Go To Dark Gethsemane ...

A Facebook post about Gethsemane by a friend, Valerie Johnston, who is currently on tour in Israel with her husband Melvin, sent me in search of an old hymn. Written by James Montgomery, it resonates with beauty and power.

“And He came out, and went, as He was wont, to the mount of Olives; and His disciples also followed Him.” (Luke 22:39). 1 Go to dark Gethsemane,

You who feel the tempter’s pow’r;

Your Redeemer's conflict see;

Watch with Him one bitter hour;

Turn not from His griefs away;

Learn of Jesus Christ to pray. 2 Follow to the judgment hall;

View the Lord of life arraigned;

O the worm-wood and the gall!

O the pangs His soul sustained!

Shun not suff’ring, shame, or loss;

Learn of Him to bear the cross. 3 Calv’ry’s mournful mountain climb

There adoring at His feet,

Mark the miracle of time,

God’s own sacrifice complete:

“It is finished!” Hear the cry;

Learn of Jesus Christ to die. 4 Early hasten to the tomb

Where they laid his breathless clay;

All is solitude and gloom;

Who hath taken Him away?

Christ is ris’n! He meets our eyes:

Saviour, teach us so to rise.

Mongomery's lines take us on a journey from the Garden of Gethsemane where we are instructed to stand and watch, to the judgment hall and our denial of Christ, to the cross where we witness His death and His passion, and finally to His glorious resurrection and our redemption. Note how the poet repeats the phrase “learn of” at the end of each stanza – emphasising how we should apply each scene to our lives. James Montgomery uses repetition to draw attention to what he considers important about each scene and each stanza. • “Learn of Jesus Christ to pray” encourages us to remember the scene of the garden and to go to God in fervent prayer.

• “Learn of Christ to bear the cross” is a charge to lay down our lives, take up the cross and follow Christ.

• “Learn of Jesus Christ to die” is a reminder of what Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20: “I am crucified with Christ ... Christ liveth in me.” Considered one of the most important hymn writers of the English language, James Montgomery wrote this beautiful hymn in 1820. He was born on November 4, 1771, in Irvine, Ayrshire, Scotland, the son of Moravian missionary John Montgomery, and died April 30, 1854, in Sheffield, England. When Montgomery was 5 years old, his parents moved him to a Moravian settlement at Gracehill, near Ballymena in County Antrim. Soon after, his parents accepted a call to the mission field and left him behind in Gracehill. He never saw his parents again. They both died while in the Barbados Islands.