sake, earthly aids may fail us in the day of trial; companionless and friendless we may be-orphans we can never be; we have a Father always near, always powerful, always desirous to hear, and willing to answer the cry of his children. "If it be possible," continues our suffering Redeemer," let this "let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not my will, but thine be done." "And being in an agony, he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat was, as it were, great drops of blood falling to the ground." This was but the beginning of sorrows; and yet even here behold the tremendous penalty of sin. See the Son of God crushed even to the earth, beneath the weight of man's accumulated guilt; bleeding at every pore, from inward agony; writhing beneath the terrible attack of the tempter, and praying, earnestly praying, that if the great work for which he now was struggling, could be effected with less of suffering, his hour of agony might be

shortened, and this most bitter cup be taken from his lips.

My Christian brethren, "is this nothing to you, all ye that pass by?"4 Have you no personal interest in this appalling scene? Know you not the cause of the tremendous conflict, which that garden witnessed? the reason that this man, who "knew no sin,"5 knew so much suffering?-Alas! this is what it cost, to redeem our souls! It was now, that the Lord of life "was wounded for our transgressions; " he was bearing the penalty, which we had fully merited; he was now agonizing beneath the wrath of God, submitting to the assaults of the tempter, oppressed by the sins of the whole world, suffering, the innocent for the guilty, that he might bring us to God.

We beseech you, brethren, when you next dwell in imagination upon the delights of some favourite sin, think of its 4 Lam. i. 12. 5 2 Cor. v. 21. 6 Isa. liii. 5.

effects as you behold them here. Let your answer to the tempter be, "Get thee behind me, Satan,"—I am no longer deceived by the specious beauty of the exterior; I have now seen sin, in all its undisguised, and terrible deformity; I have seen its fearful effects in the garden of Gethsemane and I desire, by the help of my God, never again to look with a momentary complacency, or to enter into a momentary alliance with that enemy, to ransom me from whom, my adorable Redeemer thus prayed, and agonized, and bled.

It was in the very midst of these, his acutest sufferings, that our blessed Saviour bethought himself of the friends, whom he had left at a little distance, to comfort him by their watching, and to strengthen him by their petitions: and, as we are told, Jesus, seeking that solace which he now so greatly needed, rose up from prayer and came to his disciples. What then must have been the feelings

of bitterness, which wrung the deeplysensitive and affectionate heart of our Lord, when he discovered his followers not watching with anxiety, not praying with fervency, but "sleeping for sorrow."

What a picture of the slothfulness and indifference of fallen man! how distressing an evidence of the carnal security even of the apostles! Much may no doubt be spoken in extenuation: they were borne down by grief; they had been long watching; the midnight air was damp and cold; but when we have said all, a fearful reckoning will still remain.

Upon this, however, it best becomes us to be silent; our own watchings are too drowsily performed, our own prayers too faithlessly offered, to permit us to raise our voices against these sleeping disciples; let us rather observe, and imitate the meekness of our perfect Master, who never yet has "broken the bruised reed, or quenched the smoking flax." Jesus

7 Matt. xii. 20.

said unto them, more in sorrow than in anger, Why sleep ye?" and then, as if almost overlooking the neglect of the others, in the still greater delinquency of Peter, he turned to him and said, Simon, sleepest thou? Couldest not thou watch one hour?" Thou hast offered to die with me-canst not thou watch with me? St. Mark assures us,

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They wist not what to answer him."

Do we not grieve for human nature? -do we not grieve for Peter ?--do we not grieve for ourselves, while witnessing such a scene? He who had before so loudly professed, to be now so guiltily silent; he who had for his own convenience or emolument, watched through so many a lonely night in his fishingboat upon the sea of Galilee, to be now unable to watch a single hour with his suffering Master.

My Christian brethren, weep not for Peter, but for yourselves and for your children. It is not Peter's likeness alone