Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-06-09
LIKEJAMES AND JOHN
Rev. Hodges Compares the Actions of
Many Christians to the
APPEAL OF THE TWO APOSTLES.
ThoughtlessneSS is the Point Where We
Are Most Lacking.
THE DREAD CALAMITY AT JOHNsTOWN

Upon day in the week before the cruci-
fxion, Christ and His Apostles are going
up to Jerusalem. He has just been telling
them the reason for their going. He has been
trying to prepare their minds and to give
them some idea of what they are going to.
He has been trying to make them see the
dark vision of the future, which he sees.
Behold" He says, "We go up to Jerusa-
lem." And this is what will happen there:
''The Son of Man shall be betrayed unto
the chief priests and unto the scribes, and
they shall condemn Himto DEATH and shall
deliver Him to the Gentiles to mock and to
scourge and to cruelty Him." 1t is hard 10
see how the words could have been made
palmer.
Immediately, however, after the utterance
of these sad and foreboding, sentences we
read that contention arose among these
apostles as to which Of them was the greatest,
and as to which of them should have the
best place in the kingdom of heaven. And
when we read that we begin to get dim
conception of Christ's inexpressible loneli-
ness. To be alone, in the physical meaning
of the phrase. is not altogether unpleasant
sometimes. There are those who when most
alone are least alone. Out of their own
thoughts they get sweet and satisfying COM
panionship. But mental and spiritual lone
illness is one of the hardest of all trials, the
sense of being misunderstood, the impossi-
bility of appreciation, the lack of sympathy,
give bitterness to loneliness. This bitter
loneliness Christ felt to the uttermost.
PRACTICALLY ALONE.
Behold Him here, the self-sacrifcing, sur
rounded by the eself-seeking! James and John
are the worst of these self-seekers, or at least
the most outspoken. Even they have not
the face to go to Him who walks alone and
sad before them, and interrupt Him, urging
their request. They get their mother to go.
With some dim understanding of the fla
grant unworthiness and unseemliness of
their request, they get behind her. They
put her forward in their place. She comes
and asks Him to grant her something. The
words break in upon His musing as He
walks, and He stops and asks her what it is.
"What wilt thou?'' "Grant that my two
sons may sit one on Thy right hand and the
other on Thy left in Thy kingdoml"
There was something worse here than the
utter untimeliness of the request, worse
even than the narrow, petty, office seeking
temper which it showed; it revealed an utter
misconception concerning the Lords whole
life. Here was the petty, ambitious, un-
spiritual Jewish notion of an earthly king
dom. Again and again, had He tried to
teach them different from that. They would
not be taught. They would insist, against
His own repeated utterances, that somehow
and somewhere the Lord was going to put
on a splendid purple robe, and take golden
scepter in His hand, and put a jeweled
crown upon His head, and gather about
Him the armies of Judes, and drive out the
Romans, and make Jerusalem His capitol,
and be a greater King than David with a
wider kingdom than that Of Alexander or
Augustus.
They insisted that there were to be actual
thrones set up somewhere, made of gold
studded with gems, and enriched with elab-
crate carvings-13 handsome thrones, Christ
on the most magnificent one In the middle,
and on the six at either side, these Galhlean
peasants, no longer poor men, tax-gatherers,
day laborers, fishing folk, no longer despised
and insulted. but great, stately, rich, power
full, Judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
James and John are very anxious about get
ting the best seats of all They will sit, one
of that great central throne.
QUITE A CONTRAST.
t'I 60" said Christ, "to be betrayed,
Knocked, spit upon. to be despised, to be re-
jected, to be crucifed."
20, Master" broke in the ambitious
mother, "giye James and John the best
thrones in Thy kingdom p
We can imagine with what sadness In His
face, with what weariness and pain in His
voice, the Master turns and answers, eye
know not what We ask. Are We able to
drink of the cup that 1 shall drink Of and
to be baptized with the baptisms that am
baptized with ?" care We able to endure
the tribulations and the trials which await
me e?'
There is not moments hesitation. James
and John have their eyes upon those two
great, golden thrones. They see way of
getting above their fellows and seizing the
most profitable and honorable offices. The
path is open to the best seats. They under
stand dimly that some condition or other
lies between. The Lord has asked them if
they are able to do something. What is
there which they will not promise to do if
they may but get this prize! And so they
answer, "We are able" Oh, yes, able to
do anything if you will only pledge US those
best thrones. "We are able
Now you hear in these words the voice of
utter thoughtlessness And beg to remind
YOU that James and John are very common
names. 1 am afraid that their words are
very common words. 1 am afraid that 1
have said them, and so have you, good
many times.
SIMILAR MEANINGS.
For here are words that mean nothing.
They mean quite as much, however, as some
of our own religious promises We say our
prayers at night, looking back over the day.
of thought or word or deed. We ask God to
fight harder against that sin. And then the
next night it is the same thing over again
the same confession, the same prayer, the
same promise. We are thoughtless. We
are thinking about something else. We are
saying words with our lips of whose real
meaning our hearts take but small notice.
We do not really intend to make great
self-sacrifce, to give up cherished sin, to
fight any real battle. 1t is only james and
John over again.
I am afraid that there is still more of this
distance between the lips and the will in the
exercises of our public worship. How many
of our services, are, for good many of us,
little more than guild meetings of the great
confraternity of James and John? The
spirit of these foolish brothers descends
upon us. We miss our prayer and praise
entirely. The service is as much a blank as
the sermon is to the sleeper. The demon of
thoughtlessness has stolen our opportunity.
Some word in the prayer, some note in the
voice of singer, some sight or sound in the
church takes our attention. We 60. on list
ening with our ears and pronouncing sem
tences of praise or petition with our lips,
and we might as well be whirling prayer
wheel. so far as the spirit of devotion is con-
cerned in the matter. Will anybody deny
~. Ill Al C.