Consider him passing over the brook Cedron. It signifies the wrath of God, and
rage of men. Through many tribulations must they go, that will follow after him to
the kingdom of glory. Consider him entering into the garden of Gethsemane: in a
garden Adam sinned, and in this garden Christ must suffer. Into this garden no
sooner was he entered, but he began to be agonized: all his powers within him
were in conflict. Consider, O my soul, how suddenly he is struck into a strange
fear. Never was man so afraid of the torments of hell, as Christ, standing in our
room, is of his Father's wrath; nor was he only afraid, but very heavy. "My soul is
exceeding sorrowful, even unto death." His sorrow was deadly, it melted his soul
as wax is melted with heat; it continued with him till his last gasp; his heart was
like wax burning all the time of his passion: nor was he only afraid and heavy, but
he began to be sore amazed. This signifies an universal cessation of all the faculties
of the soul from their several functions. We usually call it a consternation. It is like
a clock stopped for the while from going, by some hand or other laid upon it; such
a motion of the mind as whereby for the present he was disabled to mind anything
else, but the dreadful sense of the wrath of God. O what an agony was this ! what a
struggling passion of mixed grief! "O, my Father! Sinner, thou hast bent thy bow,
lo here an open breast! fix herein all thy shafts; better I suffer for a while, than that
all men should be damned for ever: thy will is mine: lo, I will bear the burden of
sin: shoot here thy arrows of revenge!" And thus, as he prayed, he sweat, "and his
sweat was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground." O what man
or angel can conceive the agony, the fear, the sorrow, the amazement of heart, that,
without all outward violence, bled through the flesh and skin; not some faint dew,
but solid drops of blood! O my soul, consider this; and if thou wilt bring this
consideration home, say, thy sins were the cause of this bloody sweat.
Muckle Kate Not a very ordinary name! But then, Muckle Kate, or Big Kate, or Kate-Mhor, or Kate of Lochcarron was not a very ordinary woman! The actual day of her salvation is difficult to trace to its sunrising, but being such a glorious day as it was, we simply wish to relate something of what shone forth in the redeemed life of that "ill-looking woman without any beauty in the sight of God or man." Muckle Kate was born and lived in Lochcarron in the county of Ross-shire. By the time she had lived her life to its eighty-fifth year she had well-earned the reputation of having committed every known sin against the Law of God with the exception murder. Speaking after the manner of men, if it took "Grace Abounding" to save a hardened sinner like John Bunyan, it was going to take "Grace Much More Abounding" to save Muckle Kate. However, Grace is Sovereign and cannot be thwarted when God sends it on the errand of salvation, and even the method used in bri
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