“I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctifythem through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
“Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me.
“Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me; for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father! the world hath not known thee; but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it;that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”[66]
CHAPTER V.
ARREST, TRIAL, AND CRUCIFIXION.
Anguish of Jesus.—His Prayers in the Garden.—The Arrest.—Peter’s Recklessness.—Flight of the Apostles.—Jesus led to Annas; to Caiaphas.—Jesus affirms that he is the Messiah.—Frivolous Accusations.—Peter denies his Lord.—Jesus is conducted to Pilate.—The Examination.—Scourging the Innocent.—Insults and Mockery.—Rage of the Chief Priests and Scribes.—Embarrassment of Pilate.—He surrenders Jesus to his Enemies.—The Crucifixion.—The Resurrection.—Repeated Appearance to his Disciples.
ESUS having finished this prayer, the little band descended into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, a deep and dark ravine, and, crossing the Brook Kedron, entered the Garden of Gethsemane, a secluded spot, which Christ often visited for retirement and prayer. Here Jesus seems to have been overwhelmed in contemplating the mysterious sufferings he was about to experience. The language used by the inspired writers indicates the highest possible degree of mental agony. He “began to be sore amazed and very heavy.” These words, in the original, express the most excruciating anguish,—a torture which threatens to separate soul from body, and which utterly overwhelms the sufferer. As though he could not bear to be alone in that dreadful hour, he took with him Peter, James, and John, and withdrew from the rest of the apostles, for a little distance, into the silence and midnight gloom of the garden. He then said to his three companions,—
“My soul is exceeding sorrowful, even unto death. Tarry ye here, and watch with me.”
He then withdrew a little farther—“about a stone’s cast”—from them, and fell upon his face, on the ground, and prayed, saying,—