Lord submitted on the present occasion to mourn in His prayer, and be vehemently agonized, and at length to be comforted by a ministering angel, as one having no strength to compose the tumult of His own mind. Being by nature Divine, in order nevertheless to suffer after the manner of a human being, He passed through every allowable feeling of human weakness, and trepidation, and dismay. He tasted man's doom of anguish and death, inwardly in His soul, no less than outwardly in His body, shewing Himself sorely straitened, and affected with terror at the foresight of it, in common with the sons and daughters of Adam. Wherefore, in Him we have an example of patience, which it is impossible fairly to gainsay, or decline. There can be offered no proper reason why those words of acquiescence

"If this cup may not pass from me except "I drink it, Thy will be done," addressed by Jesus to His Father, should not equally be our words, in time of danger and tribulation. Surely, it must be vain to say that He was no ordinary man, and consequently, that we cannot justly be expected to imitate Him, since in this whole matter of experiencing and enduring affliction, He would not take advantage of His extraordinary character, but stood forth as a trembling mortal, in order that He might be

imitated by us trembling mortals, in all cases of trepidation and distress. We cannot, at any rate, be more horribly afraid, or more severely melted away because of trouble, than Jesus our Lord is described to have been. Certainly, then, they are "without excuse" who will not follow the example of His patience, submissively committing their souls unto God in well doing, when fearfulness and anguish overtake them. Nor should we here overlook the encouragement, that all who will so conduct themselves, in agreement with their Christian profession, have many promises of support from above, answerable to that which He obtained from His Father; I mean, of His Spirit, or "the Angel "of His presence," to be their strength.

It may strike us, however, with respect to the account under consideration, that Jesus, apart from His Divine nature, exhibited too much dread of his approaching sufferings and death, more agitation than was to have been expected from one of his upright character. The notion may not impossibly have occurred to us, that men, even of an unworthy character, have encountered fierce enemies, or have gone to be miserably tormented and slain, without any so hard a struggle, or such severe terror, as that which almost dissolved, at Gethsemane, this perfectly virtuous and innocent "Son of

"man." Hence, it will behove us humbly to estimate the amount of what Jesus had there to undergo.

Be it therefore recollected, that, although many may have foreseen and suffered deaths equally painful, with less apparent perturbation of spirit, none have felt so painfully as Jesus did in the garden, the burthen of responsibility for sin. It was that, weighing down, and excruciating His soul, which, far more than any fear of the nails ordained presently to pierce His hands, and His feet, made Him fall on His face, and pray with vehemence, and caused His sweat to drop on the ground from Him, as it had been blood. If this seem strange to be said concerning one, "who," throughout His life "did "no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth,' and who, not only kept Himself" void of offence "both towards God and towards man," so that He was indeed a spotless victim, but further could truly testify, "Father, I have glorified "Thee on the earth, I have finished the work "which Thou gavest me to do;" (John xvii. 4.) if this, namely, that the burden which I have mentioned, was felt by Him most severely, seem strange to be said of such an excellent One, the fact, and likewise the explanation of it, are repeatedly declared to us by holy Scripture. For example, it is written-" Surely he hath borne

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our griefs, and carried our sorrows;-He was "wounded for our transgressions ;-The chas"tisement of our peace was upon Him;-The “Lord hath laid on Him the iniquity of us all ; "hath made Him to be sin for us, who knew "no sin;-Christ hath suffered for us in the "flesh;-His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree." (Isaiah liii. 4, 5, 6; 2 Cor. v. 21; 1 Peter iv. 1; 1 Peter ii. 24.) According to these Scriptures, Jesus Christ had on His mind sins more than enough (although He never committed so much as one) sorely to pierce, and bruise Him. On Him singly, it depended to expiate, by an acceptable obedience unto death, the guilt of a world of sinners; no wonder therefore, that, when the snares of death were compassing Him round about, He found trouble and heaviness; and that pains, as of hell, gat hold upon Him. No wonder likewise, that the righteous, whom He hath thereby justified, should, on the contrary, with more calmness of spirit, and, sometimes, even with joy, expect the approach of their dissolution. Well may they exclaim, for whose sakes He was so grievously wounded, and who have, consequently, learned to put their trust in Him, "O death, where is "thy sting?-we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us;-thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory through our

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"Lord Jesus Christ." (1 Cor. xv. 55, 57; Rom. viii. 37.) Or, in case such find more occasion, to the very last, for humiliation and repentance, than for triumph, still, their condition may seem more tolerable than that of Christ in His day of self-abasement; since they have only the oppression of their own misdeeds to bear, and have Him to flee unto, as a sure refuge. Concerning the impenitent, who live and die in their sins with much apparent unconcern, their minds are not sufficiently alive to apprehend the sinfulness and horrible consequences of sin. But Jesus was perfectly alive to apprehend them. He came forth from His Father into the world, fully sensible, that, either sin must be abolished, or mankind perish utterly because of it, that God is exceedingly indignant at what flesh and blood will often deny to be seriously offensive, and that hell and destruction are at the end of many things, which men commonly practise without compunction. Hence, it is easy to perceive why a grief, the like to which is not generally at all felt by sinners at the prospect of death, overwhelmed His righteous soul. In fact, His sorrow was chiefly aggravated by such as fear not, after manifold offences. It bare proportion to the crowd of hard hearts and light minds, who leave this world unrepenting and undisturbed, to sink in the next under the