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Show THINE HOUR OF DARK DESPAIR. Mr. Arthur Y. Meade, 13. I)., in last week'a "Christian Advocate," suggests altering the line in "Hymn ."if)" in the P. E. Prayer Book, '"By thine hour of dark despair," which is a libelous blasphemy against the perfect human nature of our Lord. Dr. Meade suggests substituting for this line. "By thy conflict with despair." Another expression, but not less blasphemous against our Lord and Saviour, than the original. The hymn in its entirety v.as written by Isaac Watts, who held very hazy views touching the Divine Di-vine Person and Nature of Jesus Christ. The "conflict with despair" is a blasphemy against our .Lord. less, only m degree, than "Watts' supposition supposi-tion of the possibility of our Saviour yielding to despair. Our Divine Lord "suffered because He willed it." His Human Nature was most perfect. He had all the attributes of human nature, free will included. But this Human Nature, in Him, was wedded to His Divine Nature, in His Divine Person. Per-son. To suppose that thee could be "a conflict with despair" in His Human Nature would be to deny II iin as our Go '. It was in His Person, God, that Jesus Christ died for us on the Cross. His Human Hu-man Nature subsisted, and subsists, in the Divine Person of the Eternal Word. To suppose that Jesus Christ, ihe Son of God,. could have an hour of "dark despair" or "a conflict with despair" is blasphemy. Our Redeemer endured, and freely, joyously, went lorward to the bonds, the outrageous insults and pains, the atrocious scourgings, the piercing of His lemples with thorns, the heavy burden of the Cross, the immediate expectation and unspeakable unspeak-able terrors of the Crucifixion. As the ideal bridegroom goes forth to meet the bride he has wooed, our Lord went willingly, gladly, to all this for the redemption and salvation salva-tion of all who "would be saved" and will at last be saved. Catholic theology tells us what that mystery meant, which the Socinian Watts could not, and the stupid Dr. Meade can not, comprehend. The agony in the Garden of Gethsemane, and the cry on the Cross, record but one same history. Tn tho Garden of Gethsemane, the prayer was: "Oh. My Father, if it be : possible let this cup pass from me!" What cup or chalice? Not certainly His sufferings for those that were to be redeemed, made saints, and become members of His Body for all eternity. For on their account, in the councils coun-cils of the Godhead. He had willed to become man. For these He rejoiced in "sufferings and afflictions." afflic-tions." Tluft entreaty, then, in the Garden, that solemn prayer to the Father, was for all tW b foresaw would reject the Salvation He had bought for them at so terrible, a price. So, on the Cross: "Why dost thou leave me deprived ?" ut guid dereliquisti me? was but a part of the one same tremendous sacrifice. They show how incomprehensibly the sufferings of our Lord Jesus Christ were, by the knowledge that His humiliation and death, with all its tremendous accessories, ac-cessories, would prove valueless to countless multitudes. mul-titudes. More than this: that so many by their perversity per-versity would render the Cross' and Passion of our Lord the occasion of their deeper damnation. For this it was that the Son of God cried on the Cross for human nature, while suffering as God in His Human Nature. The meaning of the Prayer in the Garden and the Cry on the Cross was the expression of intense mental sorrow at the vision of so many lost souls, in spite of the sacrifice He was offering and the unutterable sacrifices He had already undergone. This is but a mere glimpse at the Catholic doctrine doc-trine of our Lord's Passion. It is enough for us to say that "despair" is one of the "sins against the Holy Ghost;" and'lo say that our Divine Lord either yielded to it as the wretched versifier "Watts -I implies, or had to battle with it, as Dr. Meade is reported to have maintained, is a blasphemy. Any clever-Catholic child well- instructed in his Catholic catechism 'could 'point out the heresy in Isaac Watts' hymn or Dr. Meade's suggested improvement. , |