THE last three chapters of this Gospel admit us to the final things in the mission of the King. If ever it is fitting that we should put off our shoes because the ground is holy, it is so as we read these stories. Here the Passion of GOD, and the passions of men come into conflict and communion.

It is apparently a strange contradiction, and yet it is a truth which stands revealed in the story that we are now to study, the last story.

JESUS had demonstrated His authority and His power in the realms material, mental, and moral, as the one and only King commanding our loyalty by His inherent royalty. And now we are to see Him moving through those scenes which so perplexed and puzzled His early disciples, moving through defeat - not to defeat; moving through darkness, through pain, through all the things that men most fear and dread and attempt to escape, yet never losing His dignity, never losing that imperial magnificence which has been so manifest in the earlier movements of the book.

In the section which we are now to study, perhaps not observed Upon the surface, but most evidently set forth when the section is carefully considered, the supreme fact is the authority and power of the King.

To briefly summarize what seems to be the content and message and portion of this passage, it is this. "No man taketh it (My life) from Me . . . I lay it down of Myself."

We see here the King hemmed in, surrounded; and yet arranging for the hemming-in, manipulating by the strange and mystic might and majesty that overwhelms us as we look, all the forces that seem to be against Him, compelling them to act at His divine command, in His way, for the fulfillment of His own purpose.

May the Spirit of GOD, Who searcheth all things, yea the deep things of GOD, baptize us into solemn awe, and enlighten our minds and hearts, as we approach this last section of the Gospel.

The whole section falls into three parts.

The first chronicles for us the preliminary things, and that is the section at which we are now to look. Let us divide it into three parts. We have first of all the King's approach to His passion. He tells His disciples that, after two days, He will be crucified. While He is telling His disciples this, the Sanhedrim is meeting somewhere else, plotting to take Him.

Then follows that exquisite and matchless story of the Supper at Bethany. The story opens by CHRIST's declaration, "After two days." The story in the Gospel of John begins "Six days before the Passover," so that quite evidently the story recorded happened four days before CHRIST told His disciples definitely that in two days He would be crucified

Finally, we have the story of the Passover Feast, and the institution of the new memorial feast. Everything ends with the declaration that they went out after the singing of a hymn, to the Mount of Olives.

Before considering these separately, let us notice their inter-relation.

First we have the declared determination of CHRIST, the word of JESUS to His disciples. He said to them, "Ye know that after two days in the feast of the Passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified."

Then we have the record of the determination of the rulers. There is a point of oneness; and there is a point of difference. The Sanhedrim was an official religious court, and it was gathered together in its official capacity in the court of the high priest; it was a gathering together of the whole movement of opposition.

They

He said, "After two days is the feast of the Passover, and the Son of man is betrayed to be crucified."

The determination of the rulers, and the determination of CHRIST, agreed as to His death, differed as to the time.

Now Matthew turns aside from the sequence of events in order to tell how it came about that He was right, and not they, as to the time.

Four days before, Mary had found her way to His feet, and had anointed Him. Matthew tells us the story of that anointing, and of how Judas went out from that gathering at Bethany to the priests. Thus probably four days before CHRIST said He would be crucified, Judas had covenanted with them, had received from them the thirty pieces of silver, and for four days he had carried them about with him, for four days he had watched his opportunity.

The counsel of the priests had said not till after the feast be over, and Judas was charged, no doubt, by the rulers not to precipitate matters, but quietly to wait until the Passover was over and the crowds had gone.

Then CHRIST compelled Judas to act at once. Having said, "One of you shall betray Me," and having indicated the one, John tells us that He said to him, "What thou doest do quickly." Judas, acting under that compulsion, finding that he was discovered, without any repentance in his soul, hastened to the priests, hastened and obtained a company of men, and, not according to the will of the rulers, but before they intended, he had precipitated the arrest and trial of CHRIST in the midst of the Passover feast.

Thus we see the King deliberately moving towards the end of His set purpose, but not allowing the rulers to choose the hour, or the method; by His own quiet and deliberate act putting the right hand of His supreme authority upon all their counsels, and bringing it to effect His purpose; dragging their crafty subtlety from the lurking-places of their deceit into the clear light, as He drove Judas out to do his dastardly work, at the hour of GOD's appointing, rather than at the hour of the rulers' choice. Such is the relation of this part of the story to the movement of preparation.

Now let us look at things a little more carefully.

Look first at the two forces moving toward the death of JESUS.

After the Crucifixion, and after the Resurrection, and after Pentecost, Peter stood up and began to preach in the power of the outpouring of the Spirit, and as he looked out upon those masses of people before him, and saw amongst them rulers, He said, "Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know; Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain."

Mark the two things that Peter recognized.

Here is the historic fact in CHRIST's approach to the Cross. Here in a mystery which almost overwhelms us, we see GOD and sin combining towards one goal.

Look at the King.

He was moving towards His Cross. One might almost say leisurely, for notice, "When Jesus had finished all these sayings, he said."

His was the leisure that had in it no unrest, no haste, no friction. "When Jesus had finished all these sayings."

How often they had tried to arrest Him. How constantly He had said, "My hour is not yet come." "Go ye, and tell that fox, Behold. I cast out devils, and I do cures to day and tomorrow, and the third day I shall be perfected;" when I am ready I shall be perfected. "When Jesus had finished all these sayings."

