Watchfulness

All through the Scriptures are admonitions to watchfulness, and nowhere do we find greater emphasis placed upon it than in the Master’s own teachings, the nature of his warnings being twofold. He bids his followers guard against the approach of foes, and says by way of illustration “that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.” But this is not all,—he shows that it is no less important to watch for the coming of the divine idea, spoken of as the “master of the house.” To be asleep in any sense when a message of Truth and Love is seeking admission to our consciousness, is a fatal error, and may mean the entrance of the foe that would break up the unguarded abode.

It was the wakeful and watchful shepherds who saw the first gleams of light on the Judæan plains, then heard the angelic message, followed by the full choir, singing, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.” We would hardly venture to say that for nearly two thousand years no such song has been sung, but we cannot deny that it has been seldom heard, or if heard at all, heeded as it was by the simple shepherds. At the dawn of Christianity it meant much to be sufficiently watchful to see the light, then hear and heed the message, and it means no less in our own day. In her book “Retrospection and Introspection” (p. 23) Mrs. Eddy tells of the disappointments and dreariness of mortal experience, before the light of Truth illumined for her the darkness; then she says, “When the door opened, I was waiting and watching; and lo, the bridegroom came! The character of the Christ was illumined by the midnight torches of Spirit. My heart knew its Redeemer.” For her, the tireless watcher, the night was gone, and, to use her own words which follow, “Being was beautiful, its substance, cause, and currents were God and His idea.” This did not mean that watchfulness was at an end. Rather did it mean that its purpose was more vital than before. It was no peering out into the darkness to ask, “What of the night?” Instead it was with spiritual sense quick to hear the cheering response, “The morning cometh.”

Of old the shepherds knelt by the cradle of what seemed a helpless babe, one whose very life was threatened by a jealous and cruel king; but when a few years had rolled by, the needy and despairing knelt before the man Christ Jesus to ask for the divine gifts which he was so ready to bestow upon those ready to receive them,—sight to the blind, feet to the lame, health that no mere wind of material circumstance could sweep away, and life to those whom men called dead. Do we believe this? Yes, all of it; because, thanks to the gracious and glorious teaching of Christian Science, we daily prove the Principle of the Christ-healing, in things great and small, and know that greater and ever greater “works” will be ours, if we keep well in view the Saviour’s command to his slumbering disciples, “Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation,”—the temptation of sin or sickness. If we fail to watch, our prayer is apt to be a cry for help, when the foe should have been kept without the citadel.

But let us not lay down our spiritual weapons at any stage of the warfare. We read that Peter slept when he should have watched, then denied the Christ; but he waked to watch and pray to such purpose that history holds no greater instance of heroism than his fearless and impassioned defense of John and himself, before the rulers, when charged by them with the offense of healing the lame man who lay at the “Beautiful” gate. With Peter watchfulness and prayer had reached the Science of being, and it was his fellow worker, John, who gave to Sardis the ringing message: “Be watchful, and strengthen the things which remain.” If, as our Leader tells us, on page 95 of Science and Health, “the world is asleep in the cradle of infancy, dreaming away the hours,” let those who are awake to Truth watch and pray, that the long dream may be broken and a welcome given to the Christ that forever heals and saves.