四月十一日

我如水被倒出來，我的骨頭都脫了節……（詩22:14）

天地曾看到過比這更淒慘的悲哀景象嗎？我們的主在魂與體中感到他軟弱得像水一樣被倒在地上。十字架豎起來的時候他的一切關節都受到極大的震動，每一節、每一根神經都痛楚非凡，他的骨頭幾皆脫節分離了；全身的重量都在他的雙手雙腳上，疼痛一秒一秒地加甚起來，足足受了六個鐘點的煎熬。他昏暈軟弱至極，他的意識之中除了難過和昏暈之外別無所有。但以理看到一個大異象時，他說：“我……便渾身無力，面貌失色，毫無氣力。”當我們的大先知看到神忿怒的可怕的異象時，他心中又是怎樣的感覺呢？我們若受主所受的苦，我們的感覺必然痛苦難當，但也必會昏厥過去不省人事，因此得免當時的苦痛；但我們的主卻不如此，他受了傷，他覺得槍的刺紮，他喝盡了杯中的每一滴苦酒。“憂患之王啊！（這名號雖奇特，但君王中獨有你堪當此稱）受傷之王啊！我當如何為你傷悲，因你的憂患使我不經一切憂患！”當我們跪在現已升天的救主寶座之前時，讓我們注意他為我們開了一條通到施恩寶座的路，讓我們在心靈中也喝他所喝的杯，好當沉重的日子臨到我們時作我們的力量。他在世時每一個肢體都忍受了很大的苦，靈中也是如此，但當他出離他的憂患和悲痛時，他的身體卻毫無創傷地進入榮耀和權能中，即使當他奧秘的身體經過烈火的爐中，也不帶火燎的氣味。

April 11

"I am poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint." --Psalm 22:14

Did earth or heaven ever behold a sadder spectacle of woe! In soul and body, our Lord felt Himself to be weak as water poured upon the ground. The placing of the cross in its socket had shaken Him with great violence, had strained all the ligaments, pained every nerve, and more or less dislocated all His bones. Burdened with His own weight, the august sufferer felt the strain increasing every moment of those six long hours. His sense of faintness and general weakness were overpowering; while to His own consciousness He became nothing but a mass of misery and swooning sickness. When Daniel saw the great vision, he thus describes his sensations, "There remained no strength in me, for my vigour was turned into corruption, and I retained no strength:" how much more faint must have been our greater Prophet when He saw the dread vision of the wrath of God, and felt it in His own soul! To us, sensations such as our Lord endured would have been insupportable, and kind unconsciousness would have come to our rescue; but in His case, He was wounded, and felt the sword; He drained the cup and tasted every drop.

"O King of Grief! （a title strange, yet true

To Thee of all kings only due）

O King of Wounds! how shall I grieve for Thee,

Who in all grief preventest me!"

As we kneel before our now ascended Saviour's throne, let us remember well the way by which He prepared it as a throne of grace for us; let us in spirit drink of His cup, that we may be strengthened for our hour of heaviness whenever it may come. In His natural body every member suffered, and so must it be in the spiritual; but as out of all His griefs and woes His body came forth uninjured to glory and power, even so shall His mystical body come through the furnace with not so much as the smell of fire upon it.