His teaching was not complete until He had said the last word, until He had not merely enunciated the ethic given at the commencement of His ministry, until He had not merely uttered the glorious and prophetic instructions to His own, but until He had also uttered the mysterious and marvellous prophecy on Olivet.

"When Jesus had finished . . . He said" - and no hand could arrest Him until He was ready. That man has never read these stories thoroughly who says that JESUS CHRIST was a victim of circumstances and men. He was the Master of circumstances and of men.

Thus we see this Galilean, this Man, lacking in all the things that men count great, moving in the midst of circumstances that seem to hem Him in, and master Him, and beat Him; and yet as we look at Him, His hand is upon them all, and with quiet leisure and definite intention, and intelligent purpose, unafraid, and unsurprised, He moved towards His Cross.

There in the court of the high-priests was the Sanhedrim. They were also moving towards the Cross. It was the final gathering, and they were attempting to encompass His death officially. It was a crafty gathering.

They saw He must die, but they were not quite sure of time and place. The only thing to avoid is the feast. "Not on the feast day."

Thus grace and sin were moving toward the same sad end; grace in the person of GOD's King planning for the Cross; sin in the person of the rulers plotting for the Cross. As we look back upon those two scenes, of CHRIST in the midst of His disciples, of the rulers at the palace, they were as far apart as heaven and hell, as love and malice, as right and wrong, as clear open action, and crafty devilish deceit. Yet both were moving toward the one end. As we read the story again, and the two pictures become impressed upon our mental vision, we see the Lord high and lifted up, His train filling the Temple, and we learn anew the meaning of the old Psalmist's declaration, "Surely the wrath of man shall praise Thee:

The remainder of wrath shalt Thou restrain."

This was no human Teacher to be bruised and beaten at man's choice. It was the King, with His hand upon circumstances, governing the Sanhedrim, letting them work out their own nefarious designs, and yet so high seated over all, that presently He took the spear of their uttermost malice, and bathed it in the blood of GOD's uttermost grace. So He approached His Cross.

Then let us look at this picture of the Supper at Bethany - the action of Mary and the action of Judas.

We will not now go into the details of these stories, all the touches of exquisite beauty in the action of Mary; and all the lines of red and flaming fire that frighten us when we come to Judas. But with the general impression of these two things upon our minds, let us notice carefully how the instruments were the instruments of grace and of sin. Mary was the instrument of grace. Judas was the instrument of sin. In the story we see shining about the Master a great light, and deepening over Him a great darkness. There is the light of Mary's love.

There is the darkness of Judas' treachery.

These two people were also moving toward His Cross, she with a love that went beyond death, anointing Him for burial; he with a hate that merged all things in death, arranging for His death.

The contrast is vivid. This woman got nearer to the inner heart of JESUS than any human being prior to Pentecost. When she brought that alabaster cruse and poured some ointment on His head and some on His feet, the whole company of the disciples, and not Judas only, murmured, they all said, Why this waste? What a revelation of apostolic incompetence was that question.

Quite kindly one may say, and yet with tremendous conviction, one would rather be in succession to Mary than the whole crowd of apostles. Mary saw into His soul; not that she perfectly knew all the meaning; but she saw in His eyes the shadow of the coming suffering and the Cross. A mutual sympathy was there, hers for Him and His for her. Maybe Mary looked at Him sitting there in Simon's house, and she thought in her soul, there is a shadow in His soul, the end is near; I wonder if I can do anything to let Him know that at least I have touched the fringe of His garment of sackcloth. Love is always prodigal. Love overlaps all the bounds of prudence, and gets the most precious thing in the house and pours it out.

It was a sacrament of sympathy, but it will not be a perfect picture unless He knows. Sympathy must be answered by sympathy. Love like this must have the answer of love. He said, "In that she hath poured this ointment on my body, she did it for my burial. Verily I say unto you, Wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, there shall also this, that this woman hath done, be told for a memorial of her."

That is the only time CHRIST ever suggested the raising of a memorial to any one, and the memorial He suggested was not a memorial of marble or of gold, not of a temple upon which old Time will act until it crumbles its magnificence to the dust.

It was a memorial of a fragrance; and earth is sweeter, and heaven richer, for Mary's love and CHRIST's acceptance of it.

There was no tremor in His voice, "She did it for My burial." He was arranging, manipulating, mastering evil; and He gathered up the sweet and precious fragrance of a devoted love. It was dear to Him and precious, and He said, It shall be her memorial.

Thank GOD for that light in the darkness. Thank GOD there was one heart came somewhere near to Him, one frail woman, despised as sentimental by the apostles, who poured upon Him anointment that makes heaven finer for its rich and rare aroma.

And then the darkness is revealed in Judas' lack of sympathy. He had no sympathy for Mary, because he had no sympathy for JESUS. Observe his selfishness and his act of baseness. No comment is necessary; in such brief words we leave it.

Finally we come to the Passover.

Here we see the perfecting and passing of the old economy, and the beginning of the new. The Passover was observed, the feast of deliverance from slavery, the feast of the exodus, the feast of hope. Men had kept it fitfully through the long centuries, regularly at first, and then occasionally through the age of decadence. The King sat down to keep it as one of that nation and people. That was its last keeping in the economy of GOD, because all that it had foreshadowed was fulfilled as He sat at the board, and all that to which it had pointed found the ultimate fulfillment in Him.

