jews particularly, the custom of anointing the head seems to have been almost as common a custom as that of washing the face. P.—Kingly guest at royal banquet could not have had a costlier homage of the kind rendered to him. That Mary had in her possession so rich a treasure may be accepted as one of the many signs that her family was one of the wealthiest in the village. That she now took and spent the whole of it upon Jesus, was but a final expression of the fulness and the intensity of her devotion.

4. Judas Iscariot.** Love so ardent, sacrifice so costly as that of Mary, he could not appreciate. He disliked it, condemned it; it threw such a reproach by contrast upon his own feeling and conduct to Christ. H.—6. Cared for the poor. The true friends of the poor, who give most and do most for them, will always be found among those who do most for Christ. It is the successors of Mary of Bethany, and not of Judas Iscariot, who really “care for the poor.” A thief, and had the bag. Than the love of money, no besetting sin seems more thoroughly to wither up and harden the heart. No wonder it is called “the root of all evil.” J. C. R.—A dreadful thing is this love of money! It disables both eyes and ears, and makes man worse to deal with than a wild beast, allowing him to consider neither conscience, nor friendship, nor fellowship, nor salvation. Chrys.—Christ trusts a thief with his money, because he sets no value upon it; but he keeps souls in his own custody, and redeems them with his blood, because, having received them of his Father, he values them more than all the world besides. He suffers his money to be stolen from him, but never his sheep. Q.

Mk. 6. “She hath done a good work,” he said

—“one not only far from censure, but worthy of all praise. She hath done it unto me, done it out of pure, deep love—a love that will bring the best, the costliest thing she has, and think it no waste, but rather its fittest, worthiest application, to bestow it upon me.” Upon that ground alone, upon his individual claims as compared with all others, Jesus might well have rested his vindication of Mary’s act. It does not require that we should assign to her any preeminence of faith. It was the intensity of the personal attachment to Jesus that her act expressed which drew down upon it the encomium of the Lord. H.—On Me, the Lord says; because “on Him,” therefore Mary’s work had its goodness and beauty, as all good works. Love to Christ is the rich source and the living soul of every other love which reckons as such before God. R. B.

The inherent grace and beauty of the act forbade any direct reproof; and so jealousy meanly suggests that the precious perfume might have been better sold, the price given to the poor, and this woman have rendered her demonstrations of gratitude in some more “practical” or active way. The answer of Jesus not only rebukes the littleness which these censures betrayed, but it instructively vindicates the woman’s cordial, unstudied sacrifice; and not hers only, but the offerings of humble loyalty and silent love to him in all time and over all the earth. It is the acceptance, by the Son of God, of lowly and retiring goodness. It is the legitimation and approval of all hearty gifts to the Master, by the Master’s voice. It is the eternal benediction of the gospel on despised fidelity and neglected love. . . . We ought not to forget that God may have, that he asks, that he requires of us that there shall be, servants of his love as self-denying, as heroic, as resolute, of whom hospital never knew and poetry never sang, right here in these homely houses and these prosaic streets. And to all that sit at his feet and follow in his steps in the spirit of her who poured the fragrant offering on his head, he is ready to speak the same benediction with his infinite love—hiding in it the sure promise of life everlasting. F. D. H.

7. The poor with you always, but not me.** The Bible is such a friend to the poor, such an enemy of luxury, prodigality, and mere bodily gratification, that it seems an unnatural thing to have, even in appearance, Judas taking the side of the poor, and Christ standing in their way. But the position of the parties has a deep truth underlying it. Judas the thief takes the side of poverty that he may plunder it; and Christ, who became poor that he might make many rich, teaches that there are more ways of doing good than almsgiving. All heavenly charity is not bound up in bags of flour. “Not that he cared for the poor,” is the truth about the one; “because he cared for the poor,” is the motive of the other. Try to measure the amount of bread which would have been provided by the three hundred pence with the fragrance that has exhaled from this woman’s deed into millions of weary hearts among the poorest of the poor. Ker.

8. If Judas could yet have been saved, the Lord’s patience and gentleness must have brought him on his knees before him. There he stood, his whole heart before Jesus laid bare. And the Lord does not thrust him out, does not upbraid him with being a hypocrite and a thief, and presently about to become a murderer. He only knocks gently at the door of his heart with the foretelling of his death. It is as if he had said to him: “Mary has made me ready for my burial; and thou, Judas—how canst thou will to make me ready for death?” Judas could bear unmoved the Lord’s look, and he went out to betray him. R. B.

She hath done what she could. The whole spiritual meaning of gifts consists in the disposition of the giver. Distinctions of weight and measure, standards of value, calculations of outlay, vanish before that simple and royal touchstone in the breast. Christ’s eye falls, not on the box of ointment, but it falls on Mary’s secret, inmost soul. That being sound, all is sound. She believes, she trusts, she loves; therefore “she hath done what she could.” Out of that deep and rooted affection all manner of obedient fruits must grow, in time, as surely as love is the willing servant of the beloved. To anoint it for my burial. Her gift, he seems to add, is an unconscious embalming before my agony. These most sacred impulses of divine reverence are greater than any common almsgivings. Let each have its due. Whoso loveth me will love my poor, and serve them in the time and place. Let the heart be fastened personally on me as a living Redeemer, and Christian duties will soon fall into their order, and abound. F. D. H.—“For my burying”—clearly, therefore, his condemnation and burial were near at hand. This was another death-blow to all false Messianic hopes. No earthly wealth, no regal elevation could be looked for by the followers of one who was so soon to die. F.

9. Jesus is surrounded by men looking joyously forward to days and years of success and triumph. But he knows what they do not—that on that day week his body will be lying in the new-made sepulchre. And he accepts the anointing at Mary’s hand as preparing his body for the burial. With serene eye he looks down into the future, and abroad over the earth, and speaks of it as a thing of certainty that this gospel—the gospel of glad tidings of salvation in his name—was to be preached throughout the whole world. H.—We cannot but be struck with the majesty of this prophetic announcement; conveying by implication the whole mystery of the gospel which should go forth from his death as its source—looking forward to the end of time when it shall have been preached in the whole world—and specifying the fact that this deed should be recorded wherever it should be preached. A.—While the victories of many kings and generals are lost in silence, and many who have founded states and reduced nations to subjection are not known by reputation or by name, the pouring of ointment by this woman is celebrated throughout the whole world. Time hath passed away, but the memory of the deed she did hath not waned away. Chrys.—Fourteen hundred years have passed and gone since in the great church of St. Sophia at Constantinople Chrysostom uttered these words, but still wider and wider is the tale of Mary’s anointing of her Master being told, the fragrance of the ointment spreading, yet losing nothing of its sweetness; such fresh vitality, such self-preserving power, lodging in a simple act of pure and fervid love. H.

J. 9, 10. Lazarus is mentioned throughout the incident as forming an element in the unfolding of the hatred of the Jews which issued in the Lord’s death. Notice the climax, from mere connecting mention in verse 1, then nearer connection, verse 2, to his being the cause of the Jews flocking to Bethany in verse 9, and the joint object with Jesus of the enmity of the chief priests in verse 10. A.

11. Believed on Jesus.** An intellectual conviction that Jesus must be the Messiah. This was the state of mind in which many hundreds of Jews were before the crucifixion, the resurrection, and the day of Pentecost, convinced but not converted, persuaded that Jesus was the Christ of God, but afraid to confess him. Hence on the day of Pentecost many hundreds of Peter’s hearers were prepared to believe. J. C. R.—What served further to nurture in the breasts of the high-priests, the lawyers, and the Pharisees the design to put Jesus to death, appears in the transaction of the following day, viz., the entrance into Jerusalem. Accordingly, in the incidents of these first two days of the great week we perceive the human cause of the sufferings and death of Jesus. C. B.

Section 118.—Public Entry into Jerusalem.

J. 1 Now before the feast of the passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. L. 14 And in the evening when the hour was come, he sat down, and the twelve apostles 15 with him. And he said unto them, With desire I have desired to eat this passover with 16 you before I suffer. For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be 17 fulfilled in the kingdom of God. And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, 18 Take this, and divide it among yourselves. For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come. 24 And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the 25 greatest. And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over 26 them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is 27 chief, as he that doth serve. For whether is greater, he that sitteth at meat, or he that serveth? is not he that sitteth at meat? but I am among you as he that serveth. J. 2 And supper being ended (the devil having now put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, 3 Simon’s son, to betray him); Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his 4 hands, and that he was come from God, and went to God; he riseth from supper, and 5 laid aside his garments, and took a towel, and girded himself. After that, he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples’ feet, and to wipe them with the 6 towel wherewith he was girded. Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter saith 7 unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto him, What I 8 do thou knowest not now; but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part 9 with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands, and 10 my head. Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but 11 is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all. For he knew who should betray him: therefore said he, Ye are not all clean. 12 So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was set down 13 again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done to you? Ye call me Master, and

14. Lord; and ye say well, for so I am. If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your 15 feet; ye also ought to wash one another’s feet. For I have given you an example, that 16 ye should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto you, The servant is not 17 greater than his Lord; neither he that is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.

HUMAN characters are always reduced in their eminence, and the impressions of awe they have raised, by a closer and more complete acquaintance. But it was not so with Christ. With his disciples, in closest terms of intercourse, for three whole years; their brother, friend, teacher, monitor, guest, fellow-traveller; seen by them under all the conditions of public ministry, and private society, he is yet visibly raising their sense of his degree and quality; becoming a greater wonder and holier mystery, and gathering to his person feelings of reverence and awe, at once more general and more sacred. And it will be discovered in all the disciples, that Christ is more separated from them, and holds them in deeper awe, the closer he comes to them and the more perfectly they know him. He grows sacred, peculiar, wonderful, divine, as acquaintance reveals him. At first he is only a man, as the senses report him to be; knowledge, observation, familiarity, raise him into the God-man. And exactly this appears in the history, without any token of art, or even apparent consciousness that it does appear—appears because it is true. H. B.

J. 1. He loved them unto the end. It was when he drew near the end that our Lord’s love was most severely tested. But, in the most trying circumstances, to the end he said and did everything to maintain and strengthen the confidence of all who had once trusted in him. He interested himself, too, in their condition to the end. In all that he suffered, our Lord could not have been adjudged selfish if it had occupied his thoughts almost to the exclusion of the dangers that surrounded his followers, since he suffered voluntarily in their behalf; but they had his counsel and sympathy and prayers as freely as if he had not been the first to suffer—as if they alone had anything to dread. When assailants, led by Judas, came upon him again after falling backward to the ground in his presence, he was ready to surrender himself, but not his afflicted brethren: “Let these go their way.” When a great company followed him on his way to the crucifixion with their lamentations, he turned to them with more pity for their doom than dread of his own. So also he bore with the inconstancy of his disciples to the end. Often indeed they had stood in need of his forbearance, and in all his treatment of them on such occasions he showed himself a lenient Master; but as the end drew near they wavered most in their allegiance. If ever their devotion could be grateful to his heart, it was not when the multitude crowded about him with wonder and applause, but rather when he prayed alone in agony and then was treacherously kissed and arrested; yet it was in the conclusion of that very scene, when he was finally in the hands of malignant foes, that “all the disciples forsook him and fled.” But he did not forsake them. When Peter thrice denied him, the Master, who had before rebuked his rash violence, only turned and looked upon him, and his silent love broke down the fear and pride of that follower, who now wept the more bitterly because Jesus loved him to the end. But the love that endured so long survived the end, and in itself was without end. It could not die on the cross, nor be stifled in the sepulchre. It rose with him; and again he associated with them, inspired them with new confidence, concerned himself with their wants, and bore with their folly, as in the case of Thomas. And the same love was drawn up to heaven as he ascended, thence to “drop as the rain” and “distil as the dew” upon them, till they ascended to enjoy it unutterably in their abode with him in paradise. To this hour he has never ceased to love his own. He loves them “from everlasting to everlasting.” O. E. D.—The few hours that intervened between the end of Christ’s public ministry and his arrest were devoted to instructing and comforting his disciples in view of his approaching departure, and the severe conflicts they were to undergo. In these conversations he displayed all his heavenly love and calmness of soul; his loftiness and his humility. N.—From first to last, his love was a self-forgetting love, even upon the cross; his love was to the very last a Saviour’s love. Instead of thinking of his own sufferings, he thought of the guilt of others. A. T.

L. 14. The supper began with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, which, when the Master and the rest of the company had tasted, one of the younger persons present—generally a child—asked the reason of what was peculiar in that feast, which introduced the haggadah, that is, the showing forth or declaration of it (in allusion to which we read of showing forth the Lord’s death). Then the Master rose up and took another cup, and washed his hands again before the lamb was tasted; and in this interval it is supposed Christ also washed the feet of his disciples. Then, after eating the Passover, followed another cup, which (after having delivered to each a piece of bread) was the sacramental cup at this supper. Then, after some discourse, the whole family, having drunk at least a fourth cup, sang some psalms of praise; and so the solemnity ended. A.

