How entirely voluntary the sufferings of Christ were. It is impossible not to see in the history before us that our Lord had a mysterious influence over the minds and wills of all around him whenever he thought fit to use it. Nothing else can account for the effect which his approach to Jerusalem had on the multitudes which accompanied him. They seemed to have been carried forward by a secret constraining power which they were obliged to obey in spite of the disapproval of the leaders of the nation. In short, just as our Lord was able to make winds and waves and diseases and devils obey him, so was he able when it pleased him to turn the minds of men according to his will. For the case before us does not stand alone. The men of Nazareth could not hold him when he chose to pass through the midst of them and go his way, Luke four thirty. The angry Jews of Jerusalem could not detain him when they would have laid violent hands on him in the temple, but going through the midst of them, he passed by. John eight fifty nine. Above all, the very soldiers who apprehended him in the garden at first went backward and fell to the ground. John eighteen six. In each of these instances, there is but one explanation, a divine influence was put forth. There was about our Lord during his whole earthly ministry, a mysterious hiding of his power, but he had almighty power when he was pleased to use it. Why then did he not resist his enemies at last? Why did he not scatter the band of soldiers who came to seize him like chaff before the wind? There is but one answer. He was a willing sufferer. He did not bleed and suffer and die because he was vanquished by superior force and could not help himself, but because he loved us and rejoiced to give himself for us as our substitute. JC Ryle.