The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1906-10-03
THE PULPIT.
AN ELOQUENT SUNDAY SERMON BY
THE REV. EARL E. ClEELAND.
Subject: Christ in Gethscmane.

Brooklyn, N. I.-SuQQay morning,
in the Classon Avenue Presbyterian
Church, the assistant pastor, .ev.
Earl E. Cleeland, preached on
"Christ in Gethsemane. Among
other things he said:
The text to which I ask your atten-
tion is found in the twenty-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 I 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-
Piles, and the dark ccene in Geth-
semane which Immediately followed.
| Telling the disciples to "sit ye here
while I 60 yonder and pray" Jesus
took with him Peter and the two
sons of Zebedee" (James and john ,
"and began to be sorrowful and sore
troubled. Then saith He unto them,
My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even
unto death; abide ye 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 I 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"
I choose this text to-day as the
result of q conversation some ten
days ago, with one of the members of
this church, and at the outset want
to acknowledge my Indebtedness to
him for tho suggestion Of this SER
mon.
Many passages, in Scripture, are
variously interpreted ana differently
understood by Christian people, and
students of the Bible especially, and
often one W.: find that the great
commentators. themselves are almost
Numerically opposed to each other
in the interpretations which, they
make. / find that our text to-day is
| one of those disputed passages. Sew
eral of the authorities which I 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 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
Him.
The majority Of Christian people,
| I believe, and as / find, more of the
commentators do, attribute Christ's
! suffering in Gethsemane to the weak
ness of His flesh, or humanity, to
| face the death that was before Him,
and they interpret our text in this
| light.
lot with the minority, and interpret
Christ's prayer as 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 un-
derstood that anything I may say
has doubtless been said hundreds Of
times before l only wish to try to
show, from Scripture, my position,
| and therefore make no claims.
see necessity Of exercising our
lmaginations in endeavoring to show
mysterious causes for our Lord s
state Of mind in this prayer, when
the reason for His agitation is plainly
| given in the Scriptural account itself.
But now about this prayer OF our
| Lord in the garden Of Gethsemane.
1t seems incredible almost to think
that Christian people will attribute
| less courage 10 the Son Of God than
they have seen in hundreds Of exam
pies of fearlessness through all the
centuries past. Think of the thou
sands of people who have unflinch-
| lngly faced death and died a martyr s
death with scarcely culver. And
| It would be almost irreverent in US
at such a time as this to think Of the
numerous cases OF criminals who
walk with unfaltering steps to the
electric chair or ascend the galloWs
with all appearance of calmness.
Some commentators, as has al
ready been said, interpret this prayer
as revolving or halting Of Christ
at the thought of the approaching
srucifxion, and the horrors which
! preceded it, and attendant to it; the
betrayal of Judas; Peters denial, and
| the desertion of His disciples and all
His followers; the humiliating trial,
and insults Of the rabble, and the
lingering death on the cross. That
1t was because of the horrors Of all
these things that Christ here meant
| to ask God if there WIS not some
other way of atoning for the sins of
men, and that Christ only yielded to
the cross to fulfill His Fathers will.
Those who advocate this view would
thus make it out that our Lord for
got for the. moment, by reason OF His
suffering, the prophecies, and the
plan of God in His redemption of
the world, throughout the history of
! Israel; or if Christ did not forget
that He tried to bend His Fathers S
will to an atonement by some other
way, and that Christ finally, after
three unsuccessful attempts to bend
Gods will, yielded to the cross.
Why Christian people try to ex-
plain away this prayer in any such