He completed that of which the exodus had been but the preparation. The final exodus came by the way of that Cross to which He was going.

Then, still sitting there in the midst of the feast of a past and failing dispensation, at a board where there was still the unfermented wine of the Passover feast, and where there was still the unleavened cake fragments remaining, He instituted a new feast. He took bread, some of that which was there, and broke it, and said, "Take, eat; this is My body." He took the cup and said, "Drink ye all of it; for this is My blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins."

JESUS was at the Passover board, and He took the Passover bread, and the cup of the old economy of anticipation; but as His hands touched that Passover bread, He made all things new; as His hand took hold upon the Passover cup, He made it flush with the new glory of a new dawn, and a new age, and a new dispensation. In the simplicity of this picture we see the establishment of the Christian feast.

There are three things we need to remember concerning it.

bands of His disciples shall sit down and take bread and fruit of the vine, and in the sacred material act enter into an actual and spiritual communion with Him.

The old Passover feast was the feast of the exodus, and was a feast of hope. The new is the feast of the exodus, but the exodus that He has accomplished, which no longer fills the heart with hope, but with the certainty of an already achieved victory.

When men and women gather through the ages around that board, it is to remember Him, it is to commune with Him, it is to pledge themselves in loyalty to Him. Never let us forget that. Away behind ecclesiastical Rome is pagan Rome, and there among the ruins of pagan Rome we still see upon the fresco the Roman soldier taking his sacramentum. This is our Sacramentum, our oath of allegiance to live and fight and die for this King.

Thus symbolically He led His disciples through the shadows of darkness into the sunlight of a new morning. How simple it was; at the end of the Passover feast. He touched the old bread and it broke into infinite sustenance for the world; He put His hand upon the old cup, and out of it came the red wine of the Kingdom of GOD. When we sit in simple symbolism around the table let us never forget that He is there, the King Himself.

"And when they had sung a hymn, they went out into the Mount of Olives." There is no doubt whatever that they sang the great Hallel. And if we turn back to Psalms 113-118 we find exactly what they sang. They sang the first two of those hymns, Psalms 113 and 114, at the commencement of Passover; the Psalms which tell of the Lord the high and the humbled One, a song of the exodus, how He led them out of Egypt into Canaan.

Think of JESUS sitting at that last Passover Supper, singing those two Psalms before the Passover, and see how exquisitely they fit and perfectly fall in with all those thoughts that are in our mind. Then Psalms 115 begins,

That speaks of Passion for the glory of GOD.

That was the last note of the song.

And when they had sung that hymn they went out to the Mount of Olives. Thus the King came to the darkness of the Cross singing of the enduring loving-kindness of GOD.

WITH reverent reticence we have now to follow the King through Gethsemane. We cannot attempt to interpret the sorrows of Christ as they are suggested to us by this narrative; from beginning to end of the meditation we shall but walk around the margin, stand on the outside of the darkness, and come to know in a very faint and far-off way all that is revealed in this story of Agony.

Let us notice, however, that in this passage there are again three subdivisions, and let us make Christ the centre of all our meditation. The disciples are here; we shall see them incidentally; we are bound to do that; but let us fix our reverent thought upon the Lord Himself as He is seen in this matchless picture.

First we stand in the vestibule of that inner shrine and sanctuary of sorrow to which the Lord came under the shade of the Olive trees in Gethsemane. Standing there, we see Christ preparing His disciples for what was then immediately to follow.

Then, in the central section of the passage, we pass to the inner sanctuary of sorrow, and there Christ is seen alone. The disciples are there also, but their presence but emphasizes the fact of His absolute and desolate loneliness.

Then finally, we have a picture of Christ triumphant.

We come first to the vestibule of the sanctuary. It was night. The moon was at the full, as we know by the feast that was being observed. There had been that strange and wonderful gathering in the upper room, the passing of the old feast and the institution of the new. They had sung a hymn, the Hallel Psalms, and the song was in their minds as they had gone forth from the upper room, along the streets and out by the road, until they came to the slopes of Olivet and found their way into the enclosed place. Such is the meaning of the word Gethsemane. How strangely they had been perturbed, and perplexed, and puzzled by the things He had said. They had asked Him, "Whither goest Thou?" and He had answered them in what seemed to be emphatic terms, of going to the Father, but He had failed to give them any geographical description of His goings. Now He was going and they were accompanying Him. Suddenly the silence of that walk toward Gethsemane was broken by Christ Himself. Turning to this group of men He said, "All ye shall be offended in Me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad." His first words told them of the darkness which was just ahead. Maybe they were hoping that He had done with the strange and troublous things since Judas had left the company. But now He looked at the eleven that remained, and said, You will all be scandalized in me this night, made to stumble in Me; I shall be the object over which you will fall; you will all be offended in Me, for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. He knew the darkness far better than they, and He told them of the worst thing that was coming to them, that the whole of them would be offended. Yet it was not the voice of a fatalist, but of One Who told them whither they were inevitably moving, of One conscious of a pre-arranged programme. These men were familiar with the Old Testament Scriptures; they knew full well the great prophecy of Zechariah from which the quotation was made. And He said, This is the night of that smiting and scattering. No accident is happening to-night; this is part of a divine plan and movement. How constantly He said, "It is written," or, the Scriptures have foretold. And so, while the shadows were deepening about them, He told them of the deeper darkness, and of the fact that they were going into a darkness so profound as to scandalize, and drive them away.

