of their strength in fellowship with him—­present, though unseen among them.  He sought to convince them that his departure was to be for their advantage, that fellowship with him spiritually would be far more real and efficacious than the intercourse they had already enjoyed.  He whose own heart was “exceeding sorrowful even unto death” bade his disciples not to let their hearts be troubled nor afraid.  How long the conversation continued, of when the company left the upper chamber, cannot be told.  At some time before the arrival at Gethsemane Jesus turned to God in prayer for the disciples whom he was about to leave to the severe trial of their faith, asking for them that realization of eternal life which he had enjoyed and exemplified in his own intimate life with his Father.  With this his ministry to them closed for the time, and, crossing the Kidron, he entered the garden of Gethsemane weighed down by the sorrow of his own soul.

VIII

The Shadow of Death

196.  Of the garden of Gethsemane it is only known that it was across the Kidron, on the slope of the Mount of Olives.  Tradition has long pointed to an enclosure some fifty yards beyond the bridge that crosses the ravine on the road leading eastward from St. Stephen’s gate.  Most students feel that this is too near the city and the highway for the place of retreat chosen by Jesus.  Archaeologically and sentimentally the identification of places connected with the life of Jesus is of great interest.  Practically, however, it is easy to over-emphasize the importance of such an identification.  Granted the fact that in some olive grove on the mountain-side, where an oil-press gave a name to the place (Gethsemane), Jesus withdrew with his disciples on that last night, and all that is important is known.  It is of far higher importance to see rightly the relation of what took place in that garden to the things which preceded and followed it in the life of Jesus.  At that time Jesus saw pressed to his lips the “cup” from the bitterness of which his whole soul shrank.  It was not an unlooked-for trial; some time earlier he had sought to cool the ardor of the ambition of James and John by telling them that they should drink of his cup, and declared that even the Son of Man came not to be ministered unto but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.  The fourth gospel, whose representation omits the agony of Gethsemane and only reports its victory, tells how Jesus rebuked the violent impulse of Peter with the word, “The cup which my Father hath given me to drink shall I not drink it?” (John xviii. 11^b); and all the gospels exhibit the marvellous quietness of spirit and dignity of self-surrender which characterized Jesus throughout his trial and execution.  In Gethsemane, however, we see the struggle in which that calmness and self-mastery were won.