Importance of Watchfulness and Prayer
47
honor, and glory unto Him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the
Lamb for ever and ever. We shall meet opposition; we shall be hated
of all men for Christ’s sake, and by Satan, because he knows that there
is with the followers of Christ a divine power, which will undermine
his influence. We cannot escape reproach. It will come; but we should
be very careful that we are not reproached for our own sins and follies,
but for Christ’s sake.
We should not allow our time to be so occupied with things of
a temporal nature, or even with matters pertaining to the cause of
God, that we shall pass on day after day without pressing close to
the bleeding side of Jesus. We want to commune with him daily. We
are exhorted to fight the good fight of faith. It will be a hard battle to
maintain a life of earnest faith; but if we cast ourselves wholly upon
Christ, with a settled determination to cleave only to him, we shall be
able to repulse the enemy, and gain a glorious victory. The apostle
Paul exhorts us, “Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath
great recompense of reward.” Again he says, “Now the just shall live
by faith.”
As you go to your homes, be sure that you do not leave Jesus
behind. You remember how, when he was twelve years old, his parents
took him with them up to Jerusalem to attend the passover. But
in returning with the crowd, they allowed their attention to be so
engrossed with talking and visiting that they entirely neglected their
sacred trust, and Jesus was left behind. For an entire day he was
not brought to mind by those who should not have forgotten him
for a moment. By only one day’s neglect they lost Jesus from their
company; but it cost them three days of anxious search to find him.
So with Christians; if they become careless, and neglect to watch and
pray; they may in one day lose Christ, but it may take many days of
anxious, sorrowful search to find him, and to regain the peace of mind
which was lost by vain talking, or neglect of prayer. When Christians
associate together, there is need of carefulness in all their words and
actions, lest Jesus be forgotten, and they pass along unmindful of the
fact that he is not among them.
When men are careless of the Saviour’s presence, and in their
conversation make no reference to him in whom they profess that
their hopes of eternal life are centered, Jesus is not in their company,
and the holy angels are grieved from their presence. These pure and