Death claims all ages for his own. Many also die from loyalty
to duty and to love. Blessings dearer than life may be in danger ;
evils worse than death may be threatened to our country and
ourselves. Now Christians, like others, may have to fight even
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to fche death for national life and liberty. And loyalty to love and loyalty to duty may bring an early death on the followers of Christ as well as on others. They may see dear ones sinking into a watery grave, or surrounded by consuming fires, and they may risk and sacrifice their lives in seeking to rescue them from death.
When Jesus' followers give up their lives either in loyalty to duty or in loyalty to love, they give them up in accordance with the will of God ; but Jesus knew there was a real danger that Christians would be taken out of the world when they should continue to live in it, and it was not His wish that this should be. The danger arose both from the hatred of Christ's enemies and from the mistaken beliefs and actings of Christ's followers them- selvea
I.
The Sphere.
The world was to be their sphere. " I pray not that thou shouldest take from the world."
What is Christ's meaning for the term " world " ? It is this passing scene of time, with its transient pleasures and sorrows, pursuits and loves ; and the mass of men that live for these alone. There is the world of men, of business, of politics, of labour for wealth and fame — the storm of life in which we sail. Pray, men say, to be taken out of that ; out into the deserts or the quietude of our retired rooms ; in solitary meditation to live the life of God. I do not pray, said Christ, that you should be removed from that — only from its evil.
1. Christ could not ask that they might be taken out of the world, for that was the scene of their witnessing and labour. However keenly they might wish to escape from its hate and opposition, it was necessary for themselves, for the world, and for their Master, that they should stay as the salt and leaven of human society. But He prays that God would " keep them from the evil one." Divine grace is to surround these simple souls so that Satan's fingers may not defile their lives. They also must learn to say, " He hath nothing in me." This is a great thing to
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ask, but it is the path to victory. " The problem of the necessity of living in the midst of earthly injfluences and yet of escaping from their evil is difficult with an exceeding difficulty. Yet it is not without solution. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego in the court of Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel in the court of Darius, are the likenesses " of the small transfigured band whom the world cannot tame."
^ Some devout men in spite of the prayer of Jesus, thought it best to renounce the world, and lived in dens and caves of the earth. The Pillar Hermits of Syria lived long years on the tops of pillars set up in the open air. The earliest and most famous of this class of solitaries, whose example the others followed as well as they could, was Simeon, a Syrian monk. In his boyhood Simeon had been a shepherd. He spent nine years of his youth in a Syrian monastery, without ever moving outside the walls of his narrow cell. Aiter this he became dissatisfied with the convent, as giving him too few means of self-denial, and presently invented the new form of penitence which has become associated with his name. He withdrew about the year 423 a.d. to a mountain near Antioch, and fixed his abode upon the top of a pillar which he caused to be erected for himself. The height of it was at first six cubits, but this was gradually increased to thirty-six, or nearly sixty feet. The diameter of the top was only four feet ; but it was surrounded with a railing which secured the poor man from falling off, and allowed him the relief of leaning against it. Here Simeon spent the last thirty or more years of his life. He clothed himself with the skins of beasts, and wore also an iron collar round his neck. He preached twice a day to the crowds that gathered at the foot of the column to witness his persevering devotions. Simeon died on his pillar at the age of seventy-two, and was buried with great solemnity at Antioch.
Lord Tennyson has a poem about him with the title, *' Saint Simeon Stylites," that is "Saint Simeon of the Pillar." It consists of a solemn prayer to God and address to the people by the hermit on the last day of his life. The words which the poet puts into his mouth show a curious mixture of deep penitence for sin and great spmtual pride in his long career of penance. Here are some of them, —
Bethink Thee, Lord, while Thou and all the saints Enjoy themselves in heaven, and men on earth House in the shade of comfortable roofs, Sit with their wives by fires, eat wholesome food,