Friday 15th of Nisan (April 7), first portion, or Thursday evening- and night. —It will more accord with the usual treatment of this part of the sacred history, if we divide the 5th of Nisan into its natural sections of (t) Thursday evening and night, and (2) Friday. It is some indication of the importance of this day's events, that hardly one of them is unen cumbered with much discussion and contrariety of opinion. Were our space much longer than it is, it would be too brief to admit of any controversial matter. This we therefore forego, and content ourselves with registering such results as seem to us to approach most nearly to verisimilitude. Fol lowing the express statements of SS. Matthew (xxvi. 17), Mark (xiv. 12), and Luke (xxii. 7), with which the apparently discrepant narrative of St. John does not in fact disagree (see the arguments suc cinctly given by Dr. Robinson in the Bibliotheca SaCra of Aug. 1845, pp. 405-436 ; and with still greater brevity, in the Tract Society's edition of his Harmony, pp. 145-151 ; while a convenient statement of the opposite view may be seen in Bishop Ellicott's Lectures, pp. 322, 323, notes ; and Neander's Life of ,esus Christ [Bohn], pp. 425-427, note), we find, as might a priori be ex pected of him, who in his holy mission was careful to fulfil all righteousness,' that Jesus, according to the prescription of the law (Exod. xii. r), pro ceeded this evening to eat with his disciples the paschal meal which had been duly prepared in the afternoon of Thursday by Peter and John (Luke xxii. 8). Fit conclusion was this to his loving intercourse with them ; and the celebration gave him an especial joy, as gratifying the most earnest desire which he had of ending his ministry with the holiest of the festivals of the ancient church, into which he was now to infuse a sacred trans forming power, whence a new feast was to arise, the memorial of his death, which should become the blessed means of union and strength to his future people (Luke xxii. 15). 13ut not unsullied was his joy. In that extreme infatuation which blinded the eyes of the disciples against the fast approaching humiliation of their Master, and which on the very threshold of his deepest sorrow mad6 them dream of earthly greatness and glory, they were no sooner seated at the supper than they began an unseemly strife which of them should be accounted the greatest' (ver. 24). Jesus .gently deprecates that ambition, so unfit in the followers of him who came not to be ministered unto, but had ever been amongst them 'as one that serveth.' And, the more emphatically to recommend the meekness of such a character, he, with deliberate earnestness, proceeded to wash the feet of each of them in succession. It was the office of a menial ; but, as Christ performed it, it rather enhanced than compromised the inherent dignity of his exalted character, and drew from all the company, and even from the impetuous Peter, who at first pro tested against the act as a needless humiliation, acquiescence and profound respect. The paschal supper was still going on (the baryon -yevonevou of John xiii. 2 should rattler be, when supper had begun, than had ended, as A. V. has it ; the reading of B, and other MSS., including C, prima mann, and the newly discovered Rein - vat) nvo,avoul, still more clearly shews our version to be improbable), when Jesus with troubled spirit indicates in a few solemn and emphatic words his certain knowledge of the foul treachery which was lurking in the heart of one of his companions and was soon to be displayed in the betrayal of himself to his enemies. This perfidious requital of his love, which was not unmarked in prophecy (Ps. xli. 9 ; lv. 12-14), was one of the bitterest ingredients of his cup of sorrow, and the announcement of it now filled the disciples with sad and anxious fears. Each felt the anguish of a momentary distrust of even his own fidelity, and with deep emotion asked, 'Lord, is it I?' Nor did the conscious one himself relieve their doubt by any apparent embarrassment. It is impossible to tell what was passing in his heart at this moment of severe trial. Was he by this time utterly estranged from his good and loving Master, or was he even yet reclaimable by the merciful and gentle warnings, which the Lord obviously addressed to him to the very last ? On the answer to this ques. tion depends the traitor's meaning in repeating the inquiry of the rest, Master, is it I ?' It might have been the effect of an irrepressible awe, which made him involuntarily re-echo the anxiety of his fellows. It might have been a mere blind to hide himself withal from observation. It might have been the insolence of bravado. Be, however, the fact what it may, the fatal moment of his apostasy is at hand. The Lord, with no ungracious intent (for to give a Ifrundov at an Eastern repast was a mark of affectionate friendship ; see Wordsworth and Alford, on John xiii. 26), handed to him a fragment of the paschal viands. The kindness was lost upon his faithless heart, which vacillates no longer. ' After the sop, Satan entered into him ' (John xiii. 27). He quits the sacred presence with a few words from the Saviour. His departure seems to have relieved the soul of Jesus of an op pressive weight ; Now is the Son of Man glori fied,' he exclaims, and God is glorified in him ' (ver. 31). The paschal supper terminates ; and at its third cup (ate cup of blessing ; comp. I Car. x.
