New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-03-26
intendents, why let them pay their taxes and
keep on voting the straight ticket.
TIE WATCH or ONE HOUR.

a
Nearly two thousand years ago, on the
evening of yesterday, dozen men were assem-
bled at supper in the upper room OF mouse
in Jerusalem. They were laborers, coarSeiy
bred and coaIsely clad such as may be met III
the streets of any Eastern city to-day; nieh
who but year or two ago nad kho"n ho
better work than to carry fish to the Market
mr. Ia collect taxes. who indeed scarcely now
knew any better use than these 10 hlahe Vi
their lives. There was one Man among Cncin'
the son of carpenter whom they knew, tna1
they had followed in this year or TWO WIFI
blind affection and wonder at his difference
from them.elyes; they had vague Dellei
that O terrible end was coming 10 Dis
strange life; some among them were stunned
with grief but there is no reason TO thlhh
that they suspected that In their fellowship
with Him the hand of God had touched thelh
when lie should be dead, nothing was lett Ior
them opparently but to go back to their nets
and boats, as they did go: they had no
thought that instead of selling fish to people
80 moor as themselves, they were to become
az =; ;o::nors of the world. for all f.: :tlre
time. They were men not lacking in intellect
but like the rest of us the first idea with them
was that they had their living to earn; they
must fish or collect taxes to be clothed ana
fed; they were only dull and selfish so far that
clothes and food came between them and their
great work.
And presently, in the night on which lie
was betrayed, lie took bread and wine also,
and gave to them saying that this was Ills
body and blood which was given for them,
bidding them do this hereafter in remembrance
of Him. When lie went out into the night
they followed Him. Outside OF Jerusalem
there is a bleak hill inclosed by low wall,
where yet stand eight olive trees computed to
be more than two thousand years old. Their
trunks have grown to the same dead hue as
their gray leaves. Beneath these trees the
Savior passed through the agony from which
even the sacred historian turns away in silence.
Again and again He comes to His companions,
as if for word of strength or comfort. But
they were asleep. Why we think AS we hear
this, should q God come to men for strength
or comfort? We are so apt to forget that lie
was, too, man. Man within whose soul
surged actual human affection and terribly
human woes. We all understand the agony OF
a mother when the son whom she has nursed
upon her breast becomes u drunkard or DIES
a shameful death. But all the people in the
world vicious, or sick, or in misery, were as
the children of this Man. Surely there was
laid on Him the griefs, the sOrrows, the lnlqul-
ties of us all. He loved His mother and His
friends, and He was going from them to
Judgment and to death. There Is nothing
more awful in its pathos in the story OF our
Savior than His going back in the extremity
of His pain to the men for whom dc was
giving His life, and finding them asleep. This
world of living guilty people, the genera
tons 10 come crowdng on His sight, towards
whom He stretched out His hand to save, were
q blank to them. Their eyes were heavy"
They could not watch with Him one hour.
But what has this tragedy in n Syrian city
of long ago to do with us2 Why should the
mystery of that awful passion in the garden
be brought into the columns Of daily paper
and made common by contact with accounts
of trade and theft and murder, of famine in
one oualter and an epidemic of RIGHTEOUSNESS
in anothcr7 We say impatiently that we are
not Peter nor John asleep on the hillside
while the Son of God takes upon himself the
burden of humanity. These are matters for
consideration in Episc0pllian or Catholic pull
pits, or for Sunday reading. In the meanwhile
the old world turns around just as it did then,
not filled, as we are apt to talk of IL with
masses of Caucasians, Malays, Africans, but
az Jesus saw it, with men and women, half
inclined TO do well and half to do i'll, waiting
for the finding hand, with anxious mothers,
erring sons, with selfish old men, frivolous
women, with the slave and his master, the
murderer and his victim. Meanwhile their
cry for help comes to us, not through the
rustlng of olive trees, but in myriad tongues
through the columns of this very paper. HUI
man problems which we can help to solve
offer themselves to us at every turn; the In
dian on our border, the freedman on our
streets, the Chinaman in San Francisco, the
beggar at our door, the wife and children at
our tiresde, to whom, in our hurry to be rich,
we have grown stranger. Not across the
waste of ages, but here and now the voice of
Christ calls to us, Can We not watch with
me one hour ~ He is to-day recognized as
never before, rs the God of Love, of Brother
hood of Humanity-alIve, actual. The jew
ish fishermen and taX-2athCrerS Travelled to
help with His work from town to town. We
have thousand messengers to carry the story
to the ends of the earth. But We've go
fishing. The work which is TO redeem the
world, and which only makes the next life
real, is left for Sundays sermon, while we take
care of our clothes and food.
---
Several of the friends and admirers of the late
Il II i