The Garden Of The Soul
DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON, AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"A place called Gethsemane." Matthew 26:36.
THOUGH I have taken only these few words for my text, I shall endeavor
to bring the whole narrative before your mind's eyes. It is a part of
the teaching of Holy Writ that man is a composite being–his nature
being divisible into three parts–"spirit," "soul," and "body." I am
not going to draw any nice distinctions tonight between the spirit and
the soul, or to analyze the connecting link between our immaterial life
and consciousness and the physical condition of our nature and the
materialism of the world around us. Suffice it to say that whenever our
vital organization is mentioned, this triple constitution is pretty
sure to be referred to.
If you notice it carefully, you will see in our Savior's sufferings on
our behalf that the passion extended to His spirit, soul, and body–and
although at the last extremity upon the Cross it was hard to tell in
which respect He suffered most, all three being strained to the
utmost–yet it is certain there were three distinct conflicts in
accordance with this threefold endowment of humanity. The first part of
our Lord's dolorous pain fell upon His spirit. This took place at the
table in that upper chamber where He ate the Passover with His
disciples. Those of you who have read the narrative attentively will
have noticed these remarkable words in the thirteenth chapter of John
and the twenty-first verse: "When Jesus had said these things, He was
troubled in spirit, and testified and said, Verily, verily, I say unto
you, that one of you shall betray Me."
Of that silent conflict in the Savior's heart while He was sitting at
the table no one was a spectator. Into any man's spiritual
apprehensions it was beyond the power of any other creature to
penetrate. How much less into the spiritual conflicts of the Man Christ
Jesus? No one could by any possibility have gazed upon these veiled
mysteries! He seems to have sat there for a time like one in the
deepest abstraction. He fought a mighty battle within Himself. When
Judas rose and went out it may have been a relief. The Savior gave out
a hymn as if to celebrate His conflict! Then, rising up, He went forth
to the Mount of Olives.
His discourse with His disciples there is recorded in that wonderful
chapter, the fifteenth of John, so full of holy triumph, beginning
thus, "I am the true vine." He went to the agony in the same joyous
spirit like a conqueror, and oh, how He prayed! That famous
prayer–what a profound study it is for us! It ought, properly, to be
called "The Lord's Prayer." The manner and the matter are alike
impressive. "These words spoke Jesus, and lifted up His eyes to Heaven
and said, Father, the hour is come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son
also may glorify You." He seems to have been chanting a melodious paean
just then at the thought that His first battle had been fought–that
His spirit, which had been troubled–had risen superior to the
conflict, and that He was already victorious in the first of the three
terrible struggles.
As soon as this had occurred there came another hour, and with it the
power of darkness in which not so much the spirit as the soul of our
blessed Lord was to sustain the shock of the encounter. This took place
in the garden. You know that after He had come forth triumphant in this
death struggle He went to the conflict more expressly in His body,
undergoing in His physical Nature the scourging, the spitting and the
Crucifixion–although in that third case there was a grief of spirit
and an anguish of soul likewise which mingled their tributary streams.
We would counsel you to meditate upon each separately, according to the
time and the circumstance in which the pre-eminence of any one of these
is distinctly referred to.
This second conflict which we have now before us well deserves our most
reverent attention. I think it has been much misunderstood. Possibly a
few thoughts may be given us tonight which shall clear away the mist
from our understanding and open some of the mystery to our hearts. It
seems to me that the agony in the garden was a repetition of the
temptation in the wilderness. These two contests with the Prince of
Darkness have many points of exact correspondence.
If carefully pondered you may discover that there is a singular and
striking connection between the triple temptation and the triple
prayer. Having fought Satan at the first in the wilderness, on the
threshold of His public ministry, our Lord now finds him at the last in
the garden as He nears the termination of His mediatorial work on
earth.
Keep in mind that it is the soul of Jesus of which we now speak while I
take up the several points consecutively, offering a few brief words on
each. THE PLACE OF CONFLICT has furnished the theme of so many
discourses that you can hardly expect anything new to be said upon it.
