g 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 whic