Page:Morning, or, Action.pdf/3

Rh was accused by the chief priests and elders before the judgment seat of Pilate, with that majestic silence which is sometimes the best expression of fortitude, the answered not a word. Nay, when he underwent the severest of his bodily sufferings upon the cross, he endured them with a tranquillity, a firmness and magnanimity, which display a mind truly great and undaunted. How, therefore, on some other occasions, his spirit was overwhelmed, is a subject worthy of our enquiry at all times; more particularly on this day, when we have assembled together to renew the memorial of his death upon the cross, and to recall the remembrance of all his sufferings.

In further discoursing upon this subject, I shall, in the first place, set before you the account which is given of his sufferings; and secondly, endeavour to assign the causes of them.

In the first place, I am to set before you the account which is given of his sufferings.

That night in which he was betrayed, the Saviour of the world went into the garden of Gethsemane, and ascended the mountain of Olives, as he was wont to do. This had been his accustomed retreat from the world, here was the hallowed ground to which he retired for prayer and contemplation; here the had often spent the night in intercourse with