Let us, however, stir up your minds by way of remembrance. Jesus went
to the GARDEN to endure the conflict because it was the place of
meditation. It seemed fit that His mental conflict should be carried on
in the place where man is most at home in the pensive musings of his
mind–
" The garden contemplation suits." As Jesus had been accustomed to
indulge Himself with midnight reveries in the midst of those olive
groves, He fitly chooses a place sacred to the studies of the mind to
be the place memorable for the struggles of His soul–
"In a garden man became
Heir of endless death and pain."
It was there the first Adam fell, and it was meet that there–
"The second Adam should restore
The ruins of the first."
He went to that particular garden, it strikes me, because it was within
the boundaries of Jerusalem. He might have gone to Bethany that night
as He had on former nights, but why did He not? Do you not know that it
was according to the Levitical law that the Israelites should sleep
within the boundaries of Jerusalem on the Paschal night? When they came
up to the temple to keep the Passover they must not go away till that
Paschal night was over. So our Lord selected a rendezvous within the
liberties of the city that He might not transgress even the slightest
jot or tittle of the Law.
And again, He chose that garden, among others contiguous to Jerusalem,
because Judas knew the place. He wanted retirement, but He did not want
a place where He could skulk and hide Himself. It was not for Christ to
give Himself up–that were like suicide. It was not for Him to withdraw
and secrete Himself–that were like cowardice. So He goes to a place
which He is quite sure that Judas, who was aware of His habits, knows
He is accustomed to visit. And there, like one who, so far from being
afraid to meet His death, pants for the Baptism with which He is to be
baptized, He awaits the crisis that He had so distinctly anticipated.
"If they seek Me," He seemed to say, "I will be where they can readily
find Me, and lead Me away." Every time we walk in a garden I think we
ought to remember the garden where the Savior walked, and the sorrows
that befell Him there. Did He select a garden, I wonder, because we are
all so fond of such places, thus linking our seasons of recreation with
the most solemn mementoes of Himself? Did He recollect what forgetful
creatures we are, and did He therefore let His blood fall upon the soil
of a garden, that so often as we dig and delve therein we might lift up
our thoughts to Him who fertilized earth's soil, and delivered it from
the curse by virtue of His own agony and griefs?
Our next thought shall be about the WITNESSES. Christ's spiritual
suffering was altogether within the veil. As I have said, no one could
describe it. But His soul-sufferings had some witnesses. Not the
rabble, not the multitude–when they saw His bodily suffering that was
all they could understand–therefore it was all they were permitted to
see. Just so, Jesus had often shown them the flesh, as it were, or the
carnal things of His teaching when He gave them a parable. But He had
never shown them the soul, the hidden life of His teaching. This He
reserved for His disciples.
And thus it was in His passion. He let the Greek and the Roman gather
around in mockery and see His flesh torn, and rent, and bleeding–but
He did not let them go into the garden with Him to witness His anguish
or His prayer. Within that enclosure none came but the disciples. And
mark, my Brothers and Sisters, not all the disciples were there. There
were a hundred and twenty of His disciples, at least, if not more, but
only eleven bore Him company then. Those eleven must cross that gloomy
brook of Kidron with Him. And eight of them are set to keep the door,
their faces towards the world, there to sit and watch–only three go
into the garden–and those three see something of His sufferings.
They behold Him when the agony begins, but still at a distance. He
withdraws from them a stone's cast, for He must tread the winepress
alone and it is not possible that the priestly Sufferer should have a
single peer in the offering which He is to present to His God. At the
last it came to this, that there was only one observer. The chosen
three had fallen asleep, God's unsleeping eyes alone looked down upon
Him. The Father's ear alone attended to the piteous cries of the
Redeemer–
"He knelt, the Savior knelt andprayed, When but His Father's eyes
Looked through the lonely garden's shade On that dread agony. The Lord
of all above, beneath, Was bowed with sorrow unto death!" Then there
came an unexpected visitor. Amazement wrapped the sky as Christ was
seen of angels to be sweating blood for us! "Give strength to Christ,"
the Father said as He addressed some strong-winged spirit–
"The astonished seraph bowed his head, And flew from worlds on high."
He stood to strengthen, not to fight, for Christ must fight alone. But
applying some holy cordial, some sacred anointing to the oppressed
Champion who was ready to faint, He, our great Deliverer, received
strength from on high and rose up to the last of His fights.
