not only assent, but co-operate too. Tremendous truth! but truth it is, as will be found and understood by-and-bye, and for ever, in hell. The soul in hell-the creature, both body and soul, the inmate of hell-will look in vain above, and below, and around on every side, for one particle of alleviation or aid; nay, in vain for exemption from the attacks and positive destroying and agonizing influence, so far as it can be exercised, of any and all other existing beings whatever. God will smite, and fellows will smite. Where the curse is, the subject is, and must be abhorrent to all. Sin is odious, necessarily and essentially so, even in the sight of every intelligent being. A sinner may love a sinner, but not for his sin, any further at least than that that sin may minister to his pleasure and advantage. The sin itself is not attractive, is not loved by the fellow-sinner. Sin, sin itself, is a principle of hostility, not only essentially so to its subject, but actually so to all other beings throughout the universe. The law of God contemplates universal concord and universal good; sin, which is a transgression of the law, of necessity militates against all concord and all good. It is a direct attack on universal wellbeing, and is, therefore, the converse of concord and good; it is, in fact and in operation, nothing else than a moral and intelligent being seeking his own supposed self-interest at the cost and damage of all others-whether God or man-in the universe of being. Look at the law, look at the commandments, in the transgression of which sin consists. In breaking the first table the sinner seeks to deify himself at the cost of the honour, and name, and glory of God; in breaking the second the sinner seeks to enrich and gratify himself at the cost of the life, or honour, or substance of his neighbour. This is sin! It is essentially odious, and must itself be odious in the estimation of all who witness it. Whatever I may be myself, I must still hate that which is thus necessarily directed in itself and influence against myself. Impossible to be otherwise! and so therefore will it be in hell. And as no distinction will there be observable, or actually exist, between sin and the sinner,-as both will be one,—so each person there will be, and be seen to be, sin personified, and consequently each person will absolutely hate, and be absolutely hated by, all the rest! As a fact, an unquestionable, demonstrable fact, each inmate of hell will stand forth an odious, a hated being, by all other beings in the universe at large; and as an equally certain fact, cach being in hell will be the subject of universal assault. God will smite in judgment and righteous wrath; and devils and fellows will smite in hatred and incurable malice. Oh! terrible thought, desperate prospect for the sinner in hell! and no less terrible thought and desperate prospect in reference to Him who became the sinner's substitute, and so volunteered to the uttermost in His own person the sinner's portion. So it was with Him of whom we speak; and this

is the key to His sufferings-sufferings as inflicted by all creation, by God from heaven, by man on earth, by devils from hell! Creation was set in array against Him, and the shafts from universal being fell upon Him; the history from Bethlehem to Calvary throughout proclaims and demonstrates this. However, the grand proof was reserved for the experience of that "hour" which closed His earthly existence, and to the beginning of which our attention is now directed.

Now it is observable that, however the different agencies through which, and by means of which, the sufferings of Christ were inflicted, operated in a greater or less degree collectively, during the whole of His earthly career; or however true that, in a certain sense and to a certain degree, there was no moment, as we suppose, from Bethlehem to Calvary, during which it may not be assumed that the curse of God, the ill-will of man, and the malignity of the devil, were resting on, and in exercise against, Him; yet it is no less true that there were times when a comparative cessation in the operation of some of these agencies is observable, and times also when some of these agencies seem to have wrought with distinctive personality and peculiar force: Gethsemane and Calvary, at least, present instances of this. Different powers seem to have prevailed on these occasions; and each, in its turn, to have exercised an intensity of influence hitherto unprecedented in the Saviour's history. On both occasions man's agency for evil is discernible enough: in Gethsemane, in the cold and heartless neglect, and betrayal, and desertion of the Lord; on Calvary, in the actual crucifixion of Christ, and in the taunt and the raillery, by wicked hands and wicked tongues! But in regard to the invisible agencies of God himself, and of Satan himself, the distinction is evident. On Calvary it was God, God himself, God the Father, who smote the Saviour, who unsheathed the sword, and demanded and required its exercise against "the man who was His fellow!" Then it was that the finishing stroke was put to the expiatory work; and that the whole weight and consummation of the curse fell upon Him. That was God's part of the hour, if we may so say, God's time for afflicting Him and putting Him to grief,-grief to which, we believe, all that had gone before, even in Gethsemane, bore no shadow of a comparison! But Gethsemane was Satan's hour; and the sufferings of that occasion will be found, I think, mainly and distinctly traceable to his agency, as Jesus implied and taught when, at the close of Gethsemane's history, He said, "This is your hour, and the power of darkness." Besides, it is evident that He was not at this time under the full bearing of the curse, and in that experimental banishment from God's presence which the curse implies. He was then heard by His Father, and answered, too, by direct communication and suitable support;-" Angels came and ministered

