Article October 13, 1923 Issue

Watching

JOHN C. LATHROP

The real meaning of watching presents a very important factor, which all Christian Scientists should be alert to discover; and the practice of which aids in the making of real Christian Scientists. A true watchman is one who has become conscious of his danger. A little story of the Civil War will illustrate the point.

A Confederate soldier and a few comrades were creeping stealthily up to the Union breastworks. They were sharp-shooters, and they were seeking a Union sentinel who was marching up and down the breastworks. When they came within firing distance, the leader knelt down and took careful aim at the sentinel. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, his attention was arrested by the sound of some one singing a hymn, and he realized that the singer was the person at whom he was aiming. He paused, listened, and waited till the singer had finished the hymn, then arose to his feet and said, "Boys, we will go home." They turned and disappeared in the underbrush.

Years after the war this Confederate soldier was crossing the ocean. It was Sunday evening, and some of the passengers were singing hymns. During one hymn he was startled by the strange familiarity of the voice next to him. He said to the man, "Where have I heard your voice before?" They compared notes, and the man turned out to be the Union soldier. "Yes, I well remember that occasion," he said. "While marching up and down that day, I was suddenly seized with a sense of great danger. I couldn't see the danger, or hear it; and in my extremity my thought went out wholly to God for refuge and protection. I could think of nothing