272 to step from the very door-sill of heaven into hell.—Sel. v. 45. There was darkness. When Christ was born the glory of the Lord turned night into day. When He died God veiled the sun and turned day into night.—Torrey. It was one of those supernatural signs from heaven which the Pharisees had so often vainly asked. —Farr. v. 46. My God. Words quoted from Ps. 22:1. ’With His last breath He gives divine authority to the Old Testa ment.—Cole. The word “why” had been a stranger to His lips all His life. It had fallen now because of sin, not His sin but yours and mine, which plunged Him into the black despair of the only hour of separation from God He ever knew.—Haldeman. In that agonizing cry I am led to the real heart of the atonement. My Saviour was standing where His believers will never stand. That was the real death, the death of an inconceivable abandon ment. He died for me. He so died in order that I may never taste death.— Jowatt. He was so closely identified with the race which He came to save that He felt the burden of its sin and cried as the representative of humanity, “Why hast thou forsaken me?” He was forsaken that we might not be for saken, that we might be delivered from our sins and eternal death.—Dumme- low. v. 48. Gave to drink. ' Christ drank this draught because the wine was un mixed and because now the moment" of rest had come.—Lange. v. 50. Yielded up the ghost. Jesus’ death was natural for He was a man. It was unnatural for He was without sin. (1 Pet. 2:2i, 22). It was super natural for no man took His life (Jn. 10:18).—Pink. Literally “dismissed His spirit.” The Greek implies a will. This taken with Mk. 15:37; Lk. 23:46; Jn. 19:30, differentiates Christ’s death from all other physical death. He died by His own volition when He could say of His redemptive work, “It is finished." —Scofield. It is utter ruin of language to try to draw a human conclusion to this chapter. Rather let the Scriptures themselves interpret it (Is. 53:3-10). —Sum. Bible. Oh blind leaders of the blind! That death which seemed to them to shatter His royalty really es tablished it. His cross is a throne of saving power by which He sways hearts and wills and because of it He receives from the Father universal dominion and every knee shall bow to
T HE K I N G ’S B U S I N E S S Him. It is just because He did not come down from the cross that we be lieve on Him. He has the right to command because He has given Him self for us and His death wakes all- surrendering and all-expecting faith.— Maclaren. Jesus Dying For Us. Matt. 27:33- 50; Luke 23:33-43. Memory Verse.—“God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16. Approach— Who can tell me the story we heard last Sunday? James, you tell us what you remember. Do you think Judas was happy as he sat at the table with BEGINNERS Jesus and the other AND PRIMARY d i s c i p l e s t h a t Mabel L. Merrill night? No, indeed, for we can never be happy when we are planning to do something that is wrong. What did Jesus ask the disciples to do to remem ber Him? Yes, this was the last even ing Jesus was with His disciples before He was to die, and it. was just before our story for today begins. .After the supper was over Jesus and the disciples sang a hymn, and walked out into the night, crossed over a little stream and into a gardeff, called Gethsemane. Jesus and His disciples had often been to gether in this little garden before. (Ar range cross and two smaller ones on either side on little mound in sand table. Also place tomb in proper posi tion. Can easily be made by rounding a piece of cardboard and covering with sand.) Now as we look at our sand table we see on the distant hill a cross and on either side two smaller ones. Those who were there that day saw our loving Saviour hanging on the cross, ' held there by the cruel nails driven through His hands and feet; they saw the blood flowing from the wounded hands and feet, and also on His brow
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