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him. All the efforts of Satan to oppress and overwhelm him, only
brought out in a purer light the spotless character of Christ.
In the controversy between Christ and Satan, the character of God
was now fully vindicated in his act of banishing from Heaven the
fallen angel, who had once been exalted next to Christ. All Heaven,
and the worlds that had not fallen through sin, had been witnesses to
the controversy between Christ and Satan. With what intense interest
had they followed the closing scenes of the conflict! They had beheld
the Saviour enter the garden of Gethsemane, his soul bowed down
by a horror of darkness that he had never before experienced. An
overmastering agony had wrenched from his lips the bitter cry for that
cup, if possible, to pass from him. A terrible amazement, as he felt his
Father’s presence withdrawn from him, had filled his divine spirit with
a shuddering dread. He was sorrowful, with a bitterness of sorrow
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exceeding that of the last great struggle with death; the sweat of blood
was forced from his pores, and fell in drops upon the ground. Thrice
the same prayer for deliverance had been wrung from his lips. Heaven
had been unable to longer endure the sight, and had sent a messenger
of consolation to the prostrate Son of God, fainting and dying under
the accumulated guilt of the world.
Heaven had beheld the victim betrayed and hurried from one
earthly tribunal to another with mockery and violence. It had heard
the sneers of his persecutors because of his lowly birth, and his denial
with cursing and swearing by one of his best-loved disciples. It had
seen the frenzied work of Satan, and his power over the hearts of men.
Oh, fearful scene! the Saviour seized at midnight in Gethsemane as a
murderer, dragged to and fro from palace to judgment hall, arraigned
twice before the priests, twice before the Sanhedrim, twice before
Pilate, and once before Herod, mocked, scourged, and condemned,
led out to be crucified, bearing the heavy burden of the cross amid the
wailing of the daughters of Jerusalem and the jeering of the crowd!
Heaven had viewed with grief and amazement Christ hanging upon
the cross, blood flowing from his wounded temples, and sweat tinged
with blood standing upon his brow. From his hands and feet the blood
had fallen, drop by drop, upon the rock drilled for the foot of the cross.
The wounds made by the nails had gaped as the weight of his body
dragged upon his hands. His labored breath had grown quick and
deep, as his soul panted under the burden of the sins of the world. All
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