But that was not all. He was preparing them by giving them to know before they should be offended, that He knew they would be offended. Christ was always making it easy for these men to get back presently; and when He told them the worst that was in them, and they did not believe Him; though they all personally declared they would not be offended, He did not argue; but He left something in the heart, and mind, and memory, which returning presently, would make it easier for them. It is a great thing to be able to say within one's own soul, Well, my friend knew and warned me, I will go back to Him. Christ was telling them the worst. But not only the worst. Mark the next words well, words flashing with light, "But after I am raised up, I will go before you into Galilee."

Christ was on the way to Gethsemane with this little group of men, frightened souls, not knowing what was going to happen next, wondering what He meant, sadly disappointed He had not forced things to an issue and set up a Kingdom; brokenhearted because they thought He was going to be murdered; and He said, "All ye shall be offended in Me this night. . . . but after I am raised up I will go before you into Galilee." Your scattering is not the last thing, there will be a gathering; My defeat is not the end, there will be a raising up; this darkness is not finality, there is light beyond it.

Peter's answer was the protestation of love and of ignorance; "If all shall be offended in Thee, I will never be offended." Jesus said unto him, "Verily I say unto thee, that this night,"-and then to emphasize the immediateness of it-"before the cock crow, thou shalt deny Me thrice." And Peter replied, "Even if I must die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee."

The King Himself was quiet and calm, full of tenderness for these frail men. He had no rebuke for them, but a solemn warning of what was coming, so definite and positive, that there could be no mistake. The one thing He was impressing upon them was His knowledge. Peter said in effect; If I do not know myself, who does know me? The one thing a man does not know is himself, and that is what we find out when we see Christ with His disciples. Peter meant it, "I will never be offended in Thee;" he was absolutely sincere; but he did not know himself, he did not know his weakness or his power, he did not know the forces coming against him, he did not know how dark the darkness could be, or how terrible the temptation might become. He was perfectly honest. But Christ knew him, Christ knew that beneath all that wonderful devotion which was so precious to His heart, in the very strength of his nature lay his weakness, the passionate man, impulsive, fiery, like a thunderstorm; He knew under stress of great temptation that he could and would deny. The King was calm and tender toward His disciples. They, while loving Him, were nevertheless perplexed and blundering.

Then we pass into Gethsemane. The presence of the disciples throughout this section but serves to intensify the realization of His loneliness. Notice how He passed to loneliness with them. He took eleven of them from the upper room, and having come to the garden, eight of them were left either outside its gate or perhaps just inside. Three of them were taken yet a little further with Him; they were the boanergic men, Peter, James, and John. They were the men who had been with Him en the Mount of Transfiguration. They were the men who had been with Him in the house of Jairus when He raised the maiden. They were the men who for some reason or other He perpetually took a little nearer to Him than the rest. It is almost uniformly held that they were an elect inner circle, and that He trusted them more, and could say more to them. One cannot be at all convinced of that. Perchance they were the weakest three of the twelve, and therefore it was necessary for Him to keep them near to Himself. Perhaps the man who never has a vision is stronger than the man who gets his vision. Presently, in the light of our Lord's revelation of Himself in the Father's home, we may find that the people who always seemed to be left at the gate and never had a naming vision, and no high ecstatic experience, but who have quietly pursued the line of commonplace devotion, are stronger than the others. It is recorded that a long time ago a nun was dreaming that she saw three other nuns at prayer, and she imagined that as they were at prayer she saw the Master Himself coming, passing by them. The first of them He brushed by almost rudely without a glance or touch. To the second He spoke some brief word as He passed, but with the third He lingered, and laid a caressing hand upon her head, and with His face all wreathed in smiles, whispered some word of infinite love in her ear. And in her dream the nun thought to herself, How the Master loves that last woman; the second must have grieved Him somehow; and with the first He must be very angry. Then in her dream she thought the Master turned to her and said, O woman of the world, how wrongly hast thou judged. The faith and trust and obedience of this first woman is so perfect that I can train her for "higher service than the others can ever attain. The last one needs all my attention or she would never follow at all. Perhaps Peter, James, and John were of that sort. He took these three men, yet they were unable to go with Him all the way. He asked them to watch, and then going still a little further He prayed.

Next let us notice the terms that are used here about our Lord. He "began to be sorrowful and sore troubled." We have seen that word "began" twice before in this book of Matthew about Jesus. In chapter four, He began to preach. In chapter sixteen, He began to tell His disciples that He must suffer. Now He began to be sorrowful and sore troubled. This word, "sore troubled," is a strange word. Nothing can be definitely said as to its derivation. It may have come from two words. Most probably it has come from one that means "away from home," He began to be sorrowful and away from home. It means more than that, of course; but that is the root idea, that of desolating loneliness. He began to enter into that consciousness of His absolute isolation. When He began His ministry the crowds were with Him. They had left Him long ago. When He began His ministry the rulers were interested, they now were plotting for His death, and He knew it. He had gathered about Him a band of disciples, a large company, more than twelve; but there came a day when He tried to teach them spiritual things concerning bread that comes out of heaven, and from that time many of His disciples went back and walked no more with Him. But at least there are twelve. No, one of them is now out somewhere, bringing the mob. But at least there are eleven? No, eight of them were left at the gate. But at least there are three? No, they will all be asleep in half an hour. He began to be sorrowful and away from home. And then He spoke of it. How seldom He spoke of His sorrow! But He said to these men, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful." And here we have another word that arrests the attention. He "began to be sorrowful" is one word. Then "He said My soul is exceeding sorrowful" That is the same word with a prefix which gives emphasis to it. It means, My soul is the centre of surging sorrows, and He said to them, "Abide ye here, and watch with Me." It was His last appeal to humanity, His last appeal to His disciples.