[6) the Lord proceeds to engraft upon it the eucharistic feast of the gospel, the oldest and the highest of Christian institutions, which will only cease to be a blessing to faithful souls when the Lord shall come himself to supersede it to them by his own eternal presence. St. John is silent on this act of Christ in ordaining his holy supper. But the great apostle of the Gentiles (see Cor. xi. 23-25) supplies his place, and unites with the other three evangelists in a beautiful history of an event, in which the Gentile no less than the Jewish believer has an indefeasible interest. A few melancholy words are first uttered by Christ on tlie desertion and dispersion of those around him, when the near-approaching hour of danger should come ; and then, when the self-confident Peter, as usual, interrupts him with his vain protest, the Lord announces to him that his desertion will be especially deliberate and repeated ; but he graci ously added, Simon, Simon, behold Satan bath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat —but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.' The tenderness of this expostulation, which St. Luke alone records (xxii. 31), must afterwards have gone home to the heart of the fallen apostle, and with that loving look ' of sorrowful rebuke, which again St. Luke is the only one to mention (xxii. 61),
must have gone far to work that repentance in him which ultimately restored him to the Saviour's side and cause. (We may thus regard the third evan gelist as the historian of Peter's contrition, in its causes no less than its fact.) Of all painful com munications Christ has now unburdened his mind, and he is free to take his farewell of them in words which breathe only of love and heavenly comfort. Who, in limits far more spacious even than ours in this sketch, can hope to express the sublime in struction, prayer, and consolation, which now flowed from the mouth of the holy Saviour ? In the long section which intervenes between the latter part of his chap. xiii. and the close of chap. xvii. the beloved disciple has been permitted to record for the church's eternal consolation the profound secrets of his dear Lord's wise and loving heart. Olshausen (Commentary [Clark's ed.], vol. iv. p. 47) well calls this portion of the evangelical history `its holy of holies, the view into which our Evangelist, like a consecratcd priest, alone opens to us.' Jesus sounds at the very first the key-note of his address. Let not your heart be troubled ; ye believe in God, believe also in me.' And he goes on to shew them how intimate, how inseparable, was his rela tion to the Father ; in this close union lay all their security as believers in him. If he had spoken of leaving them, let them be assured that his neces sary absence would be more than compensated for by the abiding presence and indwelling of another Comforter, who would faithfully represent Him to them ; teach them more than they could then know of him ; replenish their memories with all his past instructions ; strengthen them for trials, and give them the victory over them all. This Comforter would guide them into all truth and impart to them his spirit and disposition. Possessing that, let them love one another ; and he adduces the eternal and indissoluble oneness of the Almighty Father and himself as the groundwork and the model of that union which his people should have among themselves and with him. These sublime instruc tions, which for their better recollection of them he repeats in various forms, by simile (as that of the Vine and the Branches [chap. xv.)) no less than precept—he ends with a solemn intercessory praycr for himself and his much loved ones, whom he was leaving---' I am no more in the world, but these are. I am coming to thee. Holy Father, keep through thine own name those whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as we are.' And that this pmyer might never fail in interest to the church, it embraces in its sacred scope the latest converts to a discipleship with Christ ; Neither pray' I for these alone, but for them &so which shall believe on nze through their word, that they all may be one, as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee.' How profound was tbe impression made by this address and supplication of the Lord on the minds of those who were privileged to hear them we may gather from him who survived all the rest. He was spared to a ripe old age ; but he never failed to address his audience to the very last in the very echoes of Christ's own sweet words, 'Little child ren ' (comp. the Lord's recvia, John xiii. 13, with the venerable apostle's own use, no less than seven times in his epistles, of the same endearing appella tion), and Love one another.' At the conclusion of the Lord's intercessory supplication, the little company, who had some time before risen to depart (John xiv. 31), having chanted the conclusion of their sacred Hallel, quitted their chamber, and Jesus led the way througrh the city-gate (probably that now called St. Stephen's) over the brook Cedron, where his great progenitor David, woo years before, in bitterness of spirit, had passed flying from persecution and treachery (Burgon on John xviii. r). Knowing that his hour at last is come, he will not flce from his enemies. He accordingly betakes himself to the garden of Gethsemane, a favourite haunt, as it would seem (ver. 2), the shades of which he had no doubt often con secrated by prayer and holy converse with his disciples. In company with them he enters it (John xviii. I) under the light of the full moon, which fails, however, td illuminate the deeper re cesses into which the Lord penetrates with Peter, James, and John (Matt. xxvi. 37 ; Mark xiv. 33). These, it will be remembered, were his companions , at the Tmnsfiguration ; but as then they were op pressed with sleep, amid the effulgent glories of the heavenly scene (Luke ix. 32) ; so now, when their Master and Friend is bearing the agonies of an amazing sorrow even unto death '—(What words are equal to describe the magnitude of the sufferings of Gethsemane ? We will not attempt to find any I But We will point to the expressive words of St. Mark, who is always graphic on great occasions : 1jgccro ita-anpcia9nt. tad d37)nooeiv, xiv. 33 ; and of the writer of the Epistle to the He brews, a61)CTELS TE Kai IKETVICtS . . . Atera Kpavyfis laxvpas Kat baxpticov rpoo-eve-mas, v. 7, as some indication of the anguish of this night of sorrow, unequalled by any other incident of his passion, but the consummation itself of Calvary)—a like heaviness, though caused by sorrow, as St. Luke is careful to inform us (xxii. 45), removed them from the sight of that mystery of suffering. Deeper and deeper still were the abysses of his grief : sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground' (ver. 44); the prince of darkness, whom we saw retreat before his stead fastness at the beginning of his ministry (dxp. Napa', Luke iv. 13), returns now to his last and most dreadful assault, no longer with blandish ments, but with all the force of a rough unsparing hatred. Was the first gush of woe in Gethsemane stronger than the last ? or was it that he, who 'learned obedicnce by the things which he suf fered and became perfect' (Ileb. v. 8, 9), grew, angel-helped, as St. Luke tells us he was (xxii.43), more patient even by endurance? For it is a feature in the grandeur of the Redeemer's conflict, that whereas he at first entreated the Father to lake away the cup from him if possible, his second prayer modifies that reauest,* acknowledging its impossi bility ; while in terms of a most absolute resigna tion he submits to its bitterest draught : 0 my Father, since this cup cannot pass away from me ithout my drinking it, thy will be done' (el ob olivarat TODTO 7r0Tlipl01, rapen-eiv chi 6cor), aiiro 77-1W, K. T. X. , Matt. XXVi. 42, comp. with ver.