Oh, my dear Friends, does not all this teach us that the outside world
knows nothing about Christ's soul-sufferings? They draw a picture of
Him. They carve a piece of wood or ivory, but they do not know His
soul-sufferings–they cannot enter into them! No, the mass of His own
people do not know them, for they are not made conformable to those
sufferings by a spiritual fellowship. We have not that keen sense of
mental things to sympathize with such grieving as He had, and even the
favored ones, the three–the elect out of the elect–who have the most
of spiritual graces and who have, therefore, the most of suffering to
endure, and the most of depression of spirits–even they cannot pry
into the fullness of the mystery!
God only knows the soul-anguish of the Savior when He sweat great drops
of blood! Angels saw it, but yet they could not understand it. They
must have wondered more when they saw the Lord of Life and Glory
sorrowful with exceeding sorrowfulness, even unto death, than when they
saw this round world spring into beautiful existence from nothingness,
or when they saw Jehovah garnish the heavens with His Spirit, and with
His hand form the crooked serpent. Brethren, we cannot expect to know
the length and breadth and height of these things! Only as our own
experience deepens and darkens shall we know more and more of what
Christ suffered in the garden.
Having thus spoken about the place and the witnesses, let us say a
little concerning THE CUP ITSELF. What was this "cup" about which our
Savior prayed–"If it is possible let this cup pass from Me"? Some of
us may have entertained the notion that Christ desired, if possible, to
escape from the pangs of death. You may conjecture that although He had
undertaken to redeem His people, yet His human nature flinched and
started back at the perilous hour. I have thought so myself in times
past. But on more mature consideration I am fully persuaded that such a
supposition would reflect a dishonor upon the Savior.
I do not consider that the expression "this cup" refers to death at
all. Nor do I imagine that the dear Savior meant for a single moment to
express even a particle of desire to escape from the pangs which were
necessary for our redemption. This "cup," it appears to me, relates to
something altogether different. Not to the last conflict, but to the
conflict in which He was then engaged. If you study the words–and
especially the Greek words–which are used by the various Evangelists,
I think you will find that they all tend to suggest and confirm this
view of the subject.
The Savior's spirit, having been vexed and having triumphed, was next
attacked by the Evil One upon His mental Nature, and this mental Nature
became, in consequence, most horribly despondent and cast down. As when
on the pinnacle of the temple the Savior felt the fear of falling, so
when in the garden He felt a sinking of soul, an awful despondency, and
He began to be very sorrowful. The "cup," then, which He desired to
pass from Him was, I believe, that cup of despondency and nothing more.
I am the more disposed so to interpret it, because not a single word
recorded by any of the four Evangelists seems to exhibit the slightest
wavering on the part of our Savior as to offering Himself up as an
atoning Sacrifice. Their testimony is frequent and conclusive–"He set
His face to go towards Jerusalem." "I have a baptism to be baptized
with, and how am I straitened till it is accomplished." "The Son of Man
goes, as it is written of Him." You never hear a sentence of reluctance
or hesitancy. It does not seem to be consistent with the Character of
our blessed Lord, even as Man, to suppose that He desired that final
cup of His sufferings to pass away from Him at all.
Moreover, there is this, which I take to be a strong argument–the
Apostle tells us that He was "heard in that He feared." Now, if He
feared to die, He was not heard, for He did die. If He feared to bear
the wrath of God, or the weight of human sin, and really desired to
escape from them, then He was not heard, for He did feel the weight of
sin, and He did suffer the weight of His Father's vindictive wrath.
Thus it appears to me that what He feared was that dreadful depression
of mind which had suddenly come upon Him so that His soul was very
heavy. He prayed His Father that that cup might pass away–and so it
did–for I do not see in all the Savior's griefs afterwards that
singular overwhelming depression He endured when in the garden.
He suffered much in Pilate's hall. He suffered much upon the tree. But
there was, I was almost about to say, a bold cheerfulness about Him
even to the last, when for the joy that was set before Him He endured
the Cross! Yes, when He cried, "I thirst," and, "My God, My God, why
have you forsaken Me?" I think I notice a holy force and vigor about
the words and thoughts of the Sufferer which not the weak and trembling
state of His body could extinguish! The language of that twenty-second
Psalm, which seems to have struck the keynote, if I may so speak, of
His devotion on the Cross, is full of faith and confidence.