Then we go a step further with Him. We can do nothing more with this threefold prayer than notice three of the simplest things about it. Three times He prayed. First, He said, "My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass away from Me: nevertheless, not as I will, but as Thou wilt." The second time He did not ask that if it be possible the cup should pass, but He consented to the impossibility, "My Father, if this cannot pass away, except I drink it, Thy will be done." The third time He said the same thing.

Mark the first prayer most carefully. In the presence of it, one is inclined to think that there was a shrinking there had never been before, yet it is not a prayer that the cup may pass, it is a prayer that God's will may be done. Notice first of all, His recognition of His abiding relation to God, "My Father." We hardly dare venture to try and illustrate from our own experience because there is a gulf between His sorrow and ours that never can be bridged. And yet, seeing it is the Man Christ we are looking at, may we not venture to say, It is in the moment of overwhelming agony that the soul is tempted to doubt God's love and goodness. But with all the surging sea of sorrow surrounding Him, and His intense loneliness filling His heart, His sense of relation was unbroken; as yet there was no obscuring of the face of God. And then the request. First the condition, "If it be possible let this cup pass away." And the final prayer, "Nevertheless, not as I will but as Thou wilt."

Again He speaks. The relation is unchanged, "My Father" and there is a recognition of the impossibility of the passing of the cup-"if this cannot pass," and the same great prayer ascends, "Thy will be done."

The final attitude was that of the repetition and ratification of abandonment to the will of God. What did Christ pray for in the garden? That God's will might be done. What is the meaning of this shrinking? The last shadow of temptation. To go back in the story of His ministry to the things we have already seen; long ago in the wilderness, the enemy, in open guise, unveiled before the eyes of the Christ, the kingdoms of the world and said, If Thou givest me one moment's homage I will make them over to Thee. This was a suggestion that He might gain the kingdoms without the passion. That was the first temptation. It was in open guise in the wilderness, and with quiet, calm dignity and absence of perturbation, the answer was, "Thou shalt worship the Lord Thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve." That was at the beginning of public ministry.

Then at Csesarea Philippi the same temptation, no longer voiced by the enemy in open guise, but voiced by the devil disguised in an apostle, "He began to show unto His disciples, that He must go unto Jerusalem, and suffer-and be killed, and ... be raised up." And the apostle said, Not that. Lord, "Be it far from Thee." And eight days after, or thereabouts, with the glory of the mount flashing upon Jesus, the same apostle had made as great a blunder when he said, "It is good for us to be here," which meant, Not the Cross, but the mountain of glory, Lord. Get the Kingdom, but miss the Cross. He refused the temptation with greater severity in the case of the apostle when the devil was in disguise, than in the case of the devil when he was in open vision. "Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art a stumbling-block unto Me: for thou mindest not the things of God, but the things of men."

Now in Gethsemane the devil is not there in open guise; the apostle is asleep; but the shadow of it all is upon the soul of Christ, "If it be possible, let this cup pass away from Me." To go back outside the garden for a moment. He had said to these men, You will all be offended in Me this night; but after I am raised up I will go before you into Galilee. That is to say, I am going through the passion, but I am coming to the Kingdom. I must set up this Kingdom. The will of God must be done. I must leave you, but you who will be scattered will also be gathered. Now, alone, the last disciple away, He looked again toward the light beyond. The darkness was around Him, and the cup, this mystery of a sorrow that we cannot understand, this cup, this sacrament of infinite, sorrow, was presented to Him. The shadow of the passion was upon Him, and with it came the shadow of a great temptation; "If it be possible, let this cup pass away from Me." If that had been all; if He had halted! But He did not halt! Quick, sharp, immediate, resolute, followed the words; "Nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt." In that moment He took the cup, took it finally, took it alone, took it as He had taken it against the devil's temptation, and the apostle's suggestion, took it in the desolating loneliness, because it was the will of His Father. All this is but an unveiling, that we may see something that is too great for human explanation. It is the unveiling of the passion and agony of God Himself in the presence of human sorrow. We cannot read this story without feeling somehow or other that it is too difficult to see. It does seem as though at least there was a breach, a difference, between this Man and God. Yet there never was a difference, never a shadow of a difference. Jesus was never more God Incarnate than when He was in Gethsemane; and at the back of all we see that which we can never fathom God's heart broken in the presence of human sin.

