This was a view of their case which his wife had not taken. And so by the time her husband had got through with his fifthly, her heart was filled with gratitude, her eyes with tears, and she exclaimed: “Stop, stop; please stop, my dear husband; and I’ll never say another word about submission.”
The lesson of submission is the third lesson that we are taught in Gethsemane.
The last lesson for us to learn from this solemn scene in our Saviour’s life is a lesson—about tenderness.
Jesus taught us this when he came back, again and again, from his lonely struggles with the sufferings he was passing through, and found his disciples asleep. It seemed very selfish and unfeeling in them to show no more sympathy with their Master in the time of his greatest need. He had told them how full of sorrow he was, and had asked them to watch with him. Now, we should have supposed that, under such circumstances, they would have found it impossible to sleep. They ought to have been weeping with him in his sorrow, and uniting in prayer to God to help and comfort him. But, instead of this, while he was bearing all the agony and bloody sweat which was caused him by their sins, they were fast asleep! If Jesus had rebuked them sharply for their want of feeling, it would not have been surprising. But, he did nothing of the kind. He only asked, in his own quiet, gentle way—“could ye not watch with me one hour?” And then he kindly excused them for their fault, saying—“The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak!” How tender and loving this was! Here we have the lesson of tenderness that comes to us from Gethsemane. We see here, beautifully illustrated, the gentle, loving spirit of our blessed Saviour. And the exhortation of the apostle, is—“Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.” Phil. ii: 5.
Someone has well said, that “the rule for us to walk by, if we are true Christians, is, when any one injures us, to forget one half of it, and forgive the rest.” This is the very spirit of our Master. This was the way in which he acted towards his erring disciples in Gethsemane. And, if all who bear the name of Christ were only trying to follow his example, in this respect, who can tell how much good would be done?
Here are some beautiful illustrations of this lesson of tenderness and forbearance which Jesus taught us in Gethsemane.
“The Influence of This Spirit in a Christian Woman.” A parish visitor had a district to attend to which contained some of the worst families in town. There was a sick child in one of those families. The visitor called on her every day. The grandfather of this child was a wicked, hardened man, who hated religion and everything connected with it. He had a big dog that was about as savage as he was himself. Every day, when he saw this Christian woman coming to visit the sick child, he would let loose the dog on her. The dog flew at her, and caught hold of her dress. But she was a brave woman, and stood her ground nobly. A few kind words spoken to the dog took away all his fierceness. She continued her visits, day after day, bringing to the poor child such nice things as she needed. At first the dog was set upon her every day; but as she went on in her kind and gentle way, the old man began to feel ashamed of himself; and before a week was over, when he saw this faithful Christian woman coming to the suffering little one, instead of letting loose the dog upon her, he would take his pipe out of his mouth with one hand and lift the cap from his head with the other, and make a polite bow to her, saying, “Good morning, ma’am: werry glad to see you.”
And so the spirit of Christ, as practised by that good woman, won the way for the gospel into that home of sin and misery, and it brought a blessing with it, as it always does.
“The Spirit of Christ in a Little Girl.” “Sitting in school one day,” says a teacher, “I overheard a conversation between a little girl and her brother. He was complaining of various wrongs that had been done to him by another little boy belonging to the school. His face grew red with anger, and he became very much excited in telling of all that this boy had done to him. He was going on to say how he intended to pay him back, when his sister interrupted him by saying, ‘Brother, please don’t talk any more in that way. Remember that Charley has no mother.’
“Her brother’s lips were closed at once. This gentle rebuke from his sister went straight to his heart. He walked quietly away, saying to himself—‘I never thought of that.’ He remembered his own sweet home and the teaching of his loving mother; and the question came up to him—‘What should I be if I had no mother?’ He thought how lonely Charley must feel, and how hard it must be for him to do right without a mother. This took away all his anger. And he made up his mind to be kind and forbearing to poor Charley, and to try to do him all the good he could. This little girl was following the example of Christ, and we see what a good effect it had upon her brother.”