of his sufferings, that we may be conformable to his death.' (Phil. iii. 10.)

THE PRAYER.

On most faithful Saviour! all praise be to thee for thine infinite love, which induced thee, in thine own glorious and adorable person, to undergo that painful progress on which our redemption depends; and to retire to the garden of Gethsemane, there to expiate the sins which we, by our first parent, Adam, had committed in the garden of Eden. Grant us grace, that this thy bloody and agonizing walk may ever be fresh and recent in our minds. Be pleased to inspire us with a willingness to go with thee wherever thou leadest the way.-Preserve us evermore from such a temper as, is ashamed of the ignominy of thy Cross. If our flesh should prove weak and reluctant, draw it after thee with the gentle cords of thy love, that we may not remain behind nor loiter in the thorny way to rest, which lies through sorrows and sufferings. Be also one day our guide through the gloomy vale of death, and animate and support us at our last place of combat. Grant that we may acquit ourselves courageously, and press forward to thee through life and death. Be ever merciful and propitious to us, O Lord. Amen.

CONSIDERATION II.

CHRIST'S FIRST ADDRESS TO HIS DISCIPLES.

AND when he was come into the garden, he said to his disciples, Sit ye here, while I go and pray yonder. Pray, that ye enter not into temptation. (Matt. xxvi. 36. Mark xiv. 32. Luke xxii. 40.)

These words exhibit to us two circumstances:

First, The presence of Christ at the place of conflict.

Secondly, His discourse to his disciples.

I. The presence of Christ on his place of trial and conflict is described by St. Luke in these remarkable words, When he was at the place;' i. e. when he was as one arrived at the place of combat.

In the former consideration is shewn only, that Jesus was come with his disciples into the garden; but now he is actually in it: he is now on the spot where, by his Father's appointment, the Son was to drink of the cup of mental agony. Here something extraordinary was to be exhibited: the Son of Man was here to become a worm, the Creator to be lower than the creature, and the source of all consolation to be exhausted of every comfort. The amazing change which this glorious person was to undergo, is most emphatically expressed in the Greek original: (Luke xxii. 44.) And being in an agony.' (Gal. iii. 13. iv. 4. Phil. ii. 7, 8.) It was that we might no longer be what we were before, namely, sinners, rebels, enemies of God, and children of wrath, that Christ suffereth this. It was in our stead he became a victim; in our stead trod the dreary path of grief and anguish, that we might tread the place of joy, triumph, and exultation. Hence we may learn the following particulars.

1. A true follower of Jesus Christ must not draw back from any place, which Heaven has appointed for the scene of his sufferings. Our blessed Lord did not only go to the place, but voluntarily presented himself there. He did not attempt to make his escape, nor withdraw himself from his heavenly Father's determination: But, as he formerly had permitted himself to be led by the Holy Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the Devil; so here he suffers himself to be led to the Mount of Olives, in order to enter on the decisive encounter with this prince of dark

ness.

He now calls to us, as Gideon did to his men, Look on me, and do likewise!' (Judges vii. 17.) When the providence of God is pleased to lead us to any place appointed for our sufferings, we are not to hesitate, or refuse to present ourselves there; for it is said in Scripture, If any man draw back, or desert, my soul has no pleasure in him.' (Heb. x. 38.) 2. We are to enter on the place of our sufferings with a willing resignation, free from all backwardness or repugnancy. This is also set forth in the energy of the Greek word. It is not said, that he was dragged by force to the place; but it denotes a spontaneous voluntary motion. O blessed Saviour! Had all the world exerted their combined strength, they could not, by force, have drawn thee to this place; it was thine unspeakable love alone that brought thee to Gethsemane. With us, alas! it is quite otherwise; as it is said, "Another shall carry thee whither thou wouldest not.' (John xxi. 18.) Flesh and blood naturally starts back at a place of suffering. But as by thy willingness thou hast atoned for our reluctancy; may thy example, O blessed Jesus, impart to us strength and power joyfully to overcome any such unwillingness to suffer for thy sake.

II. In our Saviour's words to his disciples it is very observable, that his first care is about them, be fore he takes the least thought about his own parti'cular concerns. The care of his poor flock lay nearest the good shepherd's heart; and having loved his own, he loved them to the end.' As the High Priest, in the Old Testament, bore the names of the twelve tribes of Israel on his breast-plate when he entered into the Holy of Holies, on the great day of atonement; so this faithful High Priest, the Chief of the spiritual Israel, bore his disciples, as it were, in his heart, when he was going to present his supplications in the sanctuary of God.

These words of Christ contain, first, an account of what he himself was going to do; and secondly, what he would have his disciples to do at this great crisis.

Of the former he says, whilst I go and pray yon. der.' He intends to withdraw from them, and pray. As it was, at other times, his custom to pray alone, so likewise now he was going to pour out his supplications to his Father, in private. It was but fit, that the most important event which ever came to pass should begin with prayer. When King David, one of the most express types of Christ, in his flight from Absalom, was to pass over this same Mount of Olives, it is said, 'When David was come to the top of the mount, he worshipped God.' (2 Sam. xv. 32.) For, from that eminence he could have a sight of the ark of the covenant, over which the presence of the Lord of Hosts rested, returning to the city. On the same Mount of Olives the Lord and Son of David likewise offers his prayers; but instead of the summit of the hill, he chooses the deepest valley at the foot of it, as the case required the most extraordinary humiliation and debasement.

The Holy Ghost had before caused it to be writ→ ten concerning the Messiah by the pen of David, that in his most bitter sufferings he would cast the anchor of his hope in God's sanctuary! The book of Psalms exhibits the agonies of Christ under a sense of the Divine wrath, where it is said In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried unto my God.' (Psalm xviii. 6.) O my God, I cry unto thee in the day. time, and in the night-season, (as it was then night) I am not silent. (Psalm xxii. 2.) My prayer is unto thee, O Lord, in an acceptable time.' (Psalm Ixix. 15.) 'But I give myself unto prayer.' (Psalm cix. 4.) or, as it may be more properly rendered, ‘I am prayer itself.' i. e. All that I do is to recommend my cause unto thee in prayer. For though he was

come from prayer and conversing with his heavenly father, (John xviii. 1. compared with xvii. 1.) he did not think it an irksome task to be always praying. He soon returned to it again; this being, as it were, the element in which his soul lived. But this prayer must be considered in a very different light from that of the best who is but mere man. This prayer was not begun merely from a habit of praying; but in this he presents himself before his Father, as the oblation for the sins of the world, and the immaculate lamb of God. This was a part of the sacerdotal function, and the import of his prayer was; Lo! here I am to do thy will, O God.' Hence we are to learn as follows:

1. Prayer is the principal and most important thing we can set about in the hour of temptation. Did Christ himself in the affliction of his soul know of nothing better adapted to the occasion, or more necessary, to which he could betake himself? certainly we cannot pretend to find out a better expedient. Prayer is reckoned by St. Paul as part of the spiritual panoply which is to be used in an evil hour. (Ephes. vi. 18.) Whoever will venture himself among the fiery darts of the wicked without this weapon, will hardly come off without a wound. But alas! it is a frequent error among the children of God to be so anxious about human means in their distress, as utterly to forget this best expedient, prayer. Deluded reason suggests, that the Almighty does not himself stretch out his arm from heaven to this sublunary world, but makes use of men as his instruments, for manifesting his power in succouring the distressed. Though this conclusion in itself be just, yet unbelief may stretch this proposition so far, as to exclude all prayer and reliance upon God; a fatal rock! which cannot be avoided with too much circumspection.

2. As public or united prayer has its particular promises and blessings; so personal and private