three also, who were thus especially favoured by our Lord, by his urging them to watch with him, was that very disciple, who but a few hours before had manifested such zeal in his cause.

What was the cause of this conduct? It was not want of love and attachment to their Master; it was not that the affectionate and devoted Peter had become less interested in the service of his Lord; it was not from any such cause. The sacred narrative on the contrary leaves

us in no doubt as to the emotions of their hearts on this occasion. We are told by the Evangelist, that our Lord but a short time before had said to them "that sorrow had filled their hearts;" and St. Luke especially mentions that when our Lord returned to his disciples, from his secret prayer, he "found them sleeping for sorrow."

It was then from no want of feeling that they thus neglected their Lord's injunction; indeed Jesus himself declared that their "spirit was willing;" but the cause of their "falling into the temptation" set in their path, was their neglecting to "lay hold of the strength" by which alone they could pay the service which was required at their hands. They were in every respect too self-confident, and therefore they sunk before their enemies in the time of trial. They were too much elated by their emotions of love to their Master, as he spake to them the words of comfort and peace we have lately considered; and presuming on the strength of these, they declared nothing should separate them from him. They could think of nothing but their grief when in the garden with him, and thus they were allured away from using the means of grace and strength within their reach.

It is deeply important to notice that even the very best and purest emotions of the mind may become perverted

to our pain and disquietude. If the heart is so overwhelmed with sorrow, while gazing at the Saviour's sufferings, or at the contemplation of its own worthlessness, as to sink into a languid and morbid frame, and become listless and inactive ;-there is a manifest token of neglect in "waiting upon God." And perhaps there are no seasons when we need to be more especially jealous over our entire and unreserved dependence on our Divine Master, for grace and strength to support and direct us, than when the spirit is peculiarly touched and affected. We need continued watchfulness and prayer, that the awakened sensibility of the heart be rightly directed, and lead us on to active self-devotion in the cause of our Master and our Friend.

But while the disciples thus proved how much they had yet to learn in the discipline of him whom they so deeply loved, how beautifully does our Lord's conduct towards them prove the greatness of his forbearance, the tenderness of his love. The gentleness of his rebuke to him especially who had most boldly proclaimed his readiness to suffer with him, "Simon, sleepest thou, couldest not thou watch with me one hour?" and the gracious readiness with which he excused the conduct of all, “The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak," shew him indeed to be "the merciful," as well as the "faithful High Priest," ever ready to stretch forth the hand, to lift up those that are bowed down, gently to lead his people, to "bear them, and carry them," with all their weaknesses and infirmities, "and in his love and in his pity to redeem them."

But there is one consideration connected with our Lord's

agony which I desire now to press upon you, as one of the deepest importance in disclosing to us the exceeding greatness of sin. We are apt, when we look at the agony in the

garden and on the cross, to consider that this was caused by the vast aggregate of the world's sin. That it was in consequence of the immense multitude of sins which are to be blotted out that Jesus suffered so much. But this is taking a wrong view of the sorrows of our Master. Had there been but one sin committed in the world, and were that sin to be pardoned, the draught of bitter sorrow in the garden and at Calvary could not be spared. The holy law of God is violated by one sin, as well as by a million; and the integrity of that law must be maintained, and the perfect holiness, and truth, and justice of its author vindicated, against him who commits the least breach of his commandments, even as if he had been guilty of all. He has broken the bond which united him to God: he has separated himself from his heavenly Father. Sentence was not passed on our first parent after he committed many offences. When the first transgression occurred, in that very day the sentence went forth: for the eating of the fruit of the tree of knowledge, against the direct command of God, he exiled himself at once from the favour of his heavenly Father. And seeing that "without shedding of blood is no remission," and that it is "impossible that the blood of bulls and goats can take away sin,"-any sin, the least sin; therefore the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus, as this is capable of cleansing from all sin, so is it alone sufficient to purge away one sin. Nothing more than this is required for the "sins of the whole world; " nothing less than this will suffice for one sin.

What an insight into the enormity of sin does this give us! Oh, let us no longer so think of little sins, or trifling sins; let us no longer so think of the sins that throw their dark shade over the soul, that they can be easily cast away. One single sin, out of the countless number of those which

blot and debase our wicked, carnal hearts, suffices to bring all the weight of suffering on the man Christ Jesus which he endured. And surely this ought to lead us to flee with intense eagerness from that sin which involves in its pardon such tremendous consequences. How ought we to oppose and struggle against the least appearance of evil, the least tendency to that accursed thing which caused Jesus to suffer so much. When we are tempted by the wicked and carnal inclinations of our hearts to fall away from God, to dishonour him, to resist his will, to stray from the good Shepherd of our souls,-let us fix our thoughts on Christ agonizing in the garden-let us see Jesus there-let us mark the sufferings he endured-let us think of the "wormwood and the gall" in the cup of sorrow he drank for our sins; and then let us, if we dare, indulge ourselves in that sin which inflicted such pangs on the Redeemer.

But in proportion as we are led to descry the enormity of sin, by the "death and passion of our Saviour Christ," so also does there arise before our view, from the very centre of his agony, the most glorious testimony to the holiness of God. He will receive the sinner at no other price. The "precious blood of Christ" alone satisfies his justice. And thus gilding the view of God's holiness with the softest light, we recognize the love wherewith he loved us, so that he even spared not his own Son. Oh, what a subject of contemplation for eternity? The love of God in sparing the guilty at such a cost-the holiness of God, in requiring a full, and perfect, and sufficient atonement for his broken law.

But another particular connected with our Saviour's agony in the garden forces itself on our attention, and that is the prayer which he offered up to his heavenly

Father: "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me." Now we cannot for a moment think that our Lord, in using these words, shrank from completing the work he had voluntarily undertaken to perform. Far from it. He never for a moment "failed or was discouraged" in his resolution to achieve the victory over death and hell for his people; nay he was straitened, until that baptism was accomplished in him which was to set his people free, and make him the first-born among many brethren. The expression, then, here used merely denotes the shrinking of his human nature from the intensity of the agony he was enduring. He hesitated not in advancing, but his soul melted for heaviness within him; and the expression then is most important in three different views. First, as proving the fearful nature of the mental sufferings through which our Divine Redeemer was then passing; he who endured for days and years the contradiction of sinners against himself, who was met in every direction by persecution, hatred, and violence-who was a very scorn and outcast of the people, and who yet passed through all this tumult of popular animosity as though he heard it not: now, when the hand of God is laid upon him as the surety and sponsor of his people, who is bearing their iniquity, He is in an agony with the travail of soul, and "is sorrowful even unto death."

Again this exclamation of our Lord distinctly proves, that it was indeed man who was thus bearing the weight of God's wrath against sin-one who had not taken upon him the nature of angels, but was of the seed of Abraham, bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh. His human nature shrunk from suffering; his eternal resolution of love carried him onward with resistless energy. And this is infinitely important, inasmuch as it is on this fact that our hopes