WESLEYAN-METHODIST MAGAZINE.

MARCH, 1877.

CHRIST'S CRAVING FOR COMPANIONSHIP AND SYMPATHY:

A MEDITATION FOR THE EVE OF GOOD FRIDAY:

BY THE REV. G. A. PAGE.

"Tarry ye here, and watch with Me.'-MATTHEW Xxvi. 38.

AMID the sorrows of life, the human heart craves for sympathy; and the deeper the sorrow, the more intense that craving becomes. Nothing so saddens the heart or crushes the spirit as to have to bear the greatest afflictions unheeded and alone. True, there are rough and hardy natures, proud and haughty spirits, that affect indifference to sympathy; but there are times when even these would shrink from the idea of being left to suffer alone. Beneath the severe pressure of life's cares, griefs and disappointments, the craving for sympathy asserts itself as a common sentiment of our nature. Our inward hearts at such times say: 'Pity me and pray for me: come to see me and try to comfort me: spare me a little of your company to relieve the solitude of my sorrow: counsel me in my perplexities: give me a word of encouragement to enable me to face my difficulties and bear my grief.' Yes, friend craves sympathy of friend; the husband of the wife, and the wife of the husband; the parent of the child, the child of the parent; the flock of the Pastor, and the Pastor of the flock.

How touchingly does this common need of our nature come out in the personal history of Christ, and especially in the hour of His agony! When that dreadful hour was throwing its shadows over Him, and when its deathly sorrows pressed with overwhelming weight upon His spirit, He urged on those whom He had loved so well His own claim for a return sympathy,'Tarry ye here, and watch with Me.' Then follows a scene the most solemn and affecting that the universe ever witnessed. The Incarnate God, with meek and subdued spirit and yet with calm heroism, passes through the mysterious conflicts of Gethsemane. All the tenderest emotions of His sanctified humanity are here called up; all its finest feelings are stretched upon the

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rack. And with that 'gentleness' which ever made Him 'great,' He besought the sympathy of His three most intimate disciples.

As a

And never were the claims of sympathy so strong as in His case. rule, not much sympathy is to be expected from strangers. But we naturally expect that those towards whom we sustain endearing relationships will care for us, and stand by us in our sorest sorrows. And how affecting to see the Saviour-such a Saviour as Jesus-left to struggle alone in His baptism of blood; while those for whom He suffers are sleeping within sound of His agonizing cries! Who can wonder that angels flew from heaven to perform the sacred duty in which even His chosen three had failed! When Jesus enquired of the sleepers, 'What! could ye not watch with Me one hour?' what terrible pungency there must have been in the appeal: 'What! could ye not watch with Me one hour?'

If they had any sympathy in their souls, certainly it ought to have gushed out in full flow towards Him. 'Having loved His own,...He loved them unto the end;' loved them with such an ever-watchful love. He sent them forth without purse or scrip, to test their faith, but took care that they lacked not anything. He admitted them to close fellowship with Himself; instructed their ignorance; bore with their infirmities; wrought out for them miraculous deliverances; and cherished them with unfailing tenderness. In the treatment of His disciples, the Saviour presents a model of generous and refined sympathy. Who else had such a Master as He was? The few glimpses we obtain into the Saviour's home-life, show how He and His disciples spent the time when they were withdrawn from the multitude. And lo! He was always trying to do them good; drawing them nearer to Himself with the cords of love; seeking to strengthen their confidence, and confirm them in their attachment. O what a fund of sympathy with Him ought to have been collected in their hearts! When Peter said, 'Though I should die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee!' and, when they all re-echoed the protestation, there was no extravagance in the demonstration of sympathy with Him. They ought to have been prepared to die for such a Master; and yet, after all the love He had shown, and all the pledges they had given, they could not watch one hour with Him.

And when the chill of indifference is thrown upon us in our seasons of sadness, and comes from the very friends to whom we were looking for sympathetic companionship, how bitter is the disappointment! How it wrings the spirit to complain: 'What! could ye not watch with me one hour?' What! the heaven-bound pilgrim left on the roughest stage of the road, to strain, and weep and bleed alone! Among the terrible utterances which fell from the lips of Job, none gave his heart a keener spasm than when he cried, 'My breath is strange to my wife.' Yes, when husband or wife stands aloof; when children leave us desolate; when father and mother forsake us; when our own familiar friend lifts up his heel against us, how piercing are the pangs of such neglect! Let any who may be subject to such trials as these think of Jesus, the best of Masters; the truest of friends; the ever-faithful

One. Even He must needs exclaim to His own disciples, 'What! could ye not watch with Me one hour?'-'Was this too much for Me to expect from YOU,-the inner circle of My chosen friends, to whom I have shown such special favour? Surely it was fitting that you, above all, should stand by Me amid the struggles of this hour of darkness! To whom can I look for

sympathy if not to My specially favoured three?'

What examples of human weakness these sleeping disciples present! But let us remember that, to a great extent, it was weakness, and not heartless apathy. Hence the Saviour's considerate apology: "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.' And He knew the full truth of the case. He had the power of discerning their spirits. He saw that the heaviness of their eyes was not the result of sluggishness of soul. And yet they were not altogether free from blame, or Jesus would not have chid them as He did. The truth appears to be, they might have overcome their drowsiness, if they had addressed themselves with becoming vigour to watch with Jesus in this terrible emergency.

How admonitory! Let the strongest not be over-confident as to what he may do in the hour of trial. No doubt when Peter and his brother disciples vowed unflinching fidelity to the Saviour they were quite sincere. And yet, soon afterwards, we find them fast asleep, while Jesus is sweating'great drops of blood.' Perhaps we have made our solemn protestations. Under the impulse of grateful feeling, or beneath the pressure of solemn obligation, have we not said,—and that too with the sincerest intention,— Though I -hould die with Thee, yet will I not deny Thee'? And yet when fierce temptation assailed, were we as true as we promised? When Jesus asked for the one hour's watch, did we sleep? Alas! how many have had to exclaim :

'But ah! the feebleness of man!

Have I not vow'd and wept in vain ?'

At such times it requires some clear discernment rightly to judge how far such conduct is criminal. No question but there is a sleepiness in religious duties which is highly culpable. Such is the sleepiness of indifference. This results from the feeble state of religion in the soul. There is no relish for spiritual food. The world has been pursued with such intense earnestness, that neither strength nor heart is left for the strenuous, vigilant service of God. In such a case 'the spirit' is not 'willing,' but dull, and dreamy, and has to be dragged to the post of duty. Who can wonder that when such a jaded earthworm gets to his Bible, or on his knees, or to the house of God, he is more disposed to sleep, than to read or hear, or watch and pray? Alas! this curse of sleepy indifference-how it blights the powers of the soul! How it turns the house of God into a dormitory! What a drowsiness it spreads over religious services! How it takes the very soul out of Christian effort and enterprise ! How it saddens the heart of the true worker for Christ and watcher with Christ! 'What!' he is ready to exclaim, 'can you not worship Christ one hour? Are you no sooner seated in your pew than you