At last He came to His disciples and He said, "Sleep on now, and take your rest; behold, the hour is at hand, and the Son of man is betrayed into the hands of sinners." "Arise, let us be going." These two verses have caused some difficulty. A great many of the old expositors declare that when He spoke to them of taking their rest He spoke satirically. That is impossible. Satire had its place in His method, it bad often played like summer lightning, clearing the atmosphere. But this was no satire. Then what did He mean? We must put a break between verses forty-five and forty-six (Mat 26:45-46). He came back to them, His own triumph won, and they were still drowsy, and opened their eyes as He came perchance, and He quietly said to them, There is a little time left, sleep on now. And they went back to sleep and He watched over them. He kept the lone vigil over those sleeping men until presently He saw the flash of the torches, for Judas was coming, and then He put His hand upon them and said, "Arise, let us be going." What passed through His soul in those hours we do not know. Nothing but love for those men, those drowsy men whom He had to rebuke was in His heart. He knew that presently out of the darkness He would win the inspiration that should make them selfless in their toil for Him, flames of fire carrying on His victory. O that vigil and that awaking!

Lastly observe the Master's victory. He said to Judas, What you do, do quickly; to Peter, Put thy sword up; I have no need of .it. Twelve legions of angels I could have, but I will not. Why not? For very love of humanity.

So we see Him coming out of the garden and men attempting to hold Him. Hold Him fast said Judas, as if the puny hands of soldiers could have held Him. But He was held fast. What held Him? "He loved me, and gave Himself up for me." That is the whole story. May God help us to say it each for ourselves.

THE supreme impression made upon our minds by our last study was that of the triumph of the King, as we saw Him emerging from the garden, Master of all the forces that had gathered about Him in the lone hour of the night.

Now we are to see the King passing through the hands of men, while still in the hands of God. First His judges;-and one is almost inclined to say, God forgive us for calling them judges; those men who sought His death by the violation of justice. Then Peter, His own, a representative man here as everywhere. Then the traitor Judas. And finally Pilate the vacillating, time-serving slave of expedience. Our contemplation of the King flings all these men up into clear relief, and we see them for what they really are. Then, presently, He passed again into that unutterable loneliness on the margin of which we may be able to stand, and listen to the sighing wind, and the beating surf, but we shall never be able to fathom it, or understand it perfectly. Throughout the whole movement we shall see the same attitude of authority and dignity. He was never beaten, never defeated.

In the passage before us there are two things which arrest our attention. The first is to be found in verses fifty-seven to sixty-eight (Mat 26:57-68), omitting verse fifty-eight (Mat 26:58) because it has to do with Peter. The second section we find in verse fifty-eight, and verses sixty-nine to seventy-five (Mat 26:69-75). In the first, we have brought before us the vision of the King rejected of men, but chosen of God. In the second, we see the King denied by His own, but saving them.

In the first section let us fix our attention first upon the King Himself. Very little is said about Him. It is announced that they had taken Him, led Him away to the house of Caiaphas, where the scribes and elders were gathered together. The next thing that we read about Him immediately is that He "held His peace." The final thing is that in answer to the priest's administering to Him a judicial oath, He made a double claim for Himself, first, that He was the Messiah, the Son of God; and, secondly, that He would ascend to the place of power, and finally come again and manifest Himself. So that two things impress us as we look at the King, first His silence; and, secondly, His speech on oath.

First His silence. Notice it carefully; He was silent when the witnesses, quite correctly called false witnesses by Matthew, bore testimony against Him. He was silent because He knew full well the purpose of the lie, and that correction was useless. They were men with the one set purpose of putting Him to death. When a court proceeds upon such lines as that, there is no hope. How many witnesses they brought we do not know, quite a number evidently, and the stories they told were so flimsy, and foolish, and futile, that even the high priest made no use of them; until at last two were found who could represent something that He was reported to have said, upon which the high priest thought he could fasten. Even they lied ignorantly or willfully. They declared that He had said, I will destroy this temple and build it again in three days. No such word had ever passed His lips. He had said, "Destroy this temple," not "I will destroy." He had never affirmed His ability to destroy. He is not the Destroyer. His words had been a supposition of their power to destroy. They were men blinded by their rationalism, having no vision beyond the immediate, no conception beyond that which was absolutely and wholly material; and they had twisted His supposition into an affirmation.

We next observe His silence in the presence of the priest When the priest asked Him purely in his personal capacity, "Answerest Thou nothing?" and as attempting to enforce Him to incriminate Himself, He was silent, no word passed His lips.

But that which is the most surprising and arresting in this scene, is Christ's claim on oath. Notice very carefully how the high priest spoke to Him; "I adjure Thee by the living God." That was the legal form of administering the oath. That which follows is not part of the legal form, but declares what would be the issue of His answer on oath. He did not say, I adjure Thee in order that Thou tell us; but I place Thee on oath in order that we may hear from Thee on oath, whether or not Thou art the Son of God, the Christ. It is the exact phrasing with which the Hebrew was familiar at the time. It was a careful question, and it was a question revealing the true attitude of the priest toward Jesus. It was a question revealing first of all the high priest's conception of the Messianic hope and office as it existed among his people. It was a question revealing the high priest's familiarity with the ancient Scriptures, and his perfect understanding of that Messianic hope which burned at the centre of the national life. The hope of the people concerning the Messiah was that He should be the Son of God, and the anointed One for the accomplishment of a Divine purpose.

