MY SOUL IS EXCEEDING SORROWFUL.

 
SEPTEMBER 30.
 
My soul is exceeding sorrowful.
Matthew 26:38
 
THE sorrows of Jesus exceeded the powers of
  description or conception.
 
No one can fully enter into them,
  no one can describe them.
 
He had suffered much before,
  but he never suffered as now.
 
His agony preceded from an unseen cause;
  no creature touched him, and
  “yet his sweat was as it were great drops
    of blood falling down to the ground.”
 
He had undertaken to be our surety,
  and he was smarting for it.
 
He had an adequate conception of what that load of sin was,
  which he was to bear and remove;
  of what the wrath and curse of God was,
  which he was to sustain;
  of what it was for Jehovah to bruise him,
  to put him to grief, and
    to make his soul an offering for sin.
 
He was overwhelmed with sorrow,
  he was pressed to the ground with grief,
  his very soul was torn with agony,
  the load appeared insupportable, and
  he felt constrained to cry,
   “Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me.”
 
But it was not possible, if we were to be saved,
  he must suffer; and he did suffer.
 

O what wonders love has done!

But how little understood!

God well knows, and God alone.

What produced that sweat of blood;

Who can thy deep wonders see,

Wonderful Gethsemane.

 
James Smith 1849