ear that listened so anxiously for
His whisper, are closed.

As Jesus stood by the three recumbent forms held by deep sleep, and
gazed by the pale moonlight into their faces which showed a troubled
slumber, He knew they "were sleeping for sorrow." In silence He looked
upon them until His eye fastened--not on the beloved John--but on him
who an hour ago had boasted of faithfulness to His Lord. The last
utterance they had heard before being lost in slumber was that of
agonizing prayer to the Father. The first that awakened them was sad and
tender reproof--"Simon, sleepest _thou_? Couldest thou not watch one
hour?" In the Master's words and tones were mingled reproach and
sympathy. In tenderness He added, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the
flesh is weak." Because of the spirit He pardoned the flesh. The
question, "Why sleep ye?" was to the three, as well as the charge, "Rise
and pray, that ye enter not into temptation."

Let imagination fill out the outline drawn by the Evangelists:--"He
went away again the second time and prayed; He came and found them
asleep again; He left them and went away again and prayed the third
time; and He cometh a third time and saith unto them, 'Sleep on now and
take your rest.'" If we may suppose any period of rest, it was soon
broken by the cry, "Arise, let us be going; behold he that betrayeth Me
is at hand." They need "watch" no longer. Their Lord's threefold
struggle was over. He was victor in Gethsemane, even as John beheld Him
three years before, just after His threefold conflict in the wilderness.

As they rose from the ground the inner circle that had separated them,
not only from the other Apostles but from all other men, was erased. We
do not find them alone with their Lord again. They rose and joined the
eight at the garden gate.

Recalling Gethsemane we sing to Jesus,

"Thyself the path of prayer hast trod."

The most sacred path of prayer in all the world was in Gethsemane. It
was only "a stone's cast" in length. The Lord trod it six times in
passing between the place where He said to the three, "tarry ye here,"
and that where He "kneeled down and prayed." One angel knows the spot.
Would that he could reveal it unto us.

[Illustration: CHRIST BEFORE PILATE (Ecce Homo) _H. Hofmann_ Page 182]

When Jesus was praying and the three were sleeping, Judas reported
himself at the High-Priestly Palace, ready to be the guide of the band
to arrest his Master. There were the