If the first verse contains the bitterest of woe, the twenty-first
verse changes the plaintive strain. "You have heard (or answered) Me"
marks a transition from suffering to satisfaction which it is
delightful to dwell upon. Now, perhaps some of you may think that if
this cup only meant depression of the spirits and dismay of the soul it
was nothing of much significance, or at least it weakens the spell of
those words and deeds which twine around Gethsemane. Permit me to beg
your pardon. I know personally that there is nothing on earth that the
human frame can suffer to be compared with despondency and prostration
of mind. Such is the dolefulness and gloom of a heavy soul, yes, a soul
exceedingly heavy even unto death that I could imagine the pangs of
dissolution to be lighter!
In our last hour joy may lighten up the heart, and the sunshine of
Heaven within may bear up the soul when all outside is dark. But when
the iron enters into a man's soul he is unmanned, indeed! In the
cheerlessness of such exhausted spirits the mind is confused. Well can
I understand the saying that is written, "I am a worm and no man," of
one that is a prey to such melancholy. Oh that cup! When there is not a
promise that can give you comfort. When everything in the world looks
dark. When your very mercies frighten you and rise like hideous
specters and portents of evil before your view.
When you are like the brothers of Benjamin as they opened the sacks and
found the money, but instead of being comforted said, "What is this
that God has done unto us?" When everything looks black and you seem,
through some morbid sensitiveness into which you have fallen, to
distort every object and every circumstance into a dismal caricature,
let me say to you, that for us poor sinful men this is a cup more
horrible than any which inquisitors could mix! I can imagine Anne Askew
on the rack, braving it out, like the bold woman she was, facing all
her accusers and saying–
"I am not she that lets My anchor to fall; For every drizzling mist My
ship's substantial," but I cannot think of a man in the soul-sickness
of such depression of spirits as I am referring to, finding in thought
or song a soothing for his woe.
When God touches the very secret of a man's soul, and his spirit gives
way, he cannot bear up very long. And this seems to me to have been the
cup which the Savior had to drink just then–from which He prayed to be
delivered–and concerning which He was heard. Consider for a moment
what depressed His soul. Everything, my Brothers and Sisters,
everything was draped in gloom and overcast with darkness that might be
felt! There was the past. Putting it as I think He would look at it,
His life had been unsuccessful. He could say with Isaiah, "Who has
believed Our report, and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed?" "He
came unto His own, and His own received Him not."
And how poor was that little success He did have! There were His twelve
disciples, and one of them He knew to be on the way to betray Him.
Eight of them were asleep at the entrance to the garden and three
asleep within the garden! He knew that they would all forsake Him, and
one of them would deny Him with oaths and curses! What was there to
comfort Him? When a man's spirit sinks he needs a cheerful
companion–he needs somebody to talk to. Was not this felt by the
Savior? Did He not go three times to His disciples?
He knew they were but men, but then a man can comfort a man in such a
time as that. The sight of a friendly face may cheer one's own
countenance and enliven one's heart. But He had to shake them from
their slumber, and then they stared at Him with unmeaning gazes. Did He
not return back again to prayer because there was no eye to pity, and
none that could help? He found no relief! Half a word sometimes, or
even a smile–even though it be only from a child–will help you when
you are sad and prostrate. But Christ could not get even that! He had
to rebuke them almost bitterly. Is not there a tone of irony about His
remonstrance–"Sleep on now and take your rest"?
He was not angry, but He did feel it. When a man is low-spirited he
feels more keenly and acutely than at other times. And although the
splendid charity of our Lord made that excuse–"The spirit is willing
but the flesh is weak," yet it did cut Him to the heart and He had an
anguish of soul like that which Joseph felt when he was sold into Egypt
by his brothers. You will see, then, that both the past and the present
were sufficient to depress Him to the greatest degree. But there was
the future–and as He looked forward to that, devoted as His heart was,
and unfaltering as was the courage of His soul (for it were sacrilege
and slander, I think, to impute even a thought of flinching to
Him)–yet His human heart shrank back in fear!
He seemed to think–"Oh, how shall I bear it?" The mind started back
from the shame and the body started back from the pain, and the soul
and body both started back from the thought of death and of death in
such an ignominious way–
"He experienced them all– The doubt, the strife, The faint, perplexing
dread. The mists that hang over parting life All gathered round His
head– ThatHe who gave man's breath might know The very depths of human
woe." Brethren, none of us have such cause for depression as the Savior
had! We have not His load to carry and we have a Helper to help us whom
He had not, for God, who forsook Him, will never forsake us. Our soul
may be cast down within us but we can never have such great reason for
it, nor can we ever know it to so great an extent as our dear Redeemer
did.
I wish I could picture to you that lovely Man–friendless like a stag
at bay with the dogs compassing Him round about and the assembly of the
wicked enclosing Him, foreseeing every incident of His passion, even to
the piercing of His hands and His feet, the parting of His garments,
and the lots cast upon His vesture–and anticipating that last
death-sweat without a drop of water to cool His lips! I can but
conceive that His soul must have felt within itself a solemn trembling
such as might well make Him say, "I am exceedingly sorrowful even unto
death." This, then, seems to me to be the "cup" which our Lord Jesus
Christ desired to have passed from Him and which did pass from Him in
due time.
Advancing a little further, I want you to think of the AGONY–which we
have been accustomed to call this scene in the garden. You all know
that it is a word which signifies "wrestling." Now there is no
wrestling where there is only one individual. To this agony, therefore,
there must have been two parties. Were there not, however mystically
speaking, two parties in Christ? What do I see in this King of Sharon
but, as it were, two armies? There was the stern resolve to do all and
to accomplish the work which He had undertaken.
And there was the mental weakness and depression which seemed to say to
Him, "You cannot! You will never accomplish it." "Our fathers trusted
in You and You did deliver them. They cried unto You and were
delivered. They trusted in You and were not confounded." "But I am a
worm and no man, a reproach of men, and despised of the people." So
that the two thoughts come into conflict–the shrinking of the
soul–and yet the determination of His invincible will to go on with it
and to work it out. He was in an agony in that struggle between the
overwhelming fear of His mind and the noble eagerness of His spirit.
I think, too, that Satan afflicted Him–that the powers of darkness
were permitted to use their utmost craft in order to drive the Savior
to absolute despair. One expression used to depict it I will handle
very delicately–a word that, in its rougher sense, means, and has been
applied to persons out of their mind and bereft for awhile of reason.
The term used concerning the Savior in Gethsemane can only be
interpreted by a word equivalent to our "distracted." He was like one
bewildered with an overwhelming weight of anxiety and terror. But His
Divine Nature awakened up His spiritual faculties and His mental energy
to display their full power. His faith resisted the temptation of
unbelief.
The heavenly goodness that was within Him so mightily contended with
the Satanic suggestions and insinuations which were thrown in His way
that it came to a wrestling. I should like you to catch the idea of
wrestling as though you saw two men trying to throw one another,
struggling together till the muscles stand out and the veins start like
whipcord on their brows. That were a fearful spectacle when two men in
desperate wrath thus close in with each other. The Savior was thus
wrestling with the powers of darkness and He grappled with such
terrible earnestness in the fray that He sweat, as it were, great drops
of blood–
"The powers of Hell united pressed
And squeezed His heart, and bruised His breast!
What dreadful conflicts raged within
When sweat and blood forced through His skin!"
Observe the way in which Christ conducted the agony. It was by prayer.
He turned to His Father three times with the same words. It is an index
of distraction when you repeat yourself. Three times with the same
words He approached His God–"My Father, let this cup pass from Me."
Prayer is the great cure-all for depression of spirit. "When my spirit
is overwhelmed within me, I will look to the Rock that is higher than
I." There will be a breaking up altogether, and a bursting of spirit
unless you pull up the sluices of supplication and let the soul flow
out in secret communion with God! If we would state our griefs to God
they would not fret and fume within and wear out our patience as they
sometimes do.
In connection with the agony and the prayer there seems to have been a
bloody sweat. It has been thought by some that the passage only means
that the sweat was like drops of blood. But then the word "like" is
used in Scripture to signify not merely resemblance but the identical
thing itself. We believe that the Savior did sweat, from His entire
Person, great drops of blood falling down to the ground. Such an
occurrence is very rare, indeed, among men. It has happened some few
times. Books of surgery record a few instances, but I believe that the
persons who under some horrifying grief experience such a sweat never
recover–they have always died.
Our Savior's anguish had this peculiarity about it, that though He
sweat, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground so
copiously as if in a crimson shower, yet He survived. His blood must
needs be shed by the hands of others, and His soul poured out unto
death in another form. Remembering the doom of sinful man–that he
should eat his bread in the sweat of his face–we see the penalty of
sin exacted in awful measure on Him who stood for sinners. As we eat
bread this day at the Lord's Table, we commemorate the drops of blood
that He sweat. With perspiration on his face and huge drops on his
brow, man toils for the bread that perishes–but bread is only the
staff of life.
When Christ toiled to give life itself to men, He sweat, not the common
perspiration of the outward form, but the blood which flows from the
very heart itself. Would that I had words to bring all this before you!
I want to make you see it. I want to make you feel it. The heavenly
Lover who had nothing to gain except to redeem our souls from sin and
Satan, and to win our hearts for Himself, leaves the shining courts of
His eternal Glory and comes down as a poor, feeble, and despised Man!
He is so depressed at the thought of what is yet to be done and
suffered and under such pressure of Satanic influence, that He sweat
drops of blood, falling upon the cold frosty soil in that moon-lit
garden. Oh the love of Jesus! Oh the weight of sin! Oh the debt of
gratitude which you and I owe Him!–
"Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present far too
small! Love so amazing, so Divine, Demands my soul, my life, my all!"
We must proceed with the rich narrative to meditate upon our SAVIOR
CONQUERING. Our imagination is slow to fix upon this precious feature
of the dolorous history. Though He had said, "If it is possible, let
this cup pass from Me," yet presently we observe how tranquil and calm
He is when He rises up from that scene of prostrate devotion! He
remarks, as though it were in an ordinary tone of voice, some expected
circumstance–"He is at hand that shall betray Me. Rise, let us be
going." There is no distraction now. No hurry, no turmoil, no
exceedingly sorrow even unto death. Judas comes, and Jesus says,
"Friend, why are you come?"
You would hardly know Him to be the same man that was so sorrowful just
now. One word with an emanation of His Deity suffices to make all the
soldiery fall backwards. Soon He turns round and touches the ear of the
high priest's servant and heals it as in happier days He healed the
diseases and the wounds of the people that flocked round Him in His
journeys. Away He goes, so calm and collected that unjust accusations
cannot extort a reply from Him! And though beset on every hand, yet is
He led as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers
is dumb, so He opens not His mouth.
That was a magnificent calmness of mind that sealed His lips and kept
Him passive before His foes! You and I could not have done it. It must
have been a deep profound peace within which enabled Him to be thus
mute and still amidst the hoarse murmur of the council and the
boisterous tumult of the multitude. I believe that having fought the
enemy within He had achieved a splendid victory! He was heard in that
He feared, and was now able in the fullness of His strength to go out
to the last tremendous conflict in which He met the embattled hosts of
earth and Hell–and yet unabashed after He had encountered them all–to
wave the banner of triumph and to say, "It is finished."
Let us ask, in drawing to a conclusion, what is the LESSON FROM ALL
THIS? I think I could draw out twenty lessons, but if I did they would
not be so good and profitable as the one lesson which the Savior draws
Himself. What was the lesson which He particularly taught to His
disciples? Now Peter, James, and John, open your ears! And you,
Magdalene, and you, Mary, and you, the wife of Herod's steward, and
other gracious women, listen for the inference which I am going to
draw! It is not mine–it is that of our Lord and Master Himself. With
how much heed should we treasure it up! "What I say unto you I say unto
all, Watch." "Watch," and yet again, "Watch and pray lest you enter
into temptation."
I have been turning this over in my mind to make out the connection.
Why, on this particular occasion, should He exhort them to watch? It
strikes me that there were two sorts of watching. Did you notice that
there were eight disciples at the garden gate? They were watching, or
ought to have been. And three were inside the garden. They, too, were
watching, or ought to have been.
But they watched differently. Which way were the eight looking? It
strikes me that they were set there to look outwards–to watch lest
Christ should be surprised by those who would attack Him. That was the
object of their being put there. The other three were set to watch His
actions and His words–to look at the Savior and see if they could
help, or cheer, or encourage Him.
Now you and I have reason to look both ways, and the Savior seems to
say as we look upon the agony–"You will have to feel something like
this, therefore watch." Watch outwards–be always on your watchtower
lest sin surprise you. It is through sin that you will be brought into
this agony. It is by giving Satan an advantage over you that the
sorrows of your soul will be multiplied. If your foot slips your heart
will become the prey of gloom. If you neglect communion with Jesus, if
you grow cold or lukewarm in your affections, if you do not live up to
your privileges you will become the prey of darkness, dejection,
discouragement, and despair. Therefore, watch, lest you enter upon this
great and terrible temptation.
Satan cannot bring strong faith, when it is in healthy exercise, into
such a state of desolation. It is when your faith declines and your
love grows negligent, and your hope is inanimate that he can bring you
into such disconsolate heaviness that you see not your signs, nor know
whether you are a Believer or not. You will not be able to say, "My
Father," for your soul will doubt whether you are a child of God at
all. When the ways of Zion mourn, the harps of the sons and daughters
of Zion are unstrung. Therefore, keep good watch, you who like the
eight disciples are charged as sentinels at the threshold of the
garden.
But you three, watch inward. Look at Christ. "Consider Him that endured
such contradiction of sinners against Himself." Watch the Savior and
watch with the Savior. Brothers and Sisters, I should like to speak
this to you so emphatically that you would never forget it! Be familiar
with the passion of your Lord! Get right up to the Cross! Do not be
satisfied with that, but get the Cross on your shoulders–get yourself
bound to the Cross in the spirit of the Apostle when he said, "I am
crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live."
I do not think that I have had sweeter work to do for a long time than
when, a few weeks ago, I was looking over all the hymn writers and all
the poets I knew of for hymns upon the passion of the Lord. I tried to
enjoy them as I selected them, and to get into the vein in which the
poets were when they sung them. Believe me, there is no fount that
yields such sweet water as the fount that springs from Calvary just at
the foot of the Cross! Here it is that there is a sight to be seen more
astounding and more ravishing than even from the top of Pisgah!
Get into the side of Christ–it is a cleft of the rock in which you may
hide until the tempest is passed. Live in Christ. Live near to Christ
and then let the conflict come and you will overcome even as He
overcame! And rising up from your sweat and from your agony you will go
forth to meet even death itself with a calm expression on your brow,
saying, "My Father, not as I will, but as You will."–
"My God, I love You, not because I hope for Heaven thereby,
Nor because they who love You not
Must burn eternally.
You, O my Jesus, You did me
Upon the Cross embrace.
For me did bear the nails and spear,
And manifold disgrace.
And griefs and torments numberless,
And sweat of agony!
Yes, death itself–and all for me
Who was Your enemy.
Then why, O blessed Jesus Christ,
Should I not love You well?
Not for the hope of winning Heaven,
Nor of escaping Hell.
Not with the hope of gaining anything,
Nor seeking a reward
But as You Yourself have loved me,
O ever-loving Lord,
Even so I love You, and will love,
And in Your praise will sing
Because You are my loving God,
And my Eternal King."
I hope that this meditation may be profitable to some tried Christians
and even to impenitent sinners likewise. Oh that the pictures I have
been trying to draw might be seen by some who will come and trust in
this wondrous Man, this wondrous God who saves all who trust in Him!
Oh, rest on Him! "Though your sins are as scarlet, they shall be as
white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they shall be as
wool." Do but trust Him and you are saved! I do not say you shall be
saved some day, but you are saved tonight!
The sin which was on your shoulder, heavy as a burden when you came
into this house, shall all be gone. Look now to Him in the garden, on
the Cross, and on the Throne! Trust Him! Trust Him! Trust Him NOW!
Trust Him ONLY! Trust Him wholly–
"Let no other trust intrude– None but Jesus
Can do helpless sinners good."
May the Lord bless you, everyone in this assembly, and at the Table may
you have His Presence. Amen.