^ Prayer without watching is hypocrisy, and watching with- out prayer is presumption.^
•jl He who watches constantly looTcs out for danger, and avoids the way that leads to it. He who prays looks up for higher help and strength.^
^ A man who had been a missionary in Asia once told me this incident. One day, while travelling over a desolate stretch of country, he observed, just beyond an abrupt bend of the road before him, a flock of sheep huddled about a shepherd so close that they pressed against his legs. My friend was puzzled by the sight at first, but as he passed a large mass of rock that had obstructed his gaze, he saw, at a little distance down the road, a huge Asiatic wolf, gaunt and hungry, that looked with greedy eyes on the sheep, but shrank back in fear of the shepherd with his knotty staff. The trembling flock knew the place of safety.*
^ A pupil was remarkable for repeating her lessons well. Her schoolfellow, rather idly inclined, said to her one day, " How
1 D. Davies. ^ W. Jay. => A. T. Pierson. * P. S. Moxom.
ST. MARK 451
is it that you always say your lessons so perfectly?" She replied, " I always pray that I may say my lessons well." " Do you ? " said the other ; " well then, I will pray, too " : but alas ! the next morning she could not repeat even a word of her usual task. Very much confounded, she ran to her friend, and re- proached her as deceitful : " I prayed," said she, " but I could not say a single word of my lesson." " Perhaps," rejoined the other, " you took no pains to learn it." " Learn it ! Learn it ! I did not learn it at all," answered the first. "I thought I had no occasion to learn it, when I prayed that I might say it."
Work while it is called to-day,
Watch and pray ! With both thine hands right earnestly, As in sight of God most high,
Thy calling ply.
Watch ! it is the Master calls thee ;
Pray ! it is His ear that hears ;
Up ! shake off thy chilly fears ! Mindful that whate'er befalls thee
Leaves thee further on thy way, Watch and pray.
Watch ! for demons haunt around thee,
Sin and harm beset thy path;
Yet be sure that nothing hath Power to hinder or confound thee,
So thou faithfully alway Watch and pray.
Pray ! lest watching make thee weary ;
Praying thou shalt never fail, Though the night be long and dreary,
Though the dawn be faint and pale,
Brightens fast the perfect day: Watch and pray.^
1 H. G. Tomkins.
Bearing Christ's Cross.
w
Literature.
Cameron (A. B.), From the Garden to the Gross, 302.
Clow (W. M.), The Day of the Gross, 157.
Critchley (G.), When the Anyels ha/ve Gone Away, 101
Hatchings (W. H.), Sermon Sketches, i. 145.
Mackintosh (H. R.), Life on God's Plan, 242.
Maclaren (A.), A Year's Ministry, 2n(i Ser., 45.
Macmillan (H.), The Mystery of Grace, 48.
Oosterzee (J. J. van), The Year of Salvation, i. 285.
Speirs (E. B.), A Present Advent, 192.
Spurgeon (C. H.), The Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxviii. No. 1683.
Stalker (J.), TTie Trial and Death of Jesus Christ, 125.
Stanford (C), The Evening of our Lord's Ministry, 313.
Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), 15th Ser., 149.
Christian World Pulpit, xviii. 85 (Gasquoine) ; xlvii. 392 (Horton) ;
Ixxvii. 140 (Renshaw). Churchman's Pulpit, pt. 9 (Holy Week), 363 (Shettle).
Bearing Christ's Cross.
And they compel one passing by, Simon of Cyrene, coming from the country, the father of Alexander and Rufus, to go with them, that he might bear his cross. — xv. 21.
Art and legend have done not a little to fill up the pathetic picture for us of our Lord's carrying His cross to Calvary. But the Evangelists have not been altogether silent on the subject. Doubtless much occurred on the way which the Christian world would gladly have known, and which they could so well have told us. Two of them at least, St. Matthew and St. John, were in all probability eye and ear witnesses ; and St. Mark and St. Luke must have often heard Apostles and others, for whom the day of Jesus' death would have an imperishable memory, telling of all they had that day seen and heard. Yet how sparing of incidents they have been except where their Master was specially concerned. St. John, at any rate, who was a witness of the trial in Caiaphas' house, was not likely to have been absent from the crowd that saw his Master going with His burden of shame to the place where He was to die. He must have been a keen and deeply interested observer of all that took place on the way. He must have had incidents and impressions of the scene stored up in his mind and memory which he would retain to his dying day, and which the Church would willingly have possessed. But from him we have not even one. He has nothing to add to what the other three Evangelists have given. Each of those three has preserved for us the story of Simon of Cyrene, and of his touching service to Jesus ; the third, the Evangelist St. Luke, has added that of the weeping of the women. These two incidents are all that are recorded of a scene on which the Christian imagination has ever fondly dwelt. The Evangelists have told their story as honest, simple-