to Him." No; we think that in the garden, and during the whole of the period of the passion there, it was Satan, the powers of darkness, whereby He was agonized and so deeply tried. The beginning of His sorrow was through him.

What was this sorrow? It is said, "He began to be sorrowful and very heavy;" and again, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." The strongest expressions possible are these, as descriptive of internal grief and distress: consternation, amazement, anguish, overwhelming affliction, are all implied! "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." Such sorrow as is well-nigh sufficient to induce death, to be itself akin to death; such sorrow as that, if continued or augmented, must at once resolve itself into death;-death is the next step! Or "sorrowful" in the anticipation of death-of such a death as awaits Me; My soul is overwhelmed in view of that which is before Me. This I believe to be the meaning especially; the essence of His sorrow then was the prospect of what was before Him; the sorrow of death that then came upon Him was the vision of Calvary, in itself so tremendous, in its prospect so near! Who shall tell, who conceive, what this vision must have involved? Clear, distinct, certain,--all naked and open before Him, all even of the experience which Gethsemane was to bring, and all of Calvary's final realities, from the anticipation of which Gethsemane's experience was to arise: the hall of Pilate the mockings and scourgings-the crown of thornsthe way to the cross-the cross uplifted, and HIMSELF thereon-the hour after hour-the exhaustion-the thirst-the vinegar and myrrh -the inconceivable, mysterious work of expiation, when the soul as well as the body should agonize under the curse-the curse in all its intensity and fulness outpoured upon Him-the entire desertion by His Father, as yet unknown—for never before had this been realized, not even when all others forsook Him and fled; for then, or in reference to that very time, He said, "Ye shall leave Me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me." But not so at the moment-the moment on Calvary-now referred to: no; then must God, even the Father, forsake Him, utterly forsake Him, for such is the essence and bitterness of the curse! And this it was, the desertion of the Father, with all else of His prospective woe outstretched in vision before Him, seen in its naked and terrible reality, no intervening distance scarcely to modify and soften the prospect,— this it was, as we suppose, which now so pressed upon Him, and which elicited the confession, whilst it mainly and actually constituted the experience therein involved, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death."

But what, it may be asked, had this to do with "the power of darkness"? or how, according to this view, is the experience in the garden-"the beginning of sorrows"-to be particularly associated

with the agency of Satan? Probably thus:--that this appalling prospect was kept vividly before the Redeemer's mind,-painted, too, in its strongest and darkest colours, by Satanic power, just as, in the wilderness, scenes of surpassing earthly attraction and glory were, by the same power, presented to His view; and by means of their allurement was His integrity assailed, and His purpose tested. Satan had power, in that first temptation, thus to ply his art, and thus to attempt to influence the Saviour; he had power to raise up spectacles, or in some way to present realities, in the most glowing form, even so that he showed to Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world, and the glory of them," and, by virtue of the same, to attempt His seduction from the path of obedience, and from the work of redemption. Just so here, I suppose, Satan had power to present and keep fixedly and terribly before the Saviour's mind the frightful realities awaiting Him on Calvary; and not only so, but, in addition to this, to suggest, with the utmost force, the alternative at hand, the escape within reach, the twelve legions of angels, who only awaited His call to transport Him, in a moment of time, beyond the boundary of this miserable world, and deliver Him at once and for ever from the woe which was before Him-from the ocean of suffering on the brink of which He then stood.

