should be converted through their means, and concluded with the following memorable words:

"Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also that believe on me through their word; That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them as thou hast loved me. Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am; that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me for thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world. O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me. And I have declared unto them thy name, and will declare it; that the love wherewith thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them."

CHAPTER XV.

PASSION WEEK.

Thursday.

On the morning of the day when Jesus was for the last time to celebrate the great national festival of the Jews with his disciples, he directed Peter and John to make the necessary preparations. They enquired the place where the feast should be made ready, and Jesus replied "Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in. And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, 'The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guest-chamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples?' And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished; there make ready."

Peter and John then proceeded to the city where they found every thing just as Jesus had foretold; he followed them with the rest of the apostles towards evening, and prepared to celebrate the feast.

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cording to the custom of that age and country, the guests, instead of sitting as we do at table, reclined on couches, and consequently there was some trouble and delay in making the necessary arrangements. When all had taken their places Jesus said, "With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer: For I say unto you, I will not any more eat thereof, until it be fulfilled in the kingdom of God." He then drank a cup of wine, with which, according to the Jewish habits, the master of the feast always begins the solemnity of the Paschal Lamb, and informed his disciples that he would drink no more of the fruit of the vine until the kingdom of God should come.

Whilst they were sitting at meat Jesus told them with some concern that one of them, pointing out Judas, should betray him; that Simon Peter, who had always appeared the most zealous, should desert him, and that all the rest would abandon him in the course of that very night. Peter, with vain confidence, replied "Lord, I am ready to go with thee, both into prison, and to death." Jesus answered, "I tell thee, Peter, the cock shall not crow this day, before that thou shalt thrice deny that thou knowest me."

It was on this occasion that the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper was instituted. "As they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, 'Take, eat; this is my body.' And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, 'Drink ye all of it; for this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.'”

After the solemn rite was concluded, they sung a hymn, or rather what the Jews call the hallal, consisting of six psalms of thanksgiving, beginning at the hundred and thirteenth, and ending with the hundred and eighteenth, with which they were accustomed to close all such solemnities. Jesus, having again exhorted his disciples to persevere in their faith, and recommended them in earnest prayer to his Heavenly Father, commanded them to follow him over the brook Kedron, towards the Mount of Olives.

On this mount was a garden called Gath-hashemen, or Gethsemane, which signifies an oil-press; it was probably so named from having a press to extract oil from the olives that grew upon the mount. As this garden was the favourite resort of Jesus in his hours of retirement, Judas saw that an oppor

tunity was afforded for the fulfilment of his agreement with the Sanhedrim; he therefore took an opportunity of slipping away from the rest of the disciples and hastening to the High Priest's palace in order to procure a sufficient guard. Jesus, on the other hand, having arrived at the garden, left the greater part of his disciples at the entrance, whilst he took Peter, James, and John farther into the garden; that as they had been the witnesses of his glorious transfiguration, they might now see his present sorrows and dreadful agonies. Having therefore earnestly enjoined them to be watchful, he went a little from them, and, his human nature feeling the most violent struggle between flesh and spirit at the near prospect of his sufferings, he threw himself prostrate on the ground, and fervently prayed "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done." He repeated the same prayer three several times with such fervency and resignation that the vehemency of the struggle between the two passions, joined to the prospect of what he was to endure from the malice of men and of devils, threw him into an agony and bloody sweat, so that an angel was sent from heaven to his relief The three disciples had in the mean time fallen