15. This passover.** Among all the types the Passover holds the foremost place, floating down through the old dispensation to tell of its greatest deliverance, as the Communion has come down to us to tell of the great redemption of the new. It was now about to resign its charge, for it had served its purpose. It had stirred, year by year, the ashes of memory in the Jewish heart, and kindled them into the flame of hope—had taught men to look for a greater prophet than Moses, and to long for a higher salvation than the freedom from Egypt. And now, with this last Passover, it has come. The foreshadowed sufferings of that ancient covenant all meet in his cross, and its promised blessings all flow from it. He is the victim and the offerer, the Passover and the Moses; he endures and does, suffers and saves. He passed through a deeper than Egypt’s darkness—was baptized with the baptism of blood—was the slain lamb, and stricken first-born for our sins. He led his chosen to the sea which barred the way, and stretched over it his delivering cross, and it opened, and a way was made through the deep for the ransomed of the Lord to pass over. He is the heavenly manna—the water and the smitten rock—the pillar of defence and light—the ark of the covenant that dries up Jordan’s stream—the tree of life that scatters its healing leaves and sheds its fruit through all the goodly land. The divine history of the past now completes its cycle, and this last Passover begins to speak the word of the cross—“It is finished.”

Before I suffer! They seem strange words from such lips—from him who had already earned his title to be “the man of sorrows”—who had passed through privation and reproach and grief, and who seems to count all these as nothing to that which lay before him. It is because he is standing on the verge of Gethsemane, and beneath the shadow of his cross, and such words, “before I suffer,” tell us that there was an agony of endurance in view which was to cast into the shade all that laid behind him. It is this suffering that makes the death of Christ the centre of gospel truth, and that brings us together to remember him who was bruised for our iniquities. Ker.—Clear before the Saviour’s eye were all the scenes of the impending midnight hour in the garden, the next forenoon in the judgment-hall, the afternoon upon the cross. A few quiet hours lay between him and his entrance into the cloud. He wished to spend those hours with his apostles, to take his last leave of them, to give his farewell instructions to them. He had never before partaken of the Passover with them. He desired to do it this once. He knew that this was virtually the last Jewish Passover: that with the offering up of himself in the great sacrifice of the following day that long line of Passover celebrations that had run now through fifteen hundred years, down from the night in Egypt when the first-born were slain, was to be brought to its close. He knew that all which this rite prefigured was then to be fulfilled, and that that fulfilment was to issue in the erection of a spiritual kingdom, in which other kind of tables were to be spread, and other kind of wine to be drunk. H.

16. Will not eat. 18. Will not drink.** A declaration of the fulfilment of the Passover rite in both its usual divisions—the eating of the lamb, and drinking the cup of thanksgiving. Henceforward he who fulfilled the law for man will no more eat and drink of it. 17. The cup. This is generally supposed to have been the first cup in the Passover meal, with which the whole was introduced. It has no reference to the subsequent cup in verse 20 (Section 140). That was the institution of a new rite; this, the abrogation of an old one, now about to be fulfilled in the person of the true Lamb of God. A.—“It is to be your last as well as mine, until the kingdom of God come” (verse 18). It was the point of transition between two economies and their two great festivals, the one about to close forever, the other immediately to open and run its majestic career until from earth it be transferred to heaven. B.—Henceforth the Levitical sacrifice was to cease, being transfigured into an evangelical sacrament. W.

24. Spring up how it might, we have the fact that around the first communion-table among the apostles, in the presence of their Master, in the critical and solemn position in which he and they stood, there was actually a quarrel about their individual rights and privileges; a petty ambition, the love of place and power, finding its way into the hearts of those most honored of the Lord, entering to defile the most sacred season and solemnity. H.—This was not the first time that the followers of the meek and lowly one had striven for the highest place. It is a fearful proof of the strong hold which ambition has upon the human heart, that the disciples, after a two years’ training in the school of humility, had yet made so little progress, that at such an hour as this they could feel disposed to begin quarrelling about precedence. R. B.—It showed how little, as yet, even these his chosen followers had entered into the meaning of his life. It showed that, even now, they had wholly failed to understand his many and earnest warnings as to the nature of his kingdom, and the certainty of his fate. Not by mere verbal reproof, but by an act more profoundly significant and touching, he determined to teach to them, and to all who love him, a nobler lesson. F.—Our Lord showed the greatest kindness in his manner of correcting their false ideas. Having stated the difference between his kingdom and worldly ones, exaltation among his followers depending on their humility, he proposes to them his own example during his intercourse with them, and enforces his words by a most eminent act of humility in washing their feet, a condescension which he exhorts them to imitate in their general conduct toward each other. Newcome.

J. 2. Being ended. Rather having begun. P. S.—The devil put into the heart. Literally “cast.” The heart is the seed-plot which Satan sows. Suggestion is one of his chief weapons. The sin of man consists in opening his heart to the suggestion; giving it a place and letting it sink down. This is obvious in the first temptation in Eden. J. C. R.—3. Jesus came from God, not leaving him, and went to God, not leaving us. Bernard.—4. Riseth from supper. He rose from the supper-table before the repast had fully commenced. The guests had taken their half-recumbent positions around the table in the usual Oriental style, reclining upon the left side, resting on the elbow, leaving the right hand free for service in eating, and with feet extended outward. H. C. (See p. 182.)

5. The master of the house had relinquished for the strangers the best apartment of his dwelling, and furnished it as well as he could. He saw that in the room the necessary apparatus for the washing, the basin and the water and the towel, were all provided, but he left it to the guests themselves to see that it was done. But which of the twelve will do it for the others? H.—He into whose hands the Father had given all things, with those same hands washes, not the hands, but the feet of his disciples. Aug.—Verily, the heart of man never could have imagined such a scene! All that the world can show that is great and high vanishes into nothing before this lowliness. R. B.—In this act Jesus became a servant of servants to his disciples. He showed that to serve was the business of his life, and in his view was not to his shame but to his glory. It was an example to illustrate a principle. All that his example meant then, it means now. The real service which the law of Christ demands of us is not abated by the least jot or tittle in consequence of the change in social customs which renders it improper now to wash one another’s feet. It were more than a misfortune to lose the sweet power of this divine example; it were worse than a blunder to miss its precious influence toward the crucifying of human selfishness and the culture of Christian humility and of loving service toward all the Christian brotherhood. H. C.

7. Not now, but hereafter.** God’s ways may appear inscrutable, and indeed must be so, for life on the earth is but a beginning and a fragment, a beginning to find its end, and a fragment to be made whole, in the all-revealing life beyond the grave. But looking at our life, in the light shed upon it by Christ’s, and meekly receiving what God sends in submission and hope, we will be learning more and more now, and all hereafter. The teaching of the Spirit, it is enough to say, becomes the providence of the Christian. It is of less consequence for him to know what betides him, than to have the assurances begotten of the Spirit, that come what may, God will fit him for it, carry him through it, and make it, in the end, the best possible experience for him. If one have but the meekness to pray, to do, and to wait, the issue cannot be otherwise than happy. God’s word and Spirit are our warrant. The world is God’s, and its heirs are God’s people. W. I. B.

8,9. If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.** This at last carries the disciple away, for whither should he go if he were to have no part with him who was his life? Vehement as he was in refusing, he is now still more vehement in submitting. He answers in the language of devoted love—love which, though inconsiderate, is yet perfect love. R. B.—“If to be washed of Thee have such significance, then not my feet only, but hands, head, and all, be washed!” This artless expression of clinging attachment to Jesus, and felt dependence upon him for his whole spiritual well-being, furnishes such evidence of historic verity as no thoroughly honest mind can resist.

10. He that is washed**—in this thorough sense, to express which the word is carefully changed to one meaning to wash as in a bath: needeth not—to be so washed any more: save to wash his feet—needeth to do no more than wash his feet (and here the former word is resumed, meaning to wash the hands or feet): but is clean every whit—or, “as a whole.” This sentence is singularly instructive. Of the two cleansings, the one points to that which takes place at the commencement of the Christian life, embracing complete absolution from sin as a guilty state, and entire deliverance from it as a polluted life, or, in the language of theology, justification and regeneration. This cleansing is effected once for all, and is never repeated. The other cleansing, described as that of “the feet,” is such as one walking from a bath quite cleansed still needs, in consequence of his contact with the earth. It is the daily cleansing which we are taught to seek, when in the spirit of adoption we say, “Our Father which art in heaven—forgive us our debts.” B.—And where we make this confession, then he who washed his disciples’ feet is faithful and just to forgive us our sin, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Aug.—When burdened with the sense of manifold shortcomings, as what tender spirit of a Christian is not? is it not a relief to be permitted thus to wash our feet after a day’s contact with the earth? This is not to call in question the completeness of our past justification. Our Lord, while graciously insisting on washing Peter’s feet, refuses to extend the cleansing farther, that the symbolical instruction intended to be conveyed might not be marred. And ye are clean—in the first and whole sense: but not all—important, as showing that Judas, instead of being as true-hearted a disciple as the rest at first, and merely falling away afterward—as many represent it—never experienced that cleansing at all which made the others what they were. B.—Concerning this twofold purification: that which is once performed through justification, and that which takes place daily through sanctification, the Lord speaks also in John 15: 2, 3. He says: “Now ye are clean,” and yet at the same time “he purgeth them.” R. B.

14–17. He their Lord and Master had washed their feet. He had done it to teach them humility, to teach them self-denial, to teach them love: blessed they if they learned the lesson! He should be chief among them who, for the sake of others, gladly laid on himself the lowliest burdens, and sought for himself the humblest services. Again and again he warned them that they were not to look for earthly reward or earthly prosperity; the throne, and the table, and the kingdom, and the many mansions were not of earth. F.—His own act stands before us, not as a model act to be exactly copied, but as an act representative to us of the whole circle of kindly offices that we are called upon to render to one another, and as illustrative of the humble, self-denying spirit in which all these offices should be discharged. H.—Whoever serves his brother in self-denying love is obeying this command of the Lord, in whatever way he may be called upon to do it, whether it be by washing his feet, or whether it be by filling his hand, or whether it be by drying from his eyes the tears, or whether it be by watching and praying for his soul. It is not what we do, so much as the mind with which we do. And this the disciples and the first Christians, who glowed with brotherly love, well knew. They drew from this feet-washing no literal law, but have sought to enter into the spirit of him who, Lord over all, yet dwelt among his own as a servant, to whom no lowliness was so lowly that the height of his love did not stoop down thereunto. Jesus’ serving love was writing in their hearts this fundamental principle in the kingdom of God, namely, that every office, even the highest, the apostolic office, is appointed to serve. How easy this to learn, but how difficult to do! “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.” R. B.

All our noblest enlargements of power and of peace are sacrificial: there is something hard to do, or hard to bear—human nature being what it is. But the yoke is eased if by it you help other men. Learn to love the brotherhood. Hate nothing so much as hatred—dropping every grudge and every revenge, every bitter or cruel vestige of the old satanic life out of your heart, forgiving even them that will not forgive. Live fairly and generously with men. God makes the path of obedience to himself to be the path of honesty and sweet temper and loving-kindness to his children. Let thine eyes look right on, and thine eyelids straight before thee. Then it will prove that you are blessed children of the Father. You walk at large, like sons of God. The road of duty will still be narrow, but, travelling in it, you will breathe the immortal air, and every deepening breath will be an inspiration of the life eternal. Your daily landscape will be the scenery of both worlds—all things yours, because ye are Christ’s, and Christ is God’s. F. D. H.

CHRIST never conforms to an expectation, even of his friends. When they look to find a great prophet in him, he offers nothing in the modes of the prophets. When they ask for places of distinction in his kingdom, he rebukes their folly, and tells them he has nothing to give, but a share in his reproaches and his poverty. When they look to see him take the sword as the great Messiah of their nation, calling the people to his standard, he tells them he is no warrior and no king, but only a messenger of love to lost men; one that has come to minister and die, but not to set up or restore the kingdom. Every expectation that rises up to greet him, is repulsed; and yet, so great is the power of his manner, that multitudes are held fast, and cannot yield their confidence. Enveloped as he is in the darkest mystery, they trust him still; going after him, hanging on his words, as if detained by some charmed influence which they cannot shake off or resist. Never was there a teacher that so uniformly baffled every expectation of his followers, never one that was followed so persistently. H. B.

Section 138.—One of You shall betray Me.

The Guest-Chamber.

L. 28 Ye are they which have continued with me in my temptations; and I appoint unto 29, 30 you a kingdom, as my Father hath appointed unto me; that ye may eat and drink at J. 18 my table in my kingdom, and sit on thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen; but that the scripture may be fulfilled, He 19 that eateth bread with me, hath lifted up his heel against me. Now I tell you before 20 it come, that when it is come to pass, ye may believe that I am he. Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me; and he that receiveth me 21 receiveth him that sent me. When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in spirit; and as they sat and did eat, he testified and said, Behold, the hand of him that betrayeth me is with me on the table. Verily, verily, I say unto you, that one of you which eateth 22 with me shall betray me. Then the disciples looked one on another, doubting of whom he spake; and they began to inquire among themselves, which of them it was that should M. 22 do this thing. And they were exceeding sorrowful, and, one by one, began every one 23 of them to say unto him, Lord, is it I? And he answered and said unto them, It is one of the twelve, that dippeth his hand with me in the dish; the same shall betray me. 24 The Son of man indeed goeth, as it is written of him: but woe unto that man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! good were it for that man if he had never been born. 25 Then Judas, which betrayed him, answered and said, Master, is it I? He said unto him, Thou hast said. J. 23 Now there was leaning on Jesus’ bosom one of his disciples, whom Jesus loved. 24 Simon Peter therefore beckoned to him, that he should ask who it should be of whom 25, 26 he spake. He then, lying on Jesus’ breast, saith unto him, Lord, who is it? Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he 27 had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon. And after the sop 28 Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly. Now 29 no man at the table knew for what intent he spake this unto him. For some of them thought, because Judas had the bag, that Jesus had said unto him, Buy those things that 30 we have need of against the feast; or, that he should give something to the poor. He then, having received the sop, went immediately out: and it was night.

