Therefore it is
that one says, 'I am weary of groaning. Every night wash I my bed,
and water my couch with my tears,' and yet says the next moment,
'Away from me, all ye that work vanity. The Lord hath heard the
voice of my weeping. The Lord will receive my prayer.'
Therefore it is that another says, 'While I held my sins my bones
waxed old through my daily complaining;' and the next moment--'I said
I will confess my sins unto the Lord, and so thou forgavest the
wickedness of my sin.'
Therefore it is that again another says, 'Thou holdest mine eyes
waking. I am so feeble that I cannot speak. I call to remembrance
my sin, and in the night season I commune with my heart, and search
out my spirit. Will the Lord absent himself for ever, and will he be
no more entreated? Is his mercy clean gone for ever, and his promise
come utterly to an end for evermore? And I said, It is mine own
infirmity; but I will remember the years of the right hand of the
most Highest. I will remember the works of the Lord, and call to
mind the wonders of old.'
And another, 'Why art thou so heavy, O my soul, and why art thou so
disquieted within me? O put thy trust in God, for I shall yet give
him thanks, who is the help of my countenance, and my God.'
And therefore it is, that our Lord Jesus Christ, in order that he
might taste sorrow for every man, and be made in all things like to
his brethren, endured, once and for all, in the garden of Gethsemane,
the terror which cometh by night, as none ever endured it before or
since; the agony of dread, the agony of helplessness, in which he
prayed yet more earnestly, and his sweat was as great drops of blood
falling down to the ground.
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