But the high priest's question revealed more. It revealed quite clearly the fact that he understood that Jesus had been making this very claim. He gathered up into his question the result made upon the mind of the high priest and all the rulers, of the teaching and preaching of Jesus. The question would only be asked of a Man Who made claims which amounted to this. And without staying to go back over the whole of our Gospel, or even to gather incidents, if we think what Christ had been doing we shall recognize that it did amount to this. He had claimed over and over again, Messianic power and office; He had claimed to be the Son of God; and therefore the high priest in effect said to Him, The hope of the Hebrew people is Messiah; Messiah is to be the Son of God; Thou hast been so speaking and teaching as to lead men to think that Thou art the Messiah, the Son of God. Let us have no more uncertainty, I place Thee, on oath; tell us plainly is this Thy claim? He did not believe Jesus, and he did not believe that He was trifling. He felt it was necessary to put Him on oath, in order that He might be compelled thus definitely to make His claim.

It is necessary to emphasize this because that emphasis lends tremendous force to Christ's answer. If we once clearly see that the high priest was definitely leading Him to open confession, then immediately we see the meaning of His answer. It was a double answer. He first immediately answered the high priest's question, and then added to it something other, more startling than the suggestion the high priest had made. With regard to the question, Jesus said, "Thou hast said." This was an affirmation as direct, simple, and profound, as the question of the high priest.

Thus we see the King, hemmed in by His foes, standing at the illegal tribunal, silent while witnesses lie, silent while the priest asked Him why He did not answer; but when challenged on oath answering immediately, affirming that He was exactly what the high priest suggested, the Christ, the Son of God.

And now, with this in mind let us carefully observe the next word which has caused some difficulty in the minds of expositors. "Nevertheless I say unto you, Henceforth ye shall see the Son of man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of heaven."

Efforts have been made to change the word "nevertheless," and to say it must be translated in some other way. Let us look at this simply but carefully. "Thou hast said." That was His answering affirmation on oath. One suggests we must change the next word "nevertheless" and read instead "Moreover." Another suggests that we substitute the word "But" None of these changes is necessary unless we lose our sense of the scene. But there is no real escape from it, the word means "Nevertheless," and we have no business to change it. Watch the scene for a moment. Look carefully into the face of the high priest and elders about Him. Endeavouring to entrap Him, the high priest had put Him upon oath. Christ absolutely, definitely, clearly, positively, without ambiguity or circumvention, on oath affirmed His Messiahship. In a moment we see upon the face of the high priest the infinite scorn and incredulity with which he heard the answer. If we see that, we shall understand the "Nevertheless." Nevertheless, that is, in spite of thine unbelief, thou shalt see!

So that here Christ, in answer to the high priest's charge, declared on oath that He was the Christ, the Son of God; and secondly in answer to his scorn and incredulity He laid claim to triumph even in the hour of defeat. This was His last magnificent claim to the high priest of the Hebrew nation.

In the second Psalm we find the Hebrew conception of Messianic hope crystallized. There is no doubt whatever that the Hebrew expositors, and teachers, treated that psalm as Messianic; it is the psalm that tells that the Son is anointed, and set upon the throne of power, that He shall ask for the heathen, and possess them, and for the uttermost part of the earth, and they shall be granted to Him. The high priest had used the thought crystallized in that psalm, and had said, Are you that Person, You, Galilean peasant, Nazarene? Do you claim to be the Person described in our ancient Scripture, the Son Who is anointed to such a place of power, the very Son of God ruling? And Christ said, Yes! The high priest was astonished, incredulous. And then Christ said, "Nevertheless," and immediately quoted from the book of Daniel, which was as surely Messianic to Hebrew thinking as was the great psalm. In the book of Daniel the place of vision is heaven. The coming in the clouds there, is a coming from earth to heaven. When Daniel wrote, "I beheld till thrones were placed," it was the uppermost spaces into which he was looking, the infinite, and the spiritual. Then followed Daniel's vision of the Ancient of Days; "I saw in the night visions, and, behold, there came with the clouds of heaven one like unto a Son of man." He came from the earth, to the Ancient of Days; and the One Who came was "Like unto a. Son of man. He came even to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. And there was given Him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages' should serve Him."

Now let us return to our scene. Jesus said, You have asked Me if I am the Son of God, the Messiah. I am. You do not believe it. Then let Me remind you of another of your Messianic predictions that speaks of the Son of man coming to the Ancient of Days for crowning and dominion and power. I am that Son of man. You do not believe the spiritual claim; you shall have it wrought out into your sight. I stand here in the midst of you, beaten and baffled as it seems. You have encompassed My death by lying, treachery, meanness. You have suborned false witnesses, to whom I have given no answer; and now you ask Me on oath to make declaration, and your face indicates incredulity as I make My declaration. Nevertheless, henceforth, from this hour of mock injustice, from henceforth the Son of man of Daniel's vision, shall ascend to the place of power, and you shall see it.

And did they see it? They nailed Him to the Cross; they bartered His life away; they flung Him out; and one can imagine that after He was dead, buried in Joseph of Arimathsea's grave, they said, Now He is done with! Within four days they began to find out that He was not done with; they had to reckon with Him as on the throne of empire; and in a very little while we find them gathering a little group of fishermen with perturbation in their hearts and terror in their souls, saying to them, "We strictly charged you not to teach in this name; and behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your teaching, and intend to bring this Man's blood upon us." What does that mean? It means that the Son of man had ascended to the throne, and received dominion from the Ancient of Days, and all the things that they had tried to encompass were nothing to Him. So that either He was all that He laid claim to be, or Caiaphas was right when He charged Him with blasphemy. We have no middle course to-day any more than they had; He is a liar, or incarnate Truth; an impostor, or God the Son, raised to the place of eternal Empire.

