March 11

CHRIST'S AGONY.

And being in an agony.—Luke xxii. 44.

WE have already noticed some of the particulars of this astonishing event. We have referred to the place, to the company, and to some of the features of his sorrow. We now remark that Christ's agony was connected with great fear or terror. The word amazement implies this, and the Apostle expressly states, that "he feared." (Hebrews 5:7.) Now when it is remembered, that Christ was truly and properly human, and that he had all our sinless weaknesses and infirmities, we shall easily conceive how Jesus would be filled with alarm, with consternation and dread, when he became the subject of such intense and unprecedented sufferings. Christ's agony was so severe, that though the Spirit was the seat of pain, yet it affected the whole man. Hence, "he sweat as it were great drops of blood, falling down to the ground." How much must that precious soul of Christ have endured, before the crimson fluid could have been forced through his pores, so as to have marked the ground on which he was now stretched. Who can fathom the depth of this sea of suffering into which he was cast. The billows indeed did go over his precious head. Who can explain this mystery of mysteries?

"'Tis mystery all, let man adore, And angel minds enquire no more."

This agony was connected with the exercise of prayer. All Christ's acts and engagements were thus consecrated. When he was baptized, when he was transfigured, when he endured the agony, when he died, when he stood or Olivet's summit, his last act was devotional,

"He entered heaven by prayer."

Let it be observed too, that though he had disciples with him, yet they bear no part, they gave no assistance, and they had no fellowship with him in the sufferings of his agony. They could not even watch with him during that dreadful and sorrowful hour. In his own soul was all the sorrow concentrated, felt, and endured. Well might the poet exclaim,

"O Lamb of God, was ever love, Was ever grief like thine?"