The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-04-27
disciples were oppressed with strange

sorrowful. A burden came upon him
which bore him to the earth. He was be-
wildered by the excess of treachery, hatred,
loneliness, forlornness, which was now his
portion. He was, as the historian tells us,
sore amazed. He appealed to his disciples
for the sympathy every soul Graves in its
direst extremity, saying to the three: NY
soul is exreedine soyyoayfni even unto
death. The appeal was vain. What could
even the impetuous Peter say to soul in
such trial? When Jesus in his soul was
troubled, what could mortal say?
Soon the presence even of the three was
more than the lonely sufferer could endure.
A deeply stricken soul shrinks from all
human eyes. A6ids ye here, he said to
them, and 7Oafeh with me. Then he went
forward little. In the surging tide of his
grief his body was swayed like an aspen
leaf by the breeze. He is now PROSTATE
on his face; now on his knees. His prayer,
again and again repeated, was recalled as
in substance this agonizing cry: 20 my
Father, Abba! if it be possible, if Thou
art willing, remove this cup from me.
Nevertheless, rot my will, but thine be
done"
Luke tells us that in the pangs and
throes of his prayer, his saveat became as
it aVeye great drops Of blood, falling down
UPON the ground 1t was death-grapple
with pain. Luke further reports, in words
of mystery, There q1peayed unto him an
angel from heavsn, strengthening him.
Some messenger of peace there must have
been, visible or invisible; for there came
lull in the storm of anguish.
Not yet, however, was Jesus at rest in
his soul. He had only some fitting mo-
ments of truce.
2. The Sleeping Disciples,-vs.
37-4o.
He now longed for human sympathy.
He turned to the chosen of the chosen.
Alas, he found them sleeping
for sorrow, as the record tells US. Their
anxiety had become insuferable. They
had found relief from their burden of SYM
pathy in involuntary Inconsistencies.
Simon, slee6est thou? These words of
Jesus instantly reused the three. There
may have been a suggestion of reproach
in the words which followed: Co.ldest
kAOw not aOatch with me one Aour? Kind
y was the admonition: Watch and pray,
that .ye enter not into femptation. As
generalization of their common experience,
of his own as well as theirs, and as mer-
ciful reminder of danger, he added: Tie
Spirit fnassd is qOilling, but the flesh is
weak.
His agony, after the lull or truce, re
turned in full force upon him. No help to
him could the three give; in vain had he
looked for it. He left them and went the
second time into solitude. The disciples
saw him once more in the strange, painful
struggle. They saw him now PROSTATE,
now swaying on his knees. His cry was
as before: Q my Father, it this eu6 may
wiH be done.
Whatever hope he may have had of de-
liverance was now dying within him. Still
there was the opposition of his human
wish. This made for him his unrest and
anguish. After this season of conflict
there came another moment of relief.
The passover, in the first instance, was
eaten standing, to imply haste; but in the
land of promise and rest the custom had
changed; now all reclined.
Before the feast began Jesus said to his
disciples, MIN araent longing /Aa0e de-
sired to eat this PASSOVER zViH you 6efoye
Isn6sr, 10, I say unto yon that II shall
neyer again eatkAeyeof tiAI I meet my 0aOn
in the kingdom Of Aeaven.
g.
valedictory and prophecy.
AS the Passover, the memorial of a ma
TONS birth, it would never again be OBJ
served by any Jew then present. AS
memorial of the beginning of the kingdom
of heaven on earth, for the coming of
which Jesus had taught his disciples to
pray, it would be observed as long IS
Christian faith and love should remain in
the world.
Of various incidents of the feast we take
passing note. The envious strife among
the disciples and the Masters correction
by washing their feet; the announcement
of the traitor Judas and his departure,
which our lesson-passage especially re-
cords; the earnest questions from Peter,
from John, from Jude, from Thomas, from
Philip, which were shot across the table;
the touching and peerless discourses of
Jesus, as reported by John (chs. Alb
on these things we would fain linger in
studous mood. But we fix our attention
on the acts and words which changed the
Jewish national Feast of the Passover to
the worldwide LORDS SUPPER of the
Christian Church.
3. The Memorial Supper is In
Stituted,-vs. 22-26.
During the feast, after the Passover had
been celebrated, Jesus took from the table
the bread, or the ''loaf,"-to be exact, "a
large, round, thin, brittle unleavened bis
cult" such as still may be seen in any Jew
ish house at the Easter or Passover sea-
son; he broke it, and having offered
thanks, he gave it to his disciples, saying,
Take ye: his is my body. His disciples
before, when he had said, Excebt .ye eatof
HE flesh Of tie .SoH Of man, and drink his
blood, ye haze not life in yourselves Uohn
Arch had been Screlv nernIexed Put thew