“AND after the sop Satan entered into him.” There is something appalling in the successive stages by which he reached the climax of his guilt. First, “the devil (simply) put it into his heart to betray” him. But many a struggle may he have endured ere he could nerve himself for the deed. Even with the thirty pieces of silver in his hand, he probably still quailed at the thought of such an act, and for such a sum—the price of the lowest slave! When Jesus stooped to wash his feet, the last struggle may have been only reaching its crisis. But that word, about one that did eat of his bread lifting his heel against him; the still more explicit announcement that a traitor was at the table; the inquiry which was forced out of him, after it had come from all the rest, “Master, is it I?” and above all, the answer (certainly not audible to the rest), “Thou hast said it”—would make the feeling irresistible, “I am detected, it is now too late to draw back.” And the sop given, and Satan now seated in his breast, he went immediately out (thus severing himself forever from that holy society with which he never had any spiritual sympathy); and it was night—but far blacker night in the soul of Judas than in the sky over his head. B.—O night the most criminal, dreadful, and dark, and yet the most holy, hopeful, and bright!—since the Son of God is therein betrayed, sold, and delivered up by the most execrable sacrilege, and since he therein gives, delivers up, and sacrifices himself, leaves the most divine pledge of his love, and teaches therein the sublimest truths of that religion which he institutes! Q.

L. 29. I appoint a kingdom. Who is this that dispenses kingdoms, nay, the kingdom of kingdoms, within an hour or two of his own apprehension, and less than a day of his shameful death? B.—He undertakes to organize a kingdom of God, or kingdom of heaven on earth. His purpose includes a new moral creation of the whole human race. H. B.—The first conception is due to the mind of Jesus Christ, and in his teaching the conception is presented, not vaguely and confusedly, but with luminous precision. It is the reign of God in men, when the Father of minds shall be known, loved, and revered by his children. It is the reign of righteousness, purity, truth, love, and peace, the universal reception and dominion among men of all true, just, holy, generous and divine principles. Y.—It is a plan as universal in time, as it is in the scope of its objects. It does not expect to be realized in a lifetime, or even in many centuries to come. His expectation reaches boldly out beyond his own death; that, in fact, is to be the seed of his great empire—“except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth,” he says, “alone.” Is this great idea, which no man ever before conceived, the raising of the whole human race to God, a plan sustained with such evenness of courage, and a confidence of the world’s future so far transcending any human example—is this a human development? Regard the benevolence of it, the universality of it, the religious grandeur of it, as a work readjusting the relations of God and his government with men—the cost, the length of time it will cover, and the far-off date of its completion—is it in this scale that a Nazarene carpenter, a poor uneducated villager, lays out his plans and graduates the confidence of his undertakings? H. B.—His great central conception of the kingdom of God—a kingdom based on truth, administered by moral influences, pervaded by love, and holiness, and joy, and open to all of whatever class or clime—is a conception as magnificent as it is original. And, with this, all the rest of his doctrine is in perfect and beautiful harmony, every line of truth being like a radius starting from and conducting to this central idea, and the whole forming one perfect sphere of knowledge. W. L. A. (Read Section 174.)

J. 18. Hath lifted up his heel. Ps. 41: 9. It was fulfilled in the case of Judas in the sense that this case filled out fully the very idea of David in the Psalm. The same thing befell David’s greater son which befell David. 21. Troubled in spirit. The same word we met in the scenes at the grave of Lazarus (John 11: 33)—indicating deep and painful emotion—it seemed so inexpressibly sad that one of his chosen twelve—one who had sat beside him at table; was sitting (perhaps) next him at this moment—who had been lifted so high in privilege and honor, and in the possibilities of a noble life, should turn against him in the foulness of the basest treason! H. C.—To the apostles he had said, “Ye are clean;” but, as this could not be applied to Judas, he added, “yet not all.” Intimations of this kind he threw out more and more frequently, partly, as he himself said (verse 19), to prepare them for the act of treachery, that it might not take them unawares, and lead them to infer that he, too, had been deceived; and partly, perhaps, in order to rouse, if possible, the conscience of Judas himself. But his foresight of the awful deed—that one who had been a special object of his love should disarm him and become a tool of his enemies—and of the conflict with depravity that he must go through, even up to his last hour, moved him most deeply; and he now spoke more plainly, “Verily I say unto you, that one of you shall betray me.” N.—That night all, even the best beloved, were to forsake him, but it was not that; that night even the boldest-hearted was to deny him with oaths, but it was not that; nay, but one of them was to betray him. F.—M. 22. Lord, is it I? Their language expresses in the original a much stronger negation than in our version. Surely not I, Lord? L. A.

24. A great crime is made to minister to the greatest act of the divine love, yet the criminal is stripped of no part of his guilt. “The Son of man goeth as it is written;” that writing is but the expression of the divine will; that will is sovereign, just, and good; yet woe to the man by whom the Son of man is betrayed! human freedom, human agency, human guilt taken up into that vast and complicated machinery by which the counsels of the Most High God are carried out. H.—It were good for that man if he had not been born? “Words,” it has been well said, “of immeasurable ruin, words of immeasurable woe”—and the more terrible because uttered by the lips of immeasurable love; words capable, if any were capable, of revealing to the lost soul of the traitor all the black gulf of horror that was yawning before his feet. F.—25. Thou hast said. No man at the table then could have heard that answer of our Lord; we can scarcely imagine how it could be but by supposing that Judas lay upon the seat immediately next to Jesus on the one side, as John lay upon the one nearest to him on the other. Assuming this, Jesus might easily have spoken to one so near in such an undertone that none could overhear. H.

J. 23. Leaning on Jesus’ bosom. The rare combination of contemplativeness and passion, of strength and sweetness, in the same soul—the perfect faith which inspired his devotion, and the perfect love which precluded fear—these were the gifts and graces which rendered him worthy of leaning his young head on the bosom of his Lord. F.—In modest self-concealment, and under a sense of the deepest gratitude, John designates himself as “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” P. S.—25.

Lying on. Rather, leaning back on. A.—26. Two men of the twelve now knew to whom the Lord referred—Judas, on the one side, to whom Jesus had directly said, “Thou art the man,” and John, now, on the other, to whom the sign was as explicit as any words could be—a sign, however, only to John himself, the others not having heard the words that gave the act its meaning. H.—But for the concluding scenes of the history, no reader of it would gather that one of the twelve differed in character from all his fellows. If there was a radical defect in the moral and religious character of Judas, it certainly remained undeveloped to his constant associates up to the fatal night when they all met for the last time together. B.

27. After the sop, Satan.** At first Satan came to make the heart of Judas his own; now he enters, because it is his own. Bp. H.—The kingdom of evil, as well as that of good, has a personal head. That he should have the power of tempting is no more strange than that human spirits should possess it. He can no more compel than they, and he gains in influence only as we yield him place. Ker.—That which thou art doing, do more quickly. Reproving his lingering, and his pretending to share in the general doubt. A.

29. Huy things needed.** Our Lord did not work miracles to procure the necessaries required by himself and his disciples. Give to the poor. The supposition shows our Lord’s custom in the matter of almsgiving. He sanctified and adorned the practice of caring for the poor by his own example. Judas had the bag. Snares attend the possession and handling of money. The man who has the care of the money in our Lord’s little company is the man that makes shipwreck of his soul, through the love of money. J. C. R.

30. In that bewildering chaos of a soul spotted with mortal guilt, the Satanic had triumphed over the human; in that dark heart earth and hell were thenceforth at one; in that lost soul sin had conceived and brought forth death. And so from the lighted room, from the holy banquet, from the blessed company, from the presence of his Lord, he went immediately out, and—as the beloved disciple adds, with a shudder of dread significance letting the curtain of darkness fall forever on that appalling figure—“and it was night.” F.

Section 139.—Foretells the Denial of Peter, and the Dispersion of the Twelve.

The Guest-Chamber.

M. 26 And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and when he had blessed, or given thanks, he brake it and gave it to the disciples, and said, Take, eat; this is my body, which is given, broken, for you: this do in remembrance of me. Likewise also after supper he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it; and they all drank of it. And he said unto them, This cup is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for you and for many, for the remission of sins. This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. Verily I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my 1 Cor. Father’s kingdom. For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew 26 the Lord’s death till he come.

THIS table was provided by a sacrifice which exhausted the treasury of heaven. God manifest in the flesh spread it, in person, with his own hands. These two symbols only, simple and plain, dependent on no forms for their efficacy, nor on the vessels which hold them, whether of gold, or silver, or wood, or earth, are the Lord’s Supper. Their single signification is, the Lord’s death: an object remaining the same from the beginning, “until he come;” thus beautifully holding us in communion with all the people of God in times past and at present, amid changes of all other customs, and also setting our faces toward that great event, his final coming. “Ye do show the Lord’s death until he come,” Judge of the living and of the dead, in the glory of his father and of his holy angels; and such is he who spread, who furnished this table and calls to every human being, “This do, in remembrance of me.” N. A.

To ask and to take the solemn tokens of redemption, is to confess before the world, and before the Church, faith in this great fact, and a resolve, “to know nothing among men, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified;” it is to express a desire after a moral assimilation of his divine life, as positive as the physical assimilation which transmutes the material bread into part of our very substance; and as in the order of Christianity, to ask is to receive, the disciple who participates in this sacred feast obtains a glorious confirmation of his faith in exchange for his feeble testimony; for Christ gives himself to the penitent and believing soul. At the table of the Lord’s Supper, man and God meet together—man with his best aspirations, God with his richest gifts. De P.

THE sequence of the transactions during the supper appears to have been the following: The taking of their places at table; the contention; the first cup of wine; the washing of the disciples’ feet and reproof; the pointing out of the traitor and his departure; the foretelling of Peter’s denial; institution of the Lord’s Supper. R.

26-29. This is Christ’s engagement to be present at every other communion where his friends meet to remember him—a promise to be present with them, not in the corporal and carnal way some dream of, but with a true spiritual nearness which makes good his own words, “Yet a little while and the world seeth me no more, but ye see me;” “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.” When we look back through time to that first night, we see him breaking the bread and giving it to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitude, till it reaches the far-off ranks in which we gather round him. This makes of all communions a single fellowship, and brings the scattered companies of Christians into one Church, of which he is the Head unseen—but the felt and ever-living life. Ker.

Our Lord had now commemorated the Passover, the type of the great sacrifice for sin, made by “Christ our Passover.” In the expressions, therefore, which he uses, he refers to the occasion and the objects before him. It is as if he had said, You have eaten the flesh of a lamb whose blood has been shed on the altar to make atonement.

Know that these are but shadows. I am the sacrifice, my blood the true atonement. Eat of this bread, drink of this cup, as representing my body and blood, and you shall be partakers of what was always the end and meaning of the Passover; of this body, which is now to be offered in sacrifice to God for the sins of all men; of this blood, “without shedding of which is no remission.” Ogden.—The apostles could have had no simpler or more unmistakable intimation that as of old the blood of the Passover lamb redeemed the people of God from the sword of the angel of wrath, his blood would be a ransom for man from far deadlier peril. A covenant to them implied a sacrifice; and his blood, as the new covenant, was therefore sacrificial: the blood of a covenant which pledged his followers to faith and duty; the blood of a new paschal lamb, with which his disciples must in figure be sprinkled, that the destroying angel might pass over them in the day of judgment. They saw in this new institution an abiding memorial of their Lord: a vivid enforcement of their dependence on the merits of his death, as a sacrifice for their salvation: the need of intimate spiritual communion with him, as the bread of life: and the bond of the new brotherhood he had established. G.

In remembrance of me. It was demonstrably our Lord’s intention to found an ordinance for those who should believe on him. The apostle Paul, in giving directions (1 Cor. 11) for the due celebration of the Lord’s Supper, states that he had received from the Lord the account of its institution which he then gives. The key to the understanding of what took place must be found in our Lord’s discourse in John 6 (Sections 68, 69), since he there, and there only, speaks of his flesh and blood in the connection found here. A.—With perfect composure, he made provision that not only his death itself, but all its agony and its shame should never be forgotten while the world lasted. Y.

The giving of thanks before the distribution of the bread and wine corresponds to a similar act on the part of the head of the family in the Jewish Passover feast, in which thanksgiving was offered for the gifts of nature, and also for the deliverance of the fathers out of Egypt and the founding of the old covenant. We may infer, therefore, that Christ’s thanksgiving had reference partly to the creation of all material things for man (bread and wine symbolizing all God’s gifts in nature); chiefly, to his own death, in order to deliver men from the bondage of sin, and, by his redemptive act, to establish the new covenant between God and man.

—27. After supper. The institution of the Lord’s Supper took place obviously at the close of the Passover meal, and in connection with the “cup of blessing,” or third cup, which terminated the meal proper. With this view accords the expression “after supper.” R.

