![]() He allowed them according to their capacity to drink of his cup, and to be baptized with his baptism and if their fellowship with him in his sufferings went no farther, it was not because he warned them back, but because they had not the strength to follow. He must tread the winepress alone, and of the people there must be none with him yet as far as they could go he disdained not their dear society. He cried in sorrowful disappointment, “Could ye not watch with me one hour?” Ah, no! They could go to the brink of the abyss with him, but they could not descend into its deeps. In the garden he bade them watch with him on that dreadful night, and he sought sympathy from them. Their Lord was willing to have led them farther still but through weakness they stopped short. Anything that they could do they were allowed to do. Further on, when he would keep the feast, he expressly dwells upon it that he would keep it with them for he said, “With desire I have desired to eat this passover with you before I suffer.” He sent Peter and John to prepare that passover, he directed them to the large upper room furnished, and there he bade them make ready. Thus they contributed to his lowly pomp, and shared in the exultation of the royal day. Hence, when he afterwards rode into Jerusalem in triumph, he alone was saluted with Hosannas but he sent two of his disciples to bring the ass on which he rode, and they cast their garments upon the colt and they set Jesus thereon, and as he went they spread their clothes in the way. Our Lord understood the fickleness of their character, yet he knew that they were sincere in their desire to be associated with him in all his life-story whatever it might be. How exceedingly kind it is of our Lord Jesus to permit his disciples to do some little thing in connection with his great deeds, so that they may be “workers together with him.” Our Lord as frequently as possible associated his disciples with himself of course, they could not aid him in presenting an atoning sacrifice, yet it was their honour that they had said, “Let us go that we may die with him,” and that in their love they resolved to go with him to prison and to death. No other can unite his voice with the fiat which says, “Lazarus, come forth.” Yet in certain points of gracious operation the Master associates his servants with him, so that when Lazarus has come forth he says to them, “Loose him, and let him go.” In the raising of the dead he is alone, and therein majestic and divine: in the loosing of the bound he is associated with them, and remains still majestic but his more prominent feature is condescension. IN many things our Lord Jesus stands alone as a worker. ![]() ![]() Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.”- John xi. And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. “And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. ![]()
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