Such an alternative, be it remembered, had once before been suggested by Satanic ingenuity. Peter, who, on the occasion of the Lord's predicting His coming death, exclaimed, "This be far from Thee," was but the agent of Satan-dexterously employed for the carrying out of his purpose,-as Jesus taught when He said, in reply, "Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto Me," thus identifying Peter, in reference to that particular act, with the person of the evil one; or determining, at least, that it was at the instigation of the evil one that such a proposition as the exclamation involved was then made. And thus, no doubt, in the garden, the influence of the power of darkness was directed to the same end-to deter the Saviour from the path of suffering, and so therewith from the path of duty! "This shall not be unto Thee," or, at least, This need not be unto Thee, was, peradventure, the suggestion,-Thou mayest readily escape! Behold the fire and the wood; but God can provide Himself with another sacrifice! Or, at all events, look up and behold twelve legions of angels: angels charged with the care of Thee stand ready to do Thy bidding! Speak and be free-one word only, and death, and the power of hell, to which Thou art now pledged, are escaped for ever!

Such, we believe, or something akin to it, was the part played by the power of darkness in the garden of Gethsemane; and such-in some little measure-the sore trial, the deep temptation, to which Jesus was there exposed. This it was which elicited the affecting

and heart-rending confession, "My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death;" and this it was, therefore, as we believe, which mainly constituted the BEGINNING OF HIS SORROWS.

Beyond this, for the present, we shall not go; yet surely we have now abundantly sufficient for our meditation and improvement. We may, indeed, "tarry here," as the disciples were bid to do, and think awhile. What has been said will bear reflection: the garden of Gethsemane is not to be hurried through; it is a sacred enclosure, and step by step must it be trod, with sacred purpose and solemn pause. Let us, then, tarry here, tarry at the entrance, and ponder on, and apply to ourselves, the things we have already seen and already heard.

See our debt! It was for us, all for us, all He suffered, all He did, each drop in the cup, each sorrow as it came and thickened upon Him,—it was all for us. Wondrous thought! For us! "My soul," said Jesus, "is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." It was for us! Our sin it was, our folly and worldliness, our frivolities and rebellions, the sins of our youth and the sin of our manhood, the sin of our hearts and the sin of our lives-this it was then that pressed on His soul, that extorted the bitter cry, the touching expression of what was within Him and what was before Him! It was our sin! For in Him was no sin, and in Him, therefore, no cause of death at all the cause was in others, the cause was in us! May our souls consider what they owe unto Him!-what is their infinite obligation to the Saviour of sinners!

See our duty! It is to witness His agony: to this were the disciples called, or why were they taken? To this, also, are we called, or why is that agony recorded? The record is clear, the visit to Gethsemane is detailed; each step He took, step by step deeper in agony, each is recorded, and the things that are written are written for us! This, then, is written for us, written for our benefit, written for our profit, written for our souls' very health and preservation; written to induce real abstraction, salutary and heartfelt abstraction, from the overwhelming power of this world's interests, and the exercise-at times and seasons, at least-of solemn thought and devout meditation! Verily, this is what we want, what we almost perish for lack of,-solemn thought and devout meditation ! Default of this it is that our religion dwindles into the merest form, and profession becomes an empty name,-solemn thought and devout meditation! But then there must be materials, subject matter, to induce these, whereon they are to fix, whereby they may be elicited; and here surely, here if anywhere in the whole Bible, we have such materials, such subject matter-here, in the garden of Gethsemane! What, apart from Calvary, in Christ's own history, is equal to Gethsemane?-equal to it in interest,-comparable with it in importance? Oh, then, let us avail ourselves of it—let us profit