28. This is my blood. Up to this time the blood of bulls and of goats had represented Christ’s blood; henceforth the simple wine of this memorial supper should represent it. L. A.—Here is first the cup for the wine, by a figure. Then the cup being the “blood of the New Testament,” is another figure. And it is another, to say “which is shed,” for “which shall be shed,” for his blood was not then shed. To show that the words were figurative, and that the elements did not lose their nature, they are called by their own names after the consecration, as the wine is called the “fruit of the vine,” after the consecration. And it is called bread which they eat in the sacrament. And we are called bread because we partake of that bread. We are bread by the same figure that bread is flesh. Leslie.—The bread could not be Christ’s natural body while he was alive; for it was his body that performed the action of breaking and giving the bread; nor could the wine in the cup be his blood, for that was still flowing in his veins. Mann.—The breaking of the bread was a natural symbol of the breaking of his body; the pouring out of the red wine (the ordinary wine of Palestine) was a natural symbol of the pouring out of his blood. “I offer up my life for your redemption; and when, in remembrance thereof, you meet to partake of this supper, be assured that I shall then be with you as truly as now I am with you. The bread and wine, which I divide among you as symbols of my body and blood, will stand in stead of my corporeal presence.” This symbol was not an entirely new one to the disciples: it had been used substantially, in the conversation between Christ and the Jews, in the synagogue at Capernaum. To “eat his flesh and drink his blood” was an understood sign of the closest spiritual communion with his divine-human nature. And therefore he said, in giving the wine, “This is my blood, the seal of the new covenant, which is given for many for the remission of sins.” N.—All the blood of the ancient economy finds its true reality and fulfilment in the blood of Christ, shed for the remission of sins. In the application by faith of that blood to the believing soul, the faithful partake of it in the Lord’s Supper. The dogma of transubstantiation utterly destroys both the unity of Christ’s body, and the sacramental nature of the ordinance. A.

29. Until I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom. This presence of Christ, at the first communion, looks on to the period when, instead of his Spirit, we shall have himself. When the great communion opens in heaven, he shall be seen in his place once more. It was his ardent wish in leaving, to impress upon the hearts of his friends the confident expectation of meeting him again, and of finding him the same in affection as when he parted from them. This was to be their star of hope, rising over every wave, reappearing from every cloud. In his farewell communion address in John’s gospel, we find him constantly recurring to it: “I shall see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” This is the express meaning breathed into the ordinance by his own words. Ker.

1. Cor. 26. Ye do shew the Lord’s death. Ye declare the Lord’s death; ye assure the world of the truth of it. The sacrament of the Supper was instituted, not only to bring Christ’s sufferings, and the happy consequences thereof, to the remembrance of his disciples, but to demonstrate the truth of these things to the world in all ages. In this view the sacrament of the Supper is the strongest proof of our Lord’s integrity, and of the truth of his mission; for if he had been an impostor, and suffered death on account of his deluding the people, is it to be imagined that he would have instituted any rite with a view to preserve the memory of his having suffered punishment for the worst of crimes? This is beyond all human belief. M.

Till he come. One object of Christ’s presence at this communion, was to make it the promise and the pledge of his great return, when he shall change earth to heaven—faith to sight—and these emblems into his own glorious person. The Passover came down through long ages, pointing back to the deliverance of Egypt, and forward to the coming of Christ; and Christ himself changed it into this memorial, which looks back to his death, and forward to his second coming. It is the grand New Testament type, which has a hand of faith to point to Christ’s cross, and another of hope to point us to his throne. Ker.

THE soul and the Supper of communion meet one another, and are meant for one another. Jesus himself, the tenderest friend, the dying Saviour, the spotless sacrifice “for us the unjust,” the divine and gentle Lord, has enjoined it, under the most impressive conditions, on all his followers that truly love him—reason enough, to human feeling, if every other failed. There is a personal satisfaction resulting from it—a satisfaction not realized, of course, to those that have never come where it is tasted, but very real and unspeakably precious to those that have. It is a testimony to the divine cause, to God’s law, and Christ’s kingdom in the world; and when the two opposing forces, righteousness and sin, God and mammon, are drawn up in as sharp and bitter a warfare as they are every.

where about us yet, it is cowardly and slothful for us not to take open ground, on the Lord’s side, or on Satan’s. And finally, the Supper, for all who partake of it, with right preparation, in a right spirit, is a mighty quickener of goodness, a mighty guard against temptation. F. D. H.

The “kingdom of God,” the “kingdom of heaven,” began to be manifested upon earth, when souls, brought into a personal allegiance to truth and holiness, were united in a fellowship of spiritual love and obedience to their common Lord. Wherever such souls are found, there is the kingdom of heaven already within them; and wherever such souls are joined together in some visible bond of recognition and fellowship, there is the kingdom of heaven made manifest. As yet, however, the kingdom of heaven is but imperfectly established in respect of its authority in the hearts of those who have received it, and imperfectly manifested through any communion of Christians by which it is represented to the world. The kingdom in its highest sense—as denoting the perfect rule of the divine will in a perfect community—will not appear until the final coming of the Son of man. J. P. T.

Section 141.—Last Discourse.

The Guest-Chamber.

J. 1 WHEN Jesus had spoken these words and when they had sung an hymn, he went forth, as he was wont, over the brook Cedron to the mount of Olives; and his disciples also followed him. Then cometh Jesus with them unto a place called Gethsemane, where was a garden, into the which he entered, and his disciples. And when he was at the place, he said unto them, Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder. 37 And he took with him Peter, and James and John, the two sons of Zebedee, and he began to be sorrowful, sore amazed, and very heavy. Then saith he unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death: tarry ye here, and watch with me. And he went a little further, and was withdrawn from them about a stone’s cast; and he kneeled down, fell on his face on the ground, and prayed that if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. And he said, Abba, O my Father, all things are possible unto thee; if it be possible, if thou be willing, take away this cup from me: nevertheless, not my will, but thine, be done. And he cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them sleeping, and saith unto Peter, Simon, sleepest thou? what, couldst not thou watch with me one hour? Watch ye and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And 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 when he returned, he 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. And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him. And being in agony, he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground. 45 And when he rose up from prayer, and was come the third time to his disciples, he found them sleeping for sorrow, and said unto them, Why sleep ye now, and take your rest? it is enough; rise and pray, lest ye enter into temptation. Behold, the hour is come, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners. Rise up, let us go: lo, he that betrayeth me is at hand.

It is not by simply coming to the world, amazing as that is, that the Lord is to set the penitent free, to make the publican devout, and the weeping harlot an heir of heaven. It is not by speaking sweet words of wisdom; nor by charming men to goodness with his finished example; nor even by suddenly startling their senses and arousing their souls with his wonders of power. It was not thus, and by such means alone, that the Lord made atonement for human sin. But it was by submitting to that stroke at his life, which malice had prepared, which treason assisted, which a timid and haughty ferocity dealt, and which makes the overshadowing tragedy of Time; by bowing in acquiescence to that anguish in the garden, which is as inscrutable as is the nature which it searched and intrhalled; by yielding his body and soul to the Cross, over which the skies grew dark without cloud, and under whose weight the strong earth shivered. According to all the consenting testimonies, the Lord of Glory went through death, to save us from it. He drank the cup of bitter woe, that we might quaff from heavenly chalices the wine of life. All faintness and gloom which his mysterious being could know, he folded round, he took within him, that we might walk celestial streets with palm and harp, in robes of white. And only when this vast anguish was ended, this sacrificial death endured, was God, not pacified by it, not changed in character, or made more merciful than he would have been otherwise, but shown to be so holy while gracious, so purely, ineffably just, that the scoffer and the robber, the adulterer and the assassin turning to him, might be forgiven. R. S. S.

J. 1. Between the end of the meal and the hymns of praise which followed it, there was an interval of most solemn and delightful converse, in which the disciples, bowed down with sorrow at what they had heard, were assured that he would not leave them comfortless, though hated and persecuted by the world, but he would come again to take them to the mansions he now went to prepare for them; and that meanwhile they would be divinely comforted, enlightened, and inspired for their work by the Paraclete, the Holy Spirit of truth. Those exquisite chapters of John which contain this discourse conclude with that most solemn and affecting of all the utterances of human language, our Lord’s intercessory prayer in presence of his disciples. The momentous scenes transacted in that upper chamber ended with the singing of a hymn, probably the “Great Hallel” (Psalm 115-118) which concluded the ceremony, and then they went out together to the first scene of suffering on the Mount of Olives. S.

They sung a hymn. It is near midnight, and soon the morning begins on which the Son of God is to be crucified. Yet at that hour, when Jesus was fully realizing all that he is to endure according to the will of his Father, there and then he sings a hymn! That hymn expresses but one feeling, joyful thanksgiving: joy in God; thanksgiving for all his appointments. He had already given thanks over the symbols of his broken body and shed blood: thanks because he was to die and give his life for his friends. And now again he sings this hymn of peace and of praise to God. The prospect of bringing to humanity the gift of eternal life, and of raising up and glorifying his Church forever with himself—this filled his heart with joy, this attuned his lips to praise. N. M.

If a hymn could be appropriate then and there, if Jesus, with Gethsemane and Calvary in view, joined in sacred praise before he went out to suffer, we are instructed and encouraged to turn everything into praise, and in everything by prayer and supplication, together with thanksgiving, to let our requests be made known unto God, and the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall keep our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. In the midst of fiery trials, in the darkest hours, in the loneliest night-watches, amid the fiercest opposition, in dangers, and even in the prospect of violent death, we have the example of Jesus teaching us with what composure and assurance we may remember that, in all these things, we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. N. A.

Went forth. From the room rendered so sacred by all that had been said and done in it, Jesus and the eleven at last depart. It was near midnight, but the full moon lighted them on their way. They passed out of one of the city gates, descended into the valley of Jehoshaphat, crossed the Cedron, and made their way to the garden of Gethsemane. H.

The brook Cedron. By sinking shafts in the soil, we have found the original Cedron bed. It lay more than eighty feet nearer to the temple wall than the present hollow. The bed sank more than thirty feet deeper than it does now. There is no brook in that hollow now, and critics have been exercised in finding an excuse for such a name as brook. Our spades found out the truth. When we arrived at the natural bed we saw water flowing as of old. Water will find a level, and will always run along the lowest course. Remove the rubbish which conceals it and you will find the brook Cedron. W. H. D.

M. 36. Gethsemane . . . a garden. Within the city no open space was left for gardens; but the whole neighborhood of Jerusalem was laid out in inclosures for the convenience and enjoyment of the inhabitants. The historian of the war relates with sorrow the havoc made among these peaceful retreats by the devastating approaches of the Roman army. Jesus turned aside into one of these inclosures, which was a place of customary retreat, well known to his immediate followers. H. M. (Section 86, verses 1, 2.)

Although the exact spot cannot be determined with certainty, the general position of Gethsemane is clear, and then as now the checkering moonlight, the gray leaves, the dark brown trunks, the soft greensward, the ravine with Olivet towering over it to the eastward and Jerusalem to the west, must have been the main external features of a place which must be regarded with undying interest while time shall be, as the place where the Saviour of mankind entered alone into the Valley of the Shadow. F.

37. Sore amazed. To Jesus, who had never known such darkness Godward before—who had enjoyed the perfect bliss of the Father’s light and love with never an intermission till then—this experience must have been inexpressibly agonizing, appalling. This may be the very thing suggested if not expressed in the word “sore amazed”—a word which expresses both surprise and horror—as if some new experience was upon him—appalling and even astounding. H. C.

38. Watch with me. The divine and human are inseparably interwoven in the life and work of Christ. When he is giving proof of his divinity, he applies to men for the relief of his hunger and thirst—and when he is accomplishing their salvation he leans on them for the help of his sorrows. There is surely nothing more touching in all the life of the Saviour of men than this request, “Tarry ye here, and watch with me.” It shows so much his weakness and his strength—the wonderful sympathy, which made the suffering of his soul so full of anguish, and which yet made him so strong to bear it. In Gethsemane, as afterward upon the cross, he had an agony which none could measure but himself. He entered a cloud, from the bosom of which we hear only the broken cries of the struggle. But as near as men can come, he entreats them to approach—“Closer, closer, brethren of humanity, to the Brother who suffers for you, and suffers as none other can!” Ker.

39. Fell on his face on the ground. It was less than five days after the immense popular excitement which drew the multitudes of city and country into a jubilant procession of welcome and honor, with palms and garments strewn in the road, to greet the Prophet of Nazareth, conducting him to the gates of Jerusalem, that he knelt down on the bare ground in the garden, a lonely sufferer, struggling with a secret agony, in which a sense of utter desertion and desolation was one of the bitterest elements; no sound breaking the silence but his groans. F. D. H.

And prayed. Prayer, with our blessed Lord, was the refuge from the storm; prayer the most earnest, the most urgent; repeated, continued, proceeding from the recesses of his soul; private, solitary; prayer for deliverance; prayer for strength; above all, prayer for resignation. Paley.—Scenes of deep distress await us all. Of one thing we may be assured, that if the trials are not removed, yet our supplications shall not be vain: we shall be enabled to bear them. And we may expect, and expect with confidence, that a more than angelic Comforter, even the Spirit of Truth, will shed his healing influence over our souls, and preserve us from sinking even under the severest trials. P.

Passing with Jesus from the upper chamber into the garden, one of the first impressions made upon us is that of the suddenness and greatness of the transition. Delivered within the compass of the same hour, what a contrast between the prayers of the one place and of the other—the one so calm, so serene, so elevated; the others so dark and troubled! Look first at him as, with eyes uplift to heaven, he offers up the one; look at him again as, prostrate on the earth, in garments moist with sweat and blood, he offers up the other. What a mighty and mysterious descent from that height above to these depths beneath! And how rapidly described; the transition so quick, with nothing outward to account for it! H.

