Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1906-07-21

the two cons of Zebedee. and began to De
sorrowful and very heavy.
So Then saith He unto them. My soul ID
exceeding sorrowful, even unto death; tarry
We here and watch with Me.
80. And he went a little farther. ana
fell on His face. and prayed. saying: y, MY
Father. IL 1t be possible. let this cup pass
from Me; nevertheless not as will. but as
Thou wilt.
40 And He cometh unto the disciples.
and fnjeth them asleep. and saith unto
Peter. What, could We not watch with Me
one hour?
Al. Watch and pray. that We enter not
into temptation: the spirit, indeed, 10 WILL
ing. but the flesh Is weak.
AZ. And he went away again the second
time and prayed, saying. o. My Father II
this cup may not pass away from me, ex-
cept dring ii. Thy will be done.
43 And He came and found them asleep
again: for their eyes were heavy.
Al. And He left them, and went away
again, and prayed the third time, saying
the same words.
The Lesson.
Tennyson was but clothing in the purple
and fine linen of poetry a naked eternal
truth when he sang:
More things are wrought by prayer than this
world dreams az.
For so the whole round earth is every
Bound ny gold chains about the feat Of Cod
Never yet has the traveller found peo-
pie who did not pray. Races have been
found without raiment; whole nations have
been found without houses; countries have
been found without manufactures;
never without prayers Where you
find human features. human passions and
human speech there you find human pray
ers Meaningless even to their utterers
such prayers often are; yet universal. 1t
could not be otherwise. for prayer Is with
In us at once the chasm dividing from the
brute creation below. the link uniting to
the Divinity above.
The necessity for prayer is. in US Is 1t
not also in God as we are a part of Him
self, created in His image? We read that
the prayers of the saints come up to God
as sweet smelling incense. Is there not
then. sense in which our prayers are as
necessary to Gods love, as they are nee
essary to our spiritual breath of life?
The Scripture lesson gives no instance
of both OF these necessities Jesus took
His disciples with Him when He went
apart TO pray. The three little dearer
and who lived nearer to Him than the rest
He took further into the garden of His
sorrow that last sad night, as If He longed
for their companionship and their prayers
also TO go up with His to His Father
Sadly and lovingly He rebuked them
Gould We not watch with me one hour?'
and they looked at Him with their sleep
bewildered eyes and did not understand
His longing for their sympathy and pray
ers that night, even as we. .loLk with our
world-dimmed vision and only halfway
call our thoughts from other things when
we enter into the holy of holes to pray
nor dream from what high privileges we
are self-shut by this Indifference. For only
by prayer and communion with the Most
High God that night, could even those be-
loved ones approach unto the knowledge
or the great weight of the sin of the world
and His own bearing of 1t.
And that night Peter James and John
Were privileged to share somewhat of His
burden for the sin of the world and they
ell ippy hot ylriS G
own gentle awaking, and warning twice
repeated, reused them not to their privi
leges.
We today are privileged to share some
what in Christ's agony for souls. and yet
how few, comparatively, do We do not
talk with God enough to know His wishes
for US: nor to know what He is feeling
and thinking for His world. We only come
to Him when we feel a great need for His
help. Andrew Murray says:
The child who only wants to know the
love of the father when he has something
to ask, will be disappointed. He who lets
God be Father always and in everything
who would fain live his whole life In the
Fathers presence and love, who allows God
In all the greatness of His love to be a
Father to him, OH he will experience most
gloriously that life in Gods Infinite
Fatherliness and continual answers to pray
er are inSeparable."
But the disciples had need of PRAYER that
night for their own Strengthening. Tempta-
ton was coming upon them swift and sure
Jesus warned them OF it. Had they been
praying they would also have been watch
Ing. The Christian who spends much time
talking with God is not the one easily be-
trayed into denying his Lord before a COM
pany OF scoffers. Jesus has set US here on
this earth for a little while with the order:
Tarry We here, and watch with me-
Applied Truth.
For a long time electricity was known TO
men and yet was OF little service They
knew not whence it came nor how to use It.
To be sure they do not yet thoroughly I'M
derstand Its origin. but they know how TO
produce and how to employ it. Is 1t not
even so with spiritual power? We cannot
tell whence II cometh but we are told how
to get It, and how to use IT, Are we any
the less derelict If we neglect to employ this
power than men would be IT, knowing what
they do they failed to make use of the
marvellous powers of electricity
F. B. Meyer says: There is only one
way In which the tempter can be met He
laughs at our good resolutions and ridicules
the pledges with which we fortify ourselves
He has b, en- dealing with these for sixty
centuries. and well knows how to find their
weakest point and to sweep them away. as
the tide does the childs barricade of sand
There is only One he fears: One who in the
hour of greatest weakness conquered him
and who has been raised far above all prir-
Cfpality and power, that He may succor
and deliver all frail and tempted souls He
conquered the prince OF this world in the
days of His flesh, and He Is prepared to do
as much again and yet again, each one of
us. II only we will truly surrender ourselves
TO His gracious and nightly indwellng In
the days of knighuy chivalry it was sup
posed 10 be enough for the true soldier Of
the cross TO make the sacred sign upon his
person. and instantly the foul spirits that
had gathered In the murky gloom to do
him harm fell back and let him through.
II was not all legend and myth. But there
Is truth beneath the medieval setting
And that truth is ours today-that the hest