Plan of this work.

Analysis of preceding chapters.

CHAPTER VII.

THE LAST

SUPPER.

"I have desired to eat this passover with you, before I suffer."

THE plan which has been followed in the progress of this work, may not have been very obvious to the reader. It was our design to present the great elementary truths of the religion of the gospel, as they naturally connect themselves with the circumstances of our Savior's history. We accordingly commenced with his childhood, and were led at once, into a train of reflection on the nature and the character of that eternal and invisible essence, whose attributes were personified in him. His conduct and character as a man, came next before us; then the views of religious duty which he came to urge The rejection of his message by mankind, the consequences of it, and the way by which these consequences may, in any case, be prevented, naturally followed, leading us a little away from the immediate history of our Savior. We now return to it,— ready, however, to be led away again, whenever necessary to accomplish the great design of this volume.

upon men.

We have already shown that the great object which the Savior had in view, in the influence he endeavored to exert over men, was to induce them to repent of sin, and to return to duty; and not to make them theoretically acquainted with theological truth. He pressed moral obligation, and endeavored to arouse and to enlighten conscience. He did indeed assure them of forgiveness, if they would abandon sin, but he left them in a great measure, to be taught, by future revelation, which was to be made by his Spirit to the apostles, in what way that

The last supper.

Jerusalem.

Supposed feelings of the populace.

promised forgiveness was to be obtained. It was not until after his resurrection that he discoursed freely and plainly, even with his disciples, on this subject. Then, indeed, he explained the subject to them fully. He showed them that "he ought," that is, that it was necessary for him "to have suffered these things, and to enter into his glory; and beginning at Moses and all the prophets, he expounded unto them, in all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself."

He ap

This full disclosure of the nature and objects of his mission was not made until after his death. proached, however, to such a disclosure, in his last sad interview with his disciples, on the night in which he was betrayed. It is to the circumstances and character of this interview, that we have to call the attention of our readers in this chapter.

Jerusalem was crowded with strangers, so much s that, though the enmity against the Savior had been gathering strength, until it was now ready to burst all barriers, the leaders did not dare to proceed openly against him, for fear of a riot among these multitudes, which they should not be able to control. They feared the people, it is said, for the people loved to listen to him, and therefore would probably defend him. They greatly misunderstood the human heart. He deserved to be beloved, and they thought that he would be; but the very populace whom they so much feared, instead of feeling any disposition to protect their innocent victim, joined the cry against him. Far from giving them any embarrassment or restraint, their clamor was the very means of urging the Roman Governor to do what his own sense of justice most plainly condemned.

At any rate, the enemies of the Savior thought it wise to proceed with caution, and they were, at this time, laying plots for his life We shall consider the nature

The last passover.

Moral greatness of the occasion.

of the plan they formed in the next chapter. It is sufficient here to say, that Jesus knew the whole, and felt that his last hour had nearly come. He had been accustomed for some time, to speak in public during the day, and at night to go out to rest in the neighboring villages, or to seek retirement and prayer upon the Mount of Olives. His last night had now come. His last public address to men had been delivered. The sun had set, for the last time, to him, and nothing now remained but to give his beloved disciples his farewell charge, and then once more to take his midnight walk, and offer his midnight prayer.

It was evening; the evening of a great festive celebration, which for fourteen hundred years had been uninterruptedly observed. Established to commemorate one deliverance, and to typify another very singularly analogous to it, it was intended to continue till the Lamb of God should at length be slain. A new and nobler ordinance was then to take its place;— an ordinance of deeper meaning, and higher value, and of interest, not to one small province only, but destined to extend its influence to every nation on the globe. This night therefore, strictly speaking, was to be celebrated the last passover. The thousands who crowded the city did not know it; but Jesus did, and, as he made preparations for celebrating it, with his friends, noiselessly and quietly, in their upper chamber, he must have been impressed with the moral greatness of the occasion A friendless man, per

secuted and defenceless, and doomed to be executed, the next day, as a malefactor,-coming, with his twelve. friends, as powerless and unprotected as himself, into their secluded room, there to bring to a close the long series of splendid celebrations which, for fourteen centuries, had been sustained by God's command. Yes: the meeting on that night, was the connecting link between the old dispensation and the new. The Savior

The meeting.

Anxiety and sadness.

must have known it. Friendless and persecuted, as he was, the whole city thronged with his enemies, the plot for his destruction matured, and spies out for him, the very price for his life actually paid, and danger pressing around him so closely that he was obliged to make his arrangements very privately, in order to be sure of an uninterrupted hour,-he yet must have known that he was bringing the long series of Jewish rites and ceremonies to its termination, and introducing a new dispensation, whose ordinances, of nobler meaning, beginning there, were to spread to every nation, and to last through all time. It is strange that the place chosen for this, too, should be the very heart and centre of hostility to his cause.

At the appointed hour, they came together, and as they assembled around the table, their Master felt that he met them for the last time: They felt it too. He told them plainly that his hour had come, and they felt depressed and dejected, looking forward as they did, with anxiety and terror, to the scenes which were to ensue. They knew what they were very imperfectly, but Jesus himself saw the whole. They were in the dark, or at least they saw but dimly, but it was all broad light to him. As he looked around he could call to mind what each one would do. There was Judas, with the price of his blood already paid,-there was Peter, who was to abandon and deny him,-and not one of all these his firmest friends, but would forsake him in the hour of danger, and fly. But he did not think of these things. It was the last time he was to be with them, before his death, and while he was fully aware that their fortitude could not stand the dreadful trial to which it was soon to be exposed, he did not dwell upon such thoughts. He looked upon them with interest and sympathy, not with anger, and tried to comfort, not to reprove them. He once became agitated in speaking of his betrayal, but

The Savior's religious instruction. He pressed duty first. Nicodemus.

composure soon returned, and he did not allude to his abandonment by the rest, except in reply to their own boastings of unshrinking fidelity.

But we must come to the discourse. The peculiar circumstances under which this meeting was held, distinguish it from every other occasion on which the Savior gave religious instruction. In fact we may almost say it was the first and only occasion on which he gave what may be strictly called religious instruction. He had pressed duty, in a thousand forms, before;- here he exhibited truth. He had, on every occasion, in the house and by the way,- in the thronged city, and before the multitudes assembled in the fields and on the sea-shore, urged men to repent and forsake their sins,- now he was to exhibit some great truths more clearly than he had ever done before, to this select company, whose hearts had long been preparing to receive them. In the path along which he led the human mind, repentance came first, and theology afterwards; and it would be well if cavilling inquirers, at the present day, would follow his example. They should begin by obeying the sermon on the Mount, and then come and listen to the conversation at the last supper.

There is something most highly interesting and instructive in the manner in which the Savior adapted his communications to the occasions on which they were to be made, and to the purposes which he endeavored to effect by them. A modern preacher would have carried the metaphysics of theology all over the villages of Galilee, and would have puzzled the woman of Samaria, or the inquiring ruler, with questions about the nature of the Godhead, or the distinction between moral and natural inability. But Jesus Christ pressed simple duty. His explanations all went to throw light on the one single distinction, between right and wrong. Even when Nicodemus came to him, the man better qualified, per