The Penn's Grove record., 1906-09-14
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. EARL E. CLEELANO.
Subject: Christ in Gethscmane.

Brooklyn, N. Sunday morning,
in the Classon Avenue Presbyterian
Church, the assistant pastor, lev.
Earl E. Cleeland, preached on
Christ In Gethsemane." Among
other things he said:
The text to which I ask your atten-
ton is found in the tw~enty-sixth
chapter Of Matthew, at the thirty
ninth verse: MY Father, if it be
possible, let this cup pass away from
Me; nevertheless, not as 1 will, but
as Thou wilt" which are the words,
as Matthew has recorded them, of
the thrice repeated prayer of our
Lord in the place called Gethsemane.
You recall the account of the Last
Supper of the Lord with His disci-
pies, and the dark rcene in Geth-
semane which Immediately followed.
Telling the disciples to "sit ye here
while I go yonder and pray" Jesus
took with him Peter and the two
sons Of Zebedee" Games and john,
and began to be sorrowful and sore
troubled. Then saith He unto them,
My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even
unto death; abide We here and watch
with Me- And He went forward a
little and fell on His face and prayed,
saying: My Father, if it be possible
let this cup pass away from Me;
nevertheless, not as l will, but as
Thou wilt" The gospel according
to Luke goes on to tell us that then
there appeared unto Him an angel
from heaven, strengthening Him, and
being in an agony He prayed more
earnestly, and His sweat became as
it were great drops of blood falling
down upon the ground"
l choose this text to-day as the
result Of a conversation some ten
days ago, with one of the members of
this church, and at the outset l want
to acknowledge my Indebtedness to
him for the suggestion of this SER
mon.
Many passages, in Scripture, are
~variously interpreted and differently
understood by Christian people, and
STUDENTS of the Bible especially, and
often n WI find that the great
commentators themselves are almost
Numerically opposed to each other
In the interpretations which they
make. I find that our text to-day is
M of those disputed passages. Sew
eral of the authorities which l have
consulted in the study of this prayer
of Christ in Gethsemane took the
view that Jesus feared and recoiled
at the thought of His approaching
death on the cross, and thus prayed
to God, His Father, trying, if it
were possible, to bend His will, and
have the end accomplished by some
other way than the cross. Only one
commentator, as l recall now, took
the view that our Lords agonized
prayer was instigated by the over
whelming thought that He feared
His life would be crushed out under
meath the strain of mental suffering
He was undergoing, before He
reached the cross, and thus He
prayed that this cup pass away from
The majority of Christian people
[ believe, and as I find, more of the
commentators do, attribute Christ's
! suffering in Gethsemane to the weak.
ness of His flesh, or humanity, tc
face the death that was before Him
and they interpret our text in this
light.
1 am inclined, however, to cast my
Tot with the minority, and interpret
Christ's prayer as a plea to God for
strength, that His life would not be
crushed out underneath His terrible
agony before the time appointed
through all the ages of prophecy be-
fore Him-that of His atonement on
the cross for the sins of men. And
In treating this passage let it be I'M
derstood that anything I may say
has doubtless been said hundreds Of
times before. 1 only wish to try tc
show, from Scripture, my position
and therefore make no claims.
see no necessity Of exercising oul
lmaginations in endeavoring to show
mysterious causes for our Lords
state of mind in this prayer, wher
the reason for His agitation is plainly
given in the Scriptural account itself
But now about this prayer of gu
Lord in the garden of Gethsemane
1t seems incredible almost to thinf
that Christian people will attribute
less courage to the Son of God thar
they have seen in hundreds of exam
pies of fearlessness through all the
centuries past. Think of the thou.
sands of people who have untltnch'
ingly faced death and died a martyr:
death with scarcely a culver. And
it would be almost %irreverent in u
at such a time as this to think of tht
numerous cases of criminals VIII
walk with unfaltering steps to thu
electric chair or ascend the gallowi
with all appearance of calmness.
Some commentators, as has gal
ready been said, interpret this prayer
as a revolving or hating of Chris
at the thought of the approaching
crucifixion, and the horrors which
preceded it, and attendant to it; the
betrayal of Judas; Peters denial, anC
the desertion of His disciples and al
His followers; the humiliating trial
and insults of the rabble, and thu
lingering death on the cross. Tha
it was because of the horrors of al
these things that Christ here mean
to ask God If there WIS not som
other way of atoning for the sins o
men, and that Christ only yielded t.
the cross to fulfill His Fathers will
Those who advocate this view woult
thus make it out that our Lord for
got for the moment, by reason of Hi
suffering, the prophecies, and thu
plan Of God in His redemption o
the world, throughout the history 0
Israel; or if Christ did not forge
that He tried to bend His Father
will to an atonement by some othe
way, and that Christ finally, afte
three unsuccessful attempts to benz
Gods will, yielded to the cross.
Why Christian people try to ex
plain away this prayer in any sucl
a weak way is difficult to understand
What does Christianity want with
weak Christ who feared a martyr
death? Our Lord was "a man of sor
rows and acquainted with grief" ant
had been for three years preparin;
for the cross, and had on several oc
casions before this told His disciple
of the ann of His death, and the,
could not understand at the time.
To my mind, this prayer of JEST
shows, on the contrary, the drawer,
of our Lord, and does not show an,
weakness. / am inclined to thinl
that Christ had no thought of tn,
cross during the time in which H,
made this prayer, save in His remot'
consciousness. but He was. inst q