40. Watch with me one hour. Be sure it is something more than surface-feeling—something more than impulse; it is good, honest, sober, considerate, patient principle, stayed up by prayer, that alone can remain awake and outwatch the stars, and wait through the darkness, and conquer temptation, and do it all for the honor of the suffering and bleeding Master. It is only this that proves that we are really Christians, or that Christ is ours. F. D. H.

41. Watch and pray. The sentinel, picketed to watch the enemy, does his duty by giving the alarm if the enemy approaches—not by advancing single-handed to the conflict. So the duty of a Christian, watchfully discerning the approach of temptation, is to convey the case to God; it is foolhardiness to adventure into the combat, unsent and unprovided for. Christ went not into temptation self-moved. Even the Sinless would not expose himself to temptation, except in the way of obedience. A holy and irresistible impulse from God was his warrant. W. I. B.

Enter not into temptation. Entering into temptation is another and a very different thing from being assailed by temptation. J. G. B.—We cannot be too careful to keep out of the reach of sin; not to stand in the way of sinners; not to breathe pestilential air. If prevention is better than cure-precaution is better than power. Therefore ought a good man ever to watch and pray that he enter not into temptation. Guthrie.—What we are taught to seek or shun in prayer, we should equally pursue or avoid in action. Very earnestly, therefore, should we avoid temptation, seeking to walk so guardedly in the path of obedience that we may never tempt the devil to tempt us. Spurgeon.

The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak. Not only the flesh but even the willing spirit was weak. Their spiritual character was deficient in the elements of forethought, clear perceptions of truth, self-knowledge, and the discipline of experience. A. B. B.

Christ finds an extenuation for their unkindness, when they themselves could not. As if he had said, I know your hearts, and am satisfied of your affection; and therefore accept your will and compassionate your weakness. So benign, so gracious is the friendship of Christ; so answerable to our wants, so suitable to our frailties. R. S.—So gentle a rebuke and so kind an apology for the sleeping disciples were the more remarkable as our Lord’s mind was now discomposed with sorrow, so that he must have the deeper and tenderer sense of their want of sympathy. Tillotson.

Hushing his own conflict, not yet finished, and stilling his sorrow, he gently excuses the failings of his disciples; he bids them overcome temptation, as he himself is doing it, by watching and prayer. He who could so repress his own anguish, pause in his own conflict, be silent about himself, and with such tender compassion care for those who had neglected to care for him, may have been shaken, burdened, crushed, but was not weak. J. P. T.

L. 43. In no scene of our Lord’s life do we behold more clearly the union of his perfect humanity with his divinity. If, at the first view, the former element seems the more conspicuous, we must remember that this was the very crisis of his humiliation, in which, laying aside his divine attributes, “he humbled himself and became obedient to death,” bowing down before the Father, as the representative of sinful man. But the very power to do this, the close communion with his Father concerning his will and counsels, and the perfect triumph of resignation over all human weakness, are proofs of his true deity. Encouraged by his example, and strengthened by his Holy Spirit, many a follower of Christ has drunk the cup of suffering and self-denial because it was God’s will; but for them that cup has never been mixed with the bitterness of God’s wrath. In this fearful conflict Jesus was not left alone. As in his first great temptation, an angel from heaven strengthened him. S.

44. Although, on the authority of medical statements, we can believe that in the highest state of mental agony a blood exudation may take place, still we must acknowledge that in these words of Luke only a comparison of the sweat with drops of blood is directly expressed. In relation to real drops of blood, “as if” would be altogether out of place. O.

It was just shuddering nature and indomitable will struggling together. But again the cry, If it must be, thy will be done, issues from his lips, and all is over. “The bitterness of death is past.” He has anticipated and rehearsed his final conflict, and won the victory—now on the theatre of an invincible will, as then on the arena of the cross. “I will suffer,” is the grand result of Gethsemane; “It is finished!” is the shout that bursts from the cross. The will without the deed had been all in vain; but his work was consummated when he carried the now manifested will into the palpable deed, “by the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” B.

It could have been no mere dread of pain, no mere shrinking from death, which thus agitated to its inmost centre the pure and innocent soul of the Son of man. How inconsistent would be such an hypothesis with that heroic fortitude which fifteen hours of subsequent sleepless agony could not disturb—with the majestic silence before priest, and procurator, and king—with the endurance from which the extreme of torture could not wring one cry—with the calm and infinite ascendancy which overawed the hardened and worldly Roman into involuntary respect—with the undisturbed supremacy of soul which opened the gates of Paradise to the repentant malefactor! It was something far deadlier than death. It was the burden and the mystery of the world’s sin which lay heavy on his heart; it was the tasting, in the divine humanity of a sinless life, the bitter cup which sin had poisoned. It was the sense, too, of how virulent, how frightful, must have been the force of evil in the universe of God which could render necessary so infinite a sacrifice. F.

We feel ourselves shut up to the conclusion that the agony of the garden was inward, mysterious, impossible to fathom; the same in source, in ingredients, in design, in effect, with our Lord’s spiritual sufferings on the cross; a part of the endurance to which, as our spiritual head and representative, he submitted, and which sprang from our iniquities being laid upon him, in a way and manner that is not open to us to comprehend. “He bare our sins in his own body on the tree,” offering there, not merely or mainly his body to the Roman executioner, but his soul in sacrifice to God. Consummated upon the cross, this soul-offering was made also in the garden. Jesus spake of an hour and a cup which became so identified in the minds of the evangelists that they are used interchangeably in the narrative of the passion. The hour and the cup were one, embracing the entire suffering unto death. The hour was on him, and he passed through it; the cup was in his hand, he put it to his lips and drank it equally in the garden and on the cross. In passing through that hour, in drinking that bitter cup, he made the great atonement for our transgressions. To that endurance we are to look as furnishing the ground of our forgiveness and acceptance. It has taken every obstruction which our guilt, the holiness and justice of the divine character, the integrity and majesty of the divine law, the stability and prosperity of God’s great spiritual empire, interposed between us and the immediate and entire blotting out of all our iniquities. Spread over the whole of our Lord’s suffering life, it was condensed in the agony of the garden and the anguish of the cross. But why broken into these two great sections, of which we can scarcely tell which was the larger, or in which the suffering was the more intense? Why but that in the sight of such a sorrow descending upon the Saviour’s spirit, in the absence of all inflictions from without—in the quiet of the garden, in the loneliness of the midnight hour—before a hand had been laid on him, before thorn had touched his brow, or scourge his back, or nail his hands and feet, we might learn to separate in our thoughts the mental and spiritual from the bodily sufferings of Christ; to recognize the truth of the saying that the sufferings of his soul formed the soul of his sufferings. H.

Section 150.—The Betrayal and Apprehension.

The Garden—Gethsemane.

J. 31 THEREFORE, when he was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and 32 God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in him- 33 self, and shall straightway glorify him. Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye shall seek me; and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go, ye cannot come; so now 34 I say to you. A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I 35 have loved you, that ye also love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. 36 Simon Peter said unto him, Lord, whither goest thou? Jesus answered him, Whither 37 I go, thou canst not follow me now; but thou shalt follow me afterward. Peter said unto him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee now? I will lay down my life for thy sake. 38 Jesus answered him, Wilt thou lay down thy life for my sake? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice.M. 31 Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered 32, 33 abroad. But after that I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. But Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will L. 31 I never be offended. And the Lord said, Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to 32 have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail

33 not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren. And he said unto him, Mk.30 Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death. And Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, Peter, that this day, even in this night, before 31 the cock crow twice, thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me. But Peter spake the more vehemently unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee in any wise. Likewise also said all the disciples.

L. 35 And he said unto them, When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked 36 ye any thing; and they said, Nothing. Then said he unto them, But now, he that hath a purse, let him take it, and likewise his scrip: and he that hath no sword, let him sell 37 his garment, and buy one. For I say unto you, that this that is written must yet be accomplished in me, And he was reckoned among the transgressors: for the things con- 38 cerning me have an end. And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.

In a majesty that only towers more loftily to the end, the Son of God walks before us amid the New Testament. All the evangelists tell us of his miracles. With matchless clearness, and from different points, they delineate his character, in which neither enmity nor intimacy detected a flaw. With an exactness that only measures the impression which his words had made on them, they rehearse for us the sayings, parables, discourses, in which absolute truth reveals itself through an inimitable expression. They all present him in that sublime solitariness, of experience and of nature, which seems the penumbra of Deity eclipsed; taking nothing from others, yet always imparting what they need; sympathetic with those of most different classes, but not stirred by their triumphs, nor alarmed with their fears; as untouched by the prejudice and the passion of his time as the sky is by mists; as unmindful of distinctions of rank among men as the all-indiviling sunshine and air; confessing no sin, and asking no forgiveness, but comforting the poor, healing the leprous, and pardoning the guilty, with the mercy as well as the authority of God; patient, amid neglects; tranquil, before assailing rage; on the eve of his death looking forward to a kingdom as wide as the world; promising paradise, from the cross, to his disciple. R. S. S.

J. 31. These words were spoken after Judas had left, before the Lord’s Supper was instituted, and while the other disciples and their Master were at the table. D.—The Son glorified, and God glorified in him. The Son shows the world by his death how holy and just is the Father, and how he hates sin. The Father shows the world, by raising and exalting the Son to glory, how he delights in the redemption for sinners which the Son has accomplished. J. C. R.—The Father glorifies the Son in himself by the resurrection of him into that glory, which he had indeed before, but now has as the Son of man, with the risen manhood. A.

33. Little children.** All now his own. This term of endearment, nowhere else used in the gospels, and once only employed by Paul, is appropriated by the beloved disciple himself, who no fewer than seven times employs it in his first epistle. B.

34,35. The commandment of love is here called a new one, because it was the characteristic of the new covenant, which he was then about to seal with his sufferings. It is true, the all-comprehending commandment, to “love God supremely, and one’s neighbor as one’s self,” was contained in he old covenant; but it became a new one, by its reference to the sacrifice of Christ, which expressed its essence: it demanded a love willing, after his example, to sacrifice everything for the brethren—the spirit of love, in a word, which was to be the soul of the new congregation of God, proceeding, of itself, from communion with him. N.—It was love, as the test and condition of discipleship, love as greater than even faith and hope, love as the fulfilling of the law. F.—He called this a new commandment, because they were to exercise it under a new relation, according to a new measure, and from new motives. They were to love one another in the relation of his disciples, and with that degree of love which he had shown to them. And they were to love from the consideration of his love, and in order to prove themselves his genuine disciples, by the warmth of their mutual affection. M.—This strong and peculiar mutual love will be the distinct evidence and noblest badge of your discipleship. D.—Our Lord does not name gifts, but the simple grace of love, as the evidence of discipleship. No love, no grace, no true Christianity! J. C. R.

M. 31, 32. I will smite the shepherd. In the Hebrew and Septuagint, it is Jehovah who commands the sword to “smite the Shepherd.”

Here Jesus receives the thrust direct from his Father’s hand. The sheep scattered. Jesus up to this moment had been their one bond of union. When he is smitten, they are scattered. How beautiful and how true the figure! The sheep speedily disperse when their Shepherd is struck. How very explicit he is in his announcements now, when on the eve of parting with them till after his resurrection! Go before you. As a shepherd: for it is a pastoral word. B.—The sheep forsake the Shepherd, but he forsakes not his sheep. Q.

33. Though all men, yet will I never. Confidence and presumption are very unpromising signs of steadfastness and perseverance in religion. Trust in God is one thing, and trust in ourselves is another; and they differ as much in the success that attends them as in the power on which they are founded. Sherlock.—To presume upon our own strength, to prefer ourselves before others, and not to hearken to admonitions, are three branches of pride, and three occasions of very grievous falls. Q.

L. 32. And yet Christ held out to him a gracious hope. He should repent and return to the Lord whom he should deny, and when that day should come Jesus bade him show that truest and most acceptable proof of penitence—the strengthening of others. And if his fall gave only too terrible a significance to his Saviour’s warnings, yet his repentance nobly fulfilled those consolatory prophecies; and it is most interesting to find that the very word which Jesus had used to him recurs in his epistle in a connection which shows how deeply it had sunk into his soul (1 Pet. 5: 10). F.

Mk. 30. Before the cock crow twice: i. e., at the usual time, first about the middle of the night, and then a few hours later, these being the familiar limits of the third watch, called cock-crowing. As the second cock-crow was the one most commonly observed and reckoned as a note of time, the same division of the night may be defined by saying before the cock-crow (i. e., in the morning), which is the form of expression actually here employed in all the other gospels. J. A. A.

Now the proof meets us of that eye being one that scans the secrets of the world of spirits, and sees all that is there going on. It is but a glimpse he gives us; but how full of warning, how full of encouragement, that glimpse! Looking at the scene in the supper-chamber with the eye of sense, you see twelve men with their Master at their head, in trying circumstances; first one and then another acting out their natural dispositions and characters. Looking with the eye of faith as Jesus lifts the veil, you see Satan tempting, Jesus praying, the Father hearing, the sifting suffered, the son of perdition lost, the boastful disciple tried, his fall permitted, the invisible shield held over him—his faith not suffered wholly to fail, his very fall turned to good account, and he by it made all the fitter to be a comforter and strengthener of others. H.

L. 38. Lord, behold, here are two swords. The disciples, understanding their Master to mean literally that they should arm themselves for their defence, said to him, “Here are two swords:” but Jesus, who really meant only to signify to them the greatness of their approaching distress and temptations, and to warn them against surprise, replied, “It is enough;” ye need not trouble yourselves for any more weapons of this nature for your defence. S. C.—Plainly showing that he had not the slightest intention to advise the use of weapons of defence, as two swords among them would have been nothing for that purpose. N.

Section 140.—The Lord’s Supper instituted.

The Guest-Chamber.

J. 2 AND Judas also, which betrayed him, knew the place: for Jesus ofttimes resorted Mk.43 thither with his disciples. And immediately, while he yet spake, lo, he that was called Judas, one of the twelve, having received a band of men and officers from the chief priests and Pharisees, and the scribes and elders of the people, cometh hither and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, with lanterns and torches. 44 Now he that betrayed him, had given them a token, saying, Whomsoever I shall kiss, that same is he; take him, and hold him fast, and lead him away safely. And Judas went before them, and drew near unto Jesus to kiss him. And Jesus said unto him, 45 Friend, wherefore art thou come? And as soon as he was come, he goeth straightway L. 48 to him, and saith, Hail, master, master; and kissed him. But Jesus said unto him, Judas, betrayest thou the Son of man with a kiss? J. 4 Jesus therefore, knowing all things that should come upon him, went forth, and said 5 unto them, Whom seek ye? They answered him, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus saith unto 6 them, I am he. And Judas also, which betrayed him, stood with them. As soon then 7 as he had said unto them, I am he, they went backward, and fell to the ground. Then 8 asked he them again, Whom seek ye? And they said, Jesus of Nazareth. Jesus answered, I have told you that I am he. If therefore ye seek me, let these go their 9 way: that the saying might be fulfilled which he spake, Of them which thou gavest me, have I lost none. 12 Then the band, and the captain, and officers of the Jews laid hands on Jesus, and L. 49 took him, and bound him. When they which were about him saw what would follow, 50 they said unto him, Lord, shall we smite with the sword? And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus, Simon Peter, having a sword, stretched out his hand and drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear. The servant’s 51 name was Malchus. And Jesus answered and said, Suffer ye thus far. And he touched M. 52 his ear, and healed him. Then said Jesus unto Peter, Put up again thy sword into the 53 sheath: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword. Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve 54 legions of angels? But how then shall the scriptures be fulfilled, that thus it must be? The cup which my Father hath given me, shall I not drink it? 55 In that same hour said Jesus unto the chief priests and captains of the temple, and to the elders and the multitudes which were come to him, Are ye come out as against a thief, with swords and staves to take me? I sat daily with you in the temple, teach- ing, and ye stretched forth no hands against me, ye laid no hold on me; but this is your 56 hour, and the power of darkness. But all this was done, that the scriptures of the Mk.51 prophets might be fulfilled. Then all the disciples forsook him, and fled. And there followed him a certain young man, having a linen cloth cast about his naked body; 52 and the young men laid hold on him. And he left the linen cloth, and fled from them naked.

If ever it appeared as if there might be a just revolt against the will of Providence, it seemed to be at the time when the meek Saviour, innocent, lowly, and loving, was sold by the traitor, deserted of his disciples, assailed by the false accuser, and condemned by the unjust judge, while a race of malefactors and ingrates crowded around their deliverer, howling for his blood, the blood of the Holy One. But though the cup was bitter, it was meekly drunk, for it had been the Father’s will to mingle it, and his was the hand that held to the lips of the Son the deadly draught. Lawlessness is hushed at the sight of Gethsemane. In the garden and at the cross you see illustrated the sanctity of law as it appears no- where else. It was mercy indeed that was forcing her way to the sinner; but as she went, she was seen doing homage to justice, and paying the debt, ere she freed the captive. That dread transaction pro- claimed the truth that transgression could never in God’s universe occur with impunity; and that if one did not suffer, another must. Tenderness was there lavished, such as the heart of man never conceived in its hour of most impassioned and concentrated affection. Yet that tenderness leaned on the sternest principle. The Father loved the Son thus sacrificed as his well-beloved one; yet it “pleased the Father to bruise him.” Surely here is found no precedent for the lawless tenderness that exonerates the crimi- nal and blames the law. It is not at the cross of Christ that ministry has learned its lesson, which em- ploys itself in weaving silken scabbards, in the vain hope to sheathe the lightnings of God’s law; or which is full of dainty contrivances to muffle “the live, leaping thunders” of Sinai, and make them no longer a terror to the evil-doer. In the last scenes of the Saviour’s life that law was not contemned, but “magnified and made honorable.” W. R. W.

The words, “If therefore ye seek me, let these go their way!” set forth the fruit of Christ’s passion. As Isaiah says, “The chastisement lay upon him, that we might have peace.” The Good Shepherd lays down his life for the sheep; His love seeketh not her own. Death, devil, and hell, the judgment and wrath of God—all have sought Christ, and we go free; for in him we too have all suffered chastise- ment, and God does not chastise twice. Therefore I possess an eternal consolation. Let these go their way! so runs my charter. Death and hell, ye must let me go free; for ye have sought Christ, and he has given himself as a ransom for me: the snare is broken, and we are delivered. R. B.

“Tuz night on which he was betrayed”—that long, sleepless, troubled nigh:—the last night of our Lord’s suffering life—through what strange vicissi- tudes of scene and incident, of thought and feeling, did our Saviour on that night pass! The meeting in the upper chamber, the washing of the disciples’ feet, the keeping of the Hebrew Passover; the cloud that gathered round his brow, the sad warnings to Peter, and the terrible ones to Judas; the institu- tion of his own Supper, the tender consolatory dis- course, the sublime intercessory prayer; the garden; its brief and broken prayers, its deep and awful agony; the approach of the high-priest’s band, the arrest, the desertion by all, the denials by one; the private examination before Annas, the public ar- raignment before the Sanhedrim; the silence as to all minor charges, the great confession, the final and formal condemnation to death; all these between the time that the sun of that Thursday evening set, and the sun of Friday morning rose upon Jerusa- lem. H.

As we stand looking toward Calvary, where the one great consummation is reached and finished, in which, whether as Messiah or God-man or Redeemer or the loving and obedient Son, He suffers to give us peace, and bleeds to make us clean, and dies once that we may live forever, we see the four evangelic witnesses each bringing his own separate evidence and contribution to assure the believer and to glorify the Cross, as in turn they all take their glory from it. “The fulfilment of type and shadow, of the hopes of patriarchs, of the expectations of prophets, yes, and of the dim longings of a whole lost and wicked world, must be declared by the whole evangelistic company; the four streams that go forth to water the earth must here meet in a common channel; the four winds of the Spirit of Life must here be united in one.” F. D. H.

J. 2. Judas knew the place, for Jesus ofttimes resorted thither. What a revelation is made here of the character of Judas! His definite plan is to break in upon Jesus in the very place sacred to communion with God! Judas had been there ofttimes, a witness to the devotions of his Master, but never in devout sympathy; never to pray himself. No hallowed associations with that sacred spot deterred his treason for one moment. H. C.

Mk. 43. One of the twelve. It may seem strange to us that Christ should ever have admitted Judas to that number. The only reasonable account of it which we can form is this, that our Lord acted by Judas as he did by all the rest. He accepted him on the ground of a profession which was consistent as far as human eye could see. Christ himself received members into his Church as he intended that we should receive them—for, had he used his divine omniscience in his judgments, the whole structure of his life would have been out of our reach as an example. Judas accordingly entered among the apostles, because, in all outward things, and even in some inward convictions, he was like them. He came under the same influences—listened to the same invitations and warnings—and they were meant as truly for Judas as for the rest. It would have gladdened the heart of Christ had Judas yielded to the voice of mercy. Ker.

The chief priests and scribes and elders. They had not only given Judas their band of servants, but had added a number of Roman soldiers from the Band, i. e., the cohort stationed at Jerusalem. They themselves were following at a distance, and drew near when the Lord was bound. Besides all these, there was also advancing a crowd of people, who had been stirred up by the elders. Armed with swords and staves, this multitude entered the garden; with torches and lanterns they came, fearing lest Christ should hide himself among the olive-trees of the garden. R. B.

44. Friend.** Not the endearing term “friend” in J. 15 : 15, but “companion,” a word used on occasions of remonstrance or rebuke. B.—Wherefore art thou come? Rather, do that for which thou art come! L.

J. 4. Jesus went forth unto them. Every trace of the inward tumult and agony is gone. Never did the Saviour appear in calmer, serener dignity; nor did the calmness and serenity for a moment forsake him, all through the trial—the mocking and the scourging, the crowning with thorns and the nailing him to the cross. Nor did the soul-conflict and soul-agony return till, from the midst of the darkness that for three hours wrapped the cross, we hear a cry, kindred to those which cleft the midnight air within Gethsemane, “My God, my God! why hast thou forsaken me?” H.

The armed multitude had not observed the kiss with which Judas had betrayed the Lord. With a sense of shame the betrayer had gone back into their midst. It needed thus to be, for the Lord himself was to come forth to meet them, and to deliver himself up into their hands. It was to be emphatically set forth before the eyes of all—Judas as well—that no man had power to bind this Jesus, or to lead him away to death, unless he himself should lay down his life. R. B.—When the people would have forced him to take a crown, he withdrew and hid himself. But when they came to force him to his cross he offered himself. He came to this world to suffer, and went to the other to reign. Henry.

6. They went backward and fell to the ground.** This, occurring before his surrender, would show his power over his enemies, and so the freedom with which he gave himself up. Meyer.—Perfectly spontaneous on the part of our divine Redeemer, was the delivering of himself into the hands of his enemies. He who by a word and look sent that hireling band reeling backward to the ground, how easily could he have kept it there; or how easily, though they had been standing all around him, could he have passed out through the midst of them! H.—By this strange power he might even now have saved his life, if that had been his purpose; but, as he would not escape from his foes by flight, neither would he subdue them by supernatural power. Having conquered Satan by prayer, and subjected his own will to the will of the Father, this man of sorrows, who just now lay wrestling and groaning upon the ground, stands forth with an ineffable calmness, king of the world, king of death. J. P. T.

8. Let these go their way.** And this saying—supported by that authority which had so impressed them that they would not have ventured to lay hands on him had he not given himself up—this saying caused them to let the disciples go, and to take no vengeance on Peter, exasperated as they were by his resistance. N.—The words were a signal to the apostles that they could no longer render him any service, and that they might now consult their own safety if they would. F.—The tender sympathy and consideration of our great High-Pricist would be remembered by the eleven long afterward. They would remember that the very last thought of their Master, before he was made a prisoner, was for them and their safety. J. C. R.

Freedom for us, by his suffering himself to be bound; safety for us, by the sacrifice of himself; life for us, by the death which he endured: have we not much of the very soul and spirit of the atonement in those few words, “Take me, but let these go their way?” It is the spiritual David, the great and good Shepherd, saying, “Let thy hand be laid upon me; but as for these sheep, not, O Lord my God, on them.” H.

L. 50. Peter springs forward—he waits not for the Lord’s answer to the question put to him by the disciples; he stretches forth his hand, and falling upon Malchus, who apparently was the first to lay hold of Jesus, cuts off his right ear. Poor Peter! It was of no use here to fight with the sword; nothing but believing and enduring availed here; and for this the heroic spirit sufficed him not. To smite with the sword! he could do that without collecting his thoughts in prayer; the courage of his natural man could effect that; but to possess and save his soul through patience, and to attack Satan, who desired to have him, with the sword of the Spirit, and thus to conquer! that was too much for him. R. B.

It is not those who are for a time most demonstrative and fervent, whose religion is deepest. John never smote with the sword, but John never denied his Lord, was at the foot of the cross when Christ died, [and was the only apostle who believed in the resurrection before he saw the Lord]. Burgon remarks that even in the hour of our Lord’s apparent weakness he gave his enemies a miracle of power and a miracle of mercy—power in striking them to the ground, mercy in healing. J. C. R.

51. Suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear, and healed him.** The last act of those hands before they were bound—hands ever wont to distribute blessings—was a work of mercy and of peace, in healing that slight wound, the only one ever inflicted for his sake. A. T.—Luke only tells how the Lord made good the wrong which his disciple had inflicted. As a physician, this cure, the only one of its kind which we know of our Lord performing, the only miraculous healing of a wound inflicted by external violence, would attract his special attention. And then, besides, there was nothing nearer to Luke’s heart than the portraying of the Lord on the side of his gentleness, his mercy, and benignity; all which so gloriously shone out in this gracious work in favor of one who was in arms against his life. T.

M. 52. They that take the sword shall perish with the sword. We are not to infer from this reproof that the use of the sword in self-defence is unlawful; but that the use of it against the magistrates and ministers of justice (which was the case in the present instance) is unlawful. It was meant also to check that propensity, which is but too strong and apparent in a large part of mankind, to have recourse to the sword on all occasions, and more particularly to restrain private persons from avenging private injuries, which they should rather leave to the magistrate or to God. In all such cases, they who take the sword unjustly and rashly, will probably, as our Saviour here forewarns them, perish with the sword: with the sword of their adversary, or of the magistrate. P.

53. The passage supplies a fine parallel to 2 Kings 6: 17; a greater than Elisha is here, and by this word would open the spiritual eye of his troubled disciple, and show him the mount of God, full of chariots and horses of fire, armies of heaven which are encamping round him, and whom a beck from him would bring forth, to the utter discomfiture of his enemies. T.

54,55. In all our troubles, of which every drop is measured out, so that there is not one too many or too few, let us meet every temptation to impatience or deliverance with our Lord’s question, “The cup which my heavenly Father hath given me, shall I not drink it?” R. B.

This is your hour, and the power of darkness. A short hour of fancied triumph theirs; the powers of darkness permitted for a short season to prevail; but beyond that hour, light, and a full, glorious, eternal triumph his. H.

56. All forsook him.** We may be perfectly assured that they would not invent a falsehood on purpose to perpetuate their own disgrace. We have therefore in this incident a demonstrative proof that our Lord’s prophecy was actually fulfilled, and that the evangelists were men of the strictest veracity and integrity, who were determined to sacrifice everything, even their own reputation, to the sacred cause of truth. P.—There can be no stronger proof of the candor and humility of the sacred writers than is afforded by the manner in which they speak of their own characters, and their own faults and weaknesses. Thus, throughout their writings, all is open and undisguised; no secret is made of the names or transgressions of any of the apostles; the slowness of their understandings, their prejudices and bigotry, their temporal views and contentions for power, their desertions of their divine Master in the hour of distress, the accidental differences which occurred between them in the course of their ministry, are all fully and plainly related. Graves.

THE death of Christ was a voluntary surrendering of himself for the redemption of the world. Knowing the designs of the Pharisees against him, he could have eluded them by remaining beyond Jordan. Knowing the purpose of Judas to betray him, he could have withdrawn to some place of safety. But now that his mission of teaching, of healing, of guiding, was accomplished, the hour of sacrifice had come; and he was prepared to meet it. At the last, he could have summoned legions of angels to his help; but he gave himself for us. J. P. T.

While the Cross of Christ was being raised as the centre of spiritual attraction—divine self-sacrifice—here, around its base, and in wonderful connection with it, sin was permitted to exhibit its character of repulsion in the darkest colors. Ker.

Section 151.—Led to Annas. Peter’s Denial.

The Palace of Annas.

J. 19 THE high priest then asked Jesus of his disciples, and of his doctrine. Jesus answered him, I spake openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue, and in the temple, whither the Jews always resort; and in secret have I said nothing. Why askest thou me? Ask them which heard me, what I have said unto them: behold, they know what I said. And when he had thus spoken, one of the officers which stood by struck Jesus with the palm of his hand, saying, Answerest thou the high priest so? Jesus answered him, If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil: but if well, why smitest thou me? Now Annas sent him bound unto Caiaphas the high priest. And as soon as it was day they brought him into the house of Caiaphas, where the elders of the people and the chief priests and the scribes came together, and led him into their council, saying, Art thou the Christ? tell us. And he said unto them, If I tell you, ye will not believe; and if I also ask you, ye will not answer me, nor let me go. And the chief priests, and all the council, sought false witness against Jesus to put him to death; and found none. For many bare false witness against him, but their witness agreed not together. And at the last came two false witnesses, and said, We heard him say, I will destroy this temple that is made with hands, and within three days I will build another made without hands. But neither so did their witness agree together. And the high priest arose and stood up in the midst, and asked Jesus, saying, Answerest thou nothing? what is it which these witness against thee? But Jesus held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, I adjure thee by the living God, that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ, the Son of God, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said unto him, Thou hast said; I am. Nevertheless, I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of the power of God, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God? And he said unto them, Ye say that I am. Then the high priest rent his clothes, saying, He hath spoken blasphemy; what further need have we of witnesses? behold, now ye have heard his blasphemy.

66. What think ye? And they all answered, and condemned him, and said, We ourselves have heard of his own mouth. He is guilty of death. 67 Then the men that held Jesus, when they had blindfolded him, did spit in his face mocked him, and buffeted him; and others smote him with the palms of their hands, saying, Prophesy unto us, thou Christ, Who is he that smote thee? And many other things blasphemously spake they against him.

UNFOLDING as a flower, from the germ of a perfect youth; growing up to enter into great scenes and have his part in great trials; Jesus is harmonious in all with himself and truth, a miracle of celestial beauty. He is a lamb in innocence, a God in dignity; revealing a faultless piety, such as no mortal ever attempted, such as, to the highest of mortals, is inherently impossible. He advances the most extravagant pretensions, without any show of conceit, or even seeming fault of modesty. He suffers without affectation of composure and without restraint of pride; suffers as no mortal sensibility can, and where, to mortal view, there was no reason for pain at all; giving us not only an example of gentleness and patience in all the small trials of life, but revealing the depths even of the passive virtues of God, in his agony and the patience of his suffering love. H. B.

J. 19-23. We can scarcely doubt, from the clear statement in John’s gospel, that a preliminary examination of an inquisitorial nature, in which our Lord was questioned about his followers and his teaching, and which the brutal conduct of one attendant present seems to show was private and informal, took place before Annas. There, too, it would seem, we must place the three denials of Peter. E.—The wide difference between the language of our Lord here and that which he uses before Caiaphas and the Sanhedrim, affords additional evidence that we are reading an account of a private examination before Annas, quite distinct from that which took place before Caiaphas. Not a word of all this is recorded in the other three gospels. J. C. R.

19-21. Had Christ been content to blend Sadduceeism and Pharisaism and heathenism into one religion, to sanction all as meaning the same thing, or even to allow them a place in that pure and exclusive system he came to reveal, he would never have suffered. Instead of such blending, he denounced all compromises. He assailed every false system, and by the advocates of all he himself was condemned. Truth was not on his lips an eclectic faith, a compound of all human opinions, and, as such, adapted to meet the prejudices of all. Like its author, it stood out distinctly from everything earthly, formed no secular alliances, and allowed no rival. J. A.

Patiently he awaits his hour; he awaits the pleasure, not of his enemies, but of his heavenly Father; and when the hour is come, how full of dignity, of strength, and of calmness, the attitude which he maintains in presence of his judges! His simple, calm replies, together with the silence with which he meets a question unworthy of any other answer, cast the most glaring light on their shameful motives. R. C.

The answer, for all its calmness, involved a deep reproof. “I have spoken openly to the world; I ever taught in the synagogue and the temple, where all the Jews come together, and in secret I said nothing. Why askest thou me? Ask those who have heard me what I said to them. Lo! these”—pointing, perhaps, to the by-standers—“know what I said to them.” The emphatic repetition of the “I,” and its unusually significant position at the end of the sentence, show that a contrast was intended; as though he had said: “This midnight, this secrecy, this mockery of justice, are yours, not mine.” F.—Neither as to his disciples, nor as to his doctrine—neither as to the instructions given to his followers, nor as to the bonds of their union and fellowship, had there been anything concealed; not one doctrine for the people without and another for the initiated within; no meetings in hidden places for dangerous objects.

23. Out of the depths of a perfect patience, a gentleness which nothing could irritate, the saying came: “If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil; but if well, why smitest thou me?” “Think,” says Chrysostom, “on him who said these words, on him to whom they were said, and on the reason why they were said, and these words will, with divine power, cast down all wrath which may rise within thy soul.” H.

L. 66. Examined by the Sanhedrim. The priests were there, whose greed and selfishness he had reproved; the elders, whose hypocrisy he had branded; the scribes, whose ignorance he had exposed; and, worse than all, the worldly, skeptical Sadducees, the most cruel and dangerous of opponents, whose empty sapience he had confuted. All these were bent upon his death; all filled with repulsion at that infinite goodness; all burning with hatred against a nobler nature than any which they could even conceive in their loftiest dreams. Though the poor apostles could not watch for one hour in sympathetic prayer, these nefarious plotters could watch all night in their deadly malice. F.—Here holiness, authority, and learning seem to be united and consulting together; and yet, in reality, it is no better than a sacrilegious meeting, and a cabal of murderers. The criminals usurp the place of the judge, and the judge is arraigned and condemned as a criminal.

It is most remarkable that, although the Pharisees were actuated by a burning hatred against Jesus, and were even so eager for his death as to be willing to coöperate with the aristocratic and priestly Sadducees—from whom they were ordinarily separated by every kind of difference, political, social, and religious—yet, from the moment that the plot for his arrest and condemnation had been matured, the Pharisees took so little part in it that their name is not once directly mentioned in any event connected with the arrest, the trial, the derisions, and the crucifixion. The Pharisees, as such, disappear; the chief priests and elders [who were mainly Sadducees] take their place. F.

With the Sadducees Jesus came less frequently into collision. This sect prevailed chiefly among the [priesthood and the] aristocracy of the larger cities, while Jesus in general mingled with the lower orders; and the Sadducees were less regular attendants in the synagogues and schools, where he was wont to deliver his instructions. H. M.—It is a conjecture which the notices of the Talmud bring home to my mind with strong conviction, that the rage of these priests was mainly due to our Lord’s words and acts concerning that house of God which they regarded as their exclusive domain, and, above all, to his second public cleansing of the temple.

Mk. 58. The fact was that he had said, “Destroy this temple;” and the imperative had but been addressed hypothetically to them. They were to be the destroyers. He had but promised to rebuild. It was just one of those perjuries which was all the more perjured, because it bore some distant semblance to the truth. F.

Eager as his enemies were to find criminal matter against our Lord, they had to go back to the outset of his ministry, his first visit to Jerusalem, more than three years before this. In all that he said and did after that, though ever increasing in boldness, they could find nothing. Even then, they fix only on one speech of two or three words, which they pared to adduce against him, and most manifestly pervert the speech of our Lord. It is next to certain that the ecclesiastics, who were the prosecutors in this case, did not believe that this was his meaning. For, in less than three days after this, they went to Pilate, saying, “Sir, we remember that that deceiver said, while he was yet alive, After three days I will rise again.” They speak of this not as a casual speech, once uttered, but as what he had given out regarding his fate, and what was well enough known among themselves.

60. What is it these witness against thee?** Clearly, they felt that their case had failed, and by this artful question the high-priest hoped to get from his own mouth what they had in vain tried to get from their false and contradictory witnesses. But in this, too, they failed, for he held his peace and answered nothing. B.—That majestic silence troubled, thwarted, maddened them. They felt, before that silence, as if they were the culprits, he the judge.

M. 63. Then, reduced to utter despair and fury, this false high-priest—with marvellous inconsistency, with disgraceful illegality—still standing with a threatening attitude over his prisoner, exclaimed, “I adjure thee by the living God to tell us”—what? whether thou art a malefactor? whether thou hast secretly taught sedition? whether thou hast openly uttered blasphemy?—no, but (and surely the question showed the dread misgiving which lay under all their deadly conspiracy against him)—“WHETHER THOU ART THE CHRIST, THE SON OF GOD?” Strange question to a bound, defenceless, condemned criminal; and strange question from such a questioner—a high-priest of his people! Strange question from the judge who was hounding on his false witnesses against the prisoner! Yet so adjured, and to such a question, Jesus could not be silent; on such a point he could not leave himself open to misinterpretation. F.

64. Appealed to thus solemnly, by the first magistrate of his nation, sitting in presidency over the highest of its courts, our Lord keeps silence no longer. In words that must have struck every auditor with wonder he replies to the high-priest’s adjuration. H.—Jesus at once answers in the affirmative, and adds a distinct allusion to the prediction of Daniel (7: 13, 14), then universally admitted to refer to the reign of the Messiah. His words may be thus paraphrased: “Ye shall know me for that mighty king described by the prophet; ye shall know me when my great and imperishable kingdom shall be established on the ruins of your theocracy.” H. M.

It is our Lord’s own solemn assertion of his claim to the Messiahship, and Sonship to God. The time for reserve is past. Jesus will now openly not only assert his divine prerogatives, but he will let those earthly dignitaries, who have dragged him to their tribunal, know that the hour is coming which shall witness a strange reversal in their positions—he sitting on the seat of power, and they standing before his bar, as on the clouds of heaven he comes to judge all mankind. H.

Thou hast snid. Thou hast said what is true, I am the Messiah, the Christ, the Son of God: for all these were synonymous terms among the Jews. P.—“On the right hand of power” means, “at the right hand of God the Father,” who is sometimes called “power” by the Jews. Hammond.—Also, “to come in the clouds of heaven,” was looked upon by the Jews as a certain indication of their Messiah. Whitby.

The other judges drop all allusion to the Messiahship. “Then said they all, Art thou then the Son of God?” and it was upon our Lord’s reassertion that he was, and upon that alone, that he was doomed to death as a blasphemer. For it was perfectly understood between the judges and the judged, that, in thus speaking, Jesus claimed an intrinsic affinity—oneness in essence, knowledge, power, and glory, with the Father. Jesus, fully aware of the meaning attached by his judges to the expression “Son of God,” heard without explanation sentence of death passed upon him for making that claim. H.

In his whole life, no indication of doubt, even for a moment, can be discovered. Not a word of hesitation ever escaped his lips. When his last hour was approaching, his voice to his disciples was the voice of calm assurance. “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” “Ye now have sorrow; but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice.” He is persecuted and scorned, deserted by his friends, betrayed by one of his disciples, falsely accused and condemned to a disgraceful and torturing death. But, alone, with death before him, and without one earthly support, he calmly believes that the enterprise shall triumph, and that he shall reign in the minds and hearts of men! Y.

He himself blends his humiliation and exaltation, his humanity and divinity, as he takes to himself the double title, and binds it to his suffering brow: The Son of man; the Son of God. H.—For him it was the signing of his own death-warrant. It was for mankind that he testified—for us he testified. His words are intended to prove: a stay for the doubter, a terror to the adversary, a strong consolation for his followers, both then and at all times. A. T.

67,68. The hands they had bound had healed the sick, and raised the dead; the lips they smote had calmed the winds and the waves. One word, and the splendors of the Mount of Transfiguration would have filled the chamber; one word, and the menials now sporting with him at their will would have perished. But, as he had begun and continued, he would end—as self-restrained in the use of his awful powers on his own behalf as if he had been the most helpless of men. Divine patience and infinite love knew no wearying. He had but to will it and walk free, but he came to die for man. G.—“Though he was reviled, he reviled not again; though he suffered, he threatened not.”

There was but one man in that hall to look with loving, pitying eyes on him who was being treated thus; and in the words which that spectator penned long years thereafter in his distant lonely island, we may see some trace of the impression which the sight of the great sufferer made: “I, John, who also am your brother and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ.” H.

The Evangelists are singularly free from imaginative coloring. They are the most objective of all historians; they abstain from every intrusion of their own feelings and reflections, even when they record the most exciting scenes, the bitterest persecution, and the deepest sufferings of their Master. P. S.—We should observe the unimpassioned but not unfeeling manner in which the Evangelists relate the sufferings of their divine Lord, as well as the perverseness, the insatiable malignity of his enemies; in all their narration not one opprobrious epithet, not one severe expression escapes them. Calmness such as this is surely most inconsistent with every possible suspicion of fanaticism. Graves.

Section 153.—Death of Judas. Jesus brought before Pilate.

J. 13 And they that had laid hold on Jesus, led him away to Annas first; for he was father-in-law to Caiaphas, which was the high priest that same year. Now Caiaphas was he which gave counsel to the Jews, that it was expedient that one man should die for the people. 15 And Simon Peter followed Jesus afar off, and so did another disciple. That disciple was known unto the high priest, and went in with Jesus, into the palace of the high priest. But Peter stood at the door without. Then went out that other disciple which was known unto the high priest, and spake unto her that kept the door, and brought in Peter. And the servants and officers had made a fire of coals (for it was cold); and they warmed themselves: and Peter stood with them, and warmed himself. And when they had kindled a fire in the midst of the hall, and were set down together, Peter sat down among them, to see the end. Mk. 66 And as Peter sat without, beneath in the palace, there cometh unto him one of the maids of the high priest, the damsel that kept the door. And when she saw Peter as he sat by the fire, warming himself, she earnestly looked upon him, and said, Art thou not one of this man’s disciples? Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee: This man was with him of Nazareth. But he denied before them all, saying, Woman, I am not, I know him not, neither understand I what thou sayest. And he went out into the porch; and the cock crew. M. 71 And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This is one of them that was also with Jesus of Nazareth. And another saw him, and said, Thou art also of them. And Peter said, Man, I am not. They said therefore unto him, Art thou not also one of his disciples? And again he denied with an oath, I am not, I do not know the man. L. 59 And after about the space of one hour, another confidently affirmed, saying, Of a truth this fellow was also with him; for he is a Galilean. And they that stood by said unto Peter, Surely thou art one of them, for thou art a Galilean, and thy speech bewrayeth thee. One of the servants of the high priest (being his kinsman whose ear Peter cut off) saith, Did not I see thee in the garden with him? Peter then denied again, and began to curse and to swear, and said, Man, I know not what thou sayest; I know not this man of whom ye speak. And immediately, while he yet spake, the second time the cock crew. And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him, Before the cock crow twice, thou shalt deny me thrice. And when he thought thereon, he went out, and wept bitterly.

In such a case as this, as compared with that of Judas, one can see that the true character of repentance is determined neither by its sincerity nor by its bitterness, but by the views under which it is wrought. Judas who betrayed, and Peter who thrice denied, his Master, both repented, it should seem with equal sincerity, and both with equal pungency, of what they had done. But one, under a sense of his guilt, had nothing to fall back upon; and, deeming pardon utterly hopeless and unable to live without it, he hastened to terminate with his own hand a life of insupportable misery. The other, having done that which might well have made him incapable of ever again looking his Lord in the face, nevertheless turned toward him his guilty eyes, when lo! the eye of his wounded Lord glancing from the hall of judgment down upon himself with a grief and tenderness that told their own tale, shot right into his heart, and brought from it a flood of penitential tears! In the one case we have natural principles working themselves to deadly effect; in the other we see supernatural principles working repentance unto salvation not to be repented of. B.

“Without the grace of God,” says Augustine, “what is man other than what Peter was when he denied Christ?” Therefore examine thyself whether thou hast still any confidence in thine own self, whether thou art trusting to thine own power to resist any temptation. Whenever we step out of the clear path which God’s word and promise gives to us, and walk in paths where we have no sure word of God under our feet, then let Peter’s fall be a warning to us. And when we have once wounded our conscience, and said Yes to the tempter, then let Peter’s second and third fall be a warning and a terror to us, lest we also allow ourselves to be dragged on from one sin to another. “Pass the time of your sojourning here in fear,” and “Hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you;” both these exhortations should be impressed upon us with additional force by the fall of the man who uttered them. R. B.

If we treat the gospels as we should treat any other authentic documents recording all that the authors knew, or all that they felt themselves commissioned to record, of the crowded incidents in one terrible and tumultuous day and night, we shall, with care and study, see how all that they tell us falls accurately into its proper position in the general narrative. F.

J. 15, 16. Peter and John still followed at a distance; but John, having some acquaintance with the high-priest, not only ventured himself into the palace, but spoke to the female servant at the door, who let in Peter. To understand what ensued, the structure of an Oriental house should be remembered. The gate gives entrance to an open courtyard, and it was in the middle of this court that the servants and officers made a fire to keep off the chillness of a spring night. Jesus was led into one of the chambers opening into the court, whence he could see what passed round the fire. Where John was we are not told; but it seems that, being known to the servants, he was left unmolested, and so became an eye-witness of what followed to the very end; and hence the vast importance which is assigned to his testimony. S.

We find these two, Peter and John, together in some of the most memorable hours of their disciple-life, from that day when Andrew first led his brother Simon to the Lamb of God up to the time of the great mission-harvest in Samaria (Acts 8:14). It was doubtless in his capacity as fisherman only that John knew the high-priest, and the woman who kept the door may have known him better than her master. But it is a remarkable fact that while John, whose discipleship was known in the palace, was suffered to go out quite unmolested, his fellow-disciple Peter was sifted by Satan. We see from this, that through his own want of genuine true-heartedness Peter fell into bitter perplexity. John, the disciple, remains in the same place and no harm befalls him—but Peter, when he should confess to being a disciple, loses courage altogether. R. B.

There was no challenging or badgering of John. The domestics indeed knew him, but there are many besides who know as little about him as they do about Peter. Yet never once is John questioned or disturbed. And why, but because he had joined none of their companies, had attempted no disguise; his speech was not heard bewaying him. H.

Mk. 66. Beneath in the palace. The quadrangular court, here called the “palace” or hall, was open above, and is frequently paved with flagstones. In the centre of this court the “fire” would be kindled in a brazier. At the upper end of it, probably, was the chamber in which the trial was held, open to the court and not far from the fire, but on a higher level; for Mark says the court was “beneath” it. The ascent was, perhaps, by a short flight of steps. B.

The narratives do not require us to believe that Peter uttered words of denial only three times, each time to only one person. Rather they suggest to any one who is accustomed to sift evidence that he was, on three distinct occasions, assailed by a number of persons at once, who questioned him as to whether he had been with Jesus. W. T.

67. The doorkeeper’s suspicions had been aroused on Peter’s first entrance; she now approaches him, and puts to him the question, “Art not thou one of this man’s disciples?” Peter is silent; but he remains, and acts as if it were another man, and not him, that the maid had questioned. But she then pointedly addressing him says, “Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee!” and at the same time, turning to the by-standers, affirms, “This fellow was with Jesus of Nazareth.” R. B.

M. 71. Peter then, according to Matthew and Mark, retreats into the porch or passage leading to the street, where he is again questioned, and makes his second denial. . . . The Evangelists differ in their statements here, as to the person who now questioned him. Mark says the same maid saw him again, and began to question him; Matthew has “another maid;” Luke writes “another;” while John uses the indefinite form, they said. As, according to Matthew and Mark, there were several persons present, Peter may have been interrogated by several. The third denial took place an hour after (L. 59), probably near the fire, or at least within the court, where our Lord and Peter could see each other. Here Matthew and Mark speak of several interrogators, Luke has still “another,” and John specifies the servant of the high-priest. The three denials are here placed together for convenience, although during the intervals between them the examination of Jesus was going on before the high-priest. R.

It deserves notice that Mark, who is supposed to have written under the supervision of Peter himself, details the case more fully than any other gospel historian, and gives its darkest features. He gives in its full strength the cursing and swearing, but on the side of penitence says only “he wept;” while Matthew and Luke have it—“wept bitterly.” Stanch honesty, real contrition and humility, make his statement of the offence very strong, but put no special emphasis upon the tokens of penitent grief. H. C.

72. The man he calls him, the fellow. And he whom he thus designates is the same whom once he had honored with the confession, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!” Quickly, indeed, does he go downward in the path of sin. And how did he employ the hour which he passed with the servants by the fire? Alas, he has become a Simon who no longer knows Jesus! And all this while Jesus stands very near to him, and is being mocked and beaten. This Peter sees, and yet not one cry of wounded love escapes him. R. B.

The aggravations of these denials were many. For one thing, Peter had been well warned of his danger. Another aggravation was connected with the time at which they were uttered. It was with Jesus himself “the hour and the power of darkness.” He had just risen, all breathless and bleeding, from the endurance of that inscrutable agony which came upon him in Gethsemane. These denials too were aggravated in Peter’s case by the fact that the Lord had given him many special tokens of his regard. And these denials were aggravated by the manner in which they were made. Peter was not content with one denial. It was repeated. It was repeated with an oath. It was repeated with “cursing and swearing.” W. T.

L. 61. At that fatal moment of guilt, while those shameless curses still quivered on the air, again the cock crew in the cold gray dusk, and at the same moment, catching the last accents of those perjured oaths, the Lord—the Lord in the agony of his humiliation, in the majesty of his silence—"the Lord turned and looked upon Peter." Blessed are those on whom, when he looks in sorrow, the Lord looks also with love! It was enough. Like an arrow through his inmost soul, shot the mute eloquent anguish of that reproachful glance. F.—Volumes of compassion lay infolded in that look. It told the apostle how well He, of whom he had just been saying that he knew him not, knew him; how thoroughly he knew him when he forewarned him of his fall. It was the thought of that wrong which Peter had been doing to himself, which winged the look, and sent it on its hallowed errand into Peter’s heart. H.—The glance, like lightning revealing an abyss, brought back to its nobler self the honest heart that for a time had been alarmed into superficial unfaithfulness, and threw an awful brightness into the depths of sin on whose edge he stood. All his unmanly weakness and wretched fear rose in his thoughts, and with them the remembrance of his boastings, so miserably belied. Christ’s words, which he had so warmly repudiated—that before the cock crew twice he would deny him thrice—had come true. What a contrast between the grand strength of his Master, and his own weakness! G.

62. Flinging the fold of his mantle over his head, he too, like Judas, rushed forth into the night. Into the night, but not as Judas; into the unsunned darkness of miserable self-condemnation, but not into the midnight of remorse and despair; into the night, but, as has been beautifully said, it was “to meet the morning dawn.” If the angel of Innocence had left him, his “younger brother,” the angel of Repentance, took him gently by the hand. F.

WE find, in tracing Peter’s career, that his zeal was mixed with many inconsistencies. Inconstancy compromised his ardor; temper lurked in close alliance with his impetuosity; and violence of speech was a mortifying appendage to his vehemence. But Christ saw that he had in him the noble material of a vital and victorious apostleship, and it is most interesting for us to see how the benignant spirit of the new faith worked upon him, till it finally purged out the old bitter leaven, refashioned him into a self-commanding as well as an eager champion, and at last made him first and foremost of the twelve companions of his Lord. F. D. H.—As his fault was sudden and surprising, so was his recovery speedy and effectual. From thenceforward he became again the same faithful, affectionate, undaunted Peter, he had been before. The book of the Acts informs us at large what noble reparations he afterward made for this breach of faith: how vigorous and bold he was in preaching, how forward and even joyful in suffering for the gospel of his once denied Lord. All which are testimonies of greater value, because these were the long and constant practice of a settled faith, the course of many years, the habit and the sense of the man: whereas his crime, though exceeding great, was of short continuance; the effect of fear and infirmity in great measure, and not so much the act of the man, as the effect of violent passions and temptations, which had then almost unmanned him. . . . The same powerful Intercessor prays for every sincere believer, that his faith fail not; but they that are sincere should remember that they are feeble; knowing by this example and their own experience that willingness of spirit preserves not against weakness of flesh, they should watch constantly and pray fervently that they enter not into temptation. Stanhope.

Section 152.—Interrogated by Annas. Examined and condemned by the Sanhedrim.

The Palace of Annas, and that of Caiaphas.