We have looked at the King; now let us look at the things seen incidentally. Is there anything in human history that compares with this for a travesty of justice; it was a lie in the name of truth, wickedness in the name of religion. This was not a Roman court, but a Hebrew court, and by the laws of the Hebrew people it was illegal for the Sanhedrim to meet in the night to try a case such as this, but they arraigned Him in the night. It was illegal for the Sanhedrim to pass sentence on the day that the prisoner was arrested, but they did it in this case in a few hours.

Mark the travesty of justice in the witnesses. "The chief priests and the whole council sought false witness against Jesus, that they might put Him to death; and they found it not, though many false witnesses came." After Christ's great claim we see the high priest rising, and we hear the clamour of his angry voice, "What further need have we of witnesses," and then he rent his garments, and in the doing of it violated the law under which he served as a priest. We have but to turn to Leviticus and we find it distinctly ordered that the high priest shall not rend his garments in the hour of sorrow or anguish. It was but a little thing, but it was symbolic of the whole attitude; they were trampling upon law, violating justice to encompass the death of this Man. The verdict of the council was shouted out in hot anger, and was followed by brutality to the prisoner as they buffeted Him. That is human nature, and that is human nature as it is to-day, but for the grace of God.

The story of Peter is a very familiar one. We may first of all say that, making allowance for his failure, all allowance for the awfulness of his denial, we must not forget that we must account for Peter by one word, and that word is love. He loved his Lord throughout all the process. Truly love works through faith. Love needs faith as its central element, and Peter's faith in Jesus never failed, his love never failed. Christ had said to him a little before, "Satan asked to have you, that he might sift you as wheat, but I made supplication for thee, that thy faith fail not." His courage failed, his hope failed, his faith that Jesus would accomplish the thing Peter thought He was going to accomplish, failed; but His faith in Jesus never failed, his faith in the Person never failed, he believed in Him all through. And so as we trace the story it is one of love, blundering love, foolish love, but it is love.

Let us notice three things about Peter. Love at a distance and curious, "He followed Him afar" to see what the end would be. Secondly, love challenged and cowardly, until he denied. But finally, love remembering and contrite, "He went out, and wept bitterly." Love at a distance, and curious. That was Peter's failure. Love challenged, and cowardly. That was the devil's sifting. Love remembering, and contrite. That was Christ's victory.

First, love at a distance and curious. We need not lay any undue stress upon this, but it is certainly interesting to read the first Psalm when we read about Peter. As we read this Psalm we think about Christ.

But negatively Peter is there also. There is the process; we can hardly say progress, for it is a downward movement Walking, standing, sitting; that is exactly what Peter did. Walking, "He followed Him afar off." Standing, he went "into the court" and stood among these people. Sitting, he "sat with the officers" by the fire that the enemies of Christ had built. He was following afar. But why did Peter come there at all? And if he could speak he would say because I loved Him, I wanted to see the end. I was disappointed, He was doing nothing of what I thought He would do. Ah yes, but love merely curious, that walks with sinners and stands with sinners, and sits to gain its warmth by the fire that sinners have built, is in peril. That was Peter's failure.

Then mark that love was challenged. One maid spoke to him, "Thou also." Why the also? John was there somewhere, Judas was lurking somewhere. "Thou also wast with Jesus the Galilean;" " Of a truth thou also art one of them." He tried to evade denial the first time. "I know not what thou sayest." We know and understand that. Challenged, we do not deny, but we evade! That also is a lie. Then another maid did not speak to him, but spoke to the whole company and said, "This man also was with Jesus of Nazareth." Then it was that he put himself on oath, for that is the meaning of swearing here. He took his oath that he did not know Him. Then the whole of them spoke to him presently, saying, Really you are one, your very speech betrays you, you have the Galilean accent, you cannot escape that wayl Then he added curses to the oath. That was Satan's sifting. Long ago Jesus had said, Satan will sift you! Someone has quaintly said Peter shut the door to all the upper things and opened it to all the downward things. Peter was finding himself out. Never a man that loves Jesus Christ but that he comes into circumstances sooner or later that will reveal what is in him. He is brought into them in order that he may be delivered from the things that are in him.

And then the last thing. It is so full of light and colour even in the darkness. The whole thing is so dramatic if we could but see it. He had just uttered that last protestation and had cursed; and outside in the darkness was heard the crowing of the cock; and he remembered. One cannot read it without forgetting Peter, and thinking of Christ. Christ had said to him, "before the cock crow thou shalt deny Me thrice." It was such a simple thing, such a childish thing, that does not seem to have anything in it. But He will employ the chirping of a sparrow to win a soul to God. He will press into the business of restoring a wandering one, the crowing of a cock in the dawning of the morning. He remembered, and we need not follow him out, as he went weeping; the evangelist with a fine delicacy leaves him a brokenhearted man, because he had denied his Lord.

So we see hate murdering the King, and love denying the King; and it seems as though the King says to us two things. First, come, see if there ever was sorrow like Mine! But perhaps the final thing He said was, From henceforth the Son of man is on the throne of power! Let us trust Him and follow Him, even though it be through darkness.