March 10

And being in an agony.—Luke 22:44.

CHRIST had doubtless often spent whole nights in Gethsemane, in meditation and prayer; but on the present occasion he is found there as a sufferer. It is now to be the scene of an event unparalleled in the history of man. That scene was only witnessed by three disciples, the rest being left, most probably, in the Mount of Olives. It was witnessed by them, that, in the mouths of two or three witnesses, the whole might be established. Peter, James, and John, who were with Christ on the mount of transfiguration, and who heard the conversation respecting Christ's decease, were the favoured attendants of Christ on this occasion. The term "agony," employed to describe Christ's sufferings is never used in any other part of the sacred writings: it signifies vehement anguish of mind overwhelming mental suffering. It is said that the blessed Jesus "began to be sorrowful," as if all the sufferings of his afflicted life were not worthy to be compared with that intensity of distress and sorrow which he now experienced. The reader may be assisted in judging of the depth of this sorrow, from Christ's exclamation on the occasion, "My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even unto death." Let it be remembered that this was the language of the noble and courageous Jesus, who had been cradled in sorrow, and who was emphatically the man who had seen affliction. His present sufferings, however, infinitely exceeded all he had endured before, and forced from his patient and holy lips the passage already noticed. It is also said that the Saviour's agony was connected with great astonishment and surprise. He began to be sore amazed, although he had expected to suffer, and had been looking continually for this hour: yet, so intensely did he suffer—so heavy and overpowering was the sorrow, that it filled him with the utmost amazement. It is also said that he began to be "very heavy"—that his spirit became as it were crushed down, and all his mind became overcast with one dense cloud of afflictive gloom. Let it be remembered that Jesus endured all this when no human hand was upon him, and that it must of necessity have arisen, not from the infliction of bodily pain, but from the more keen and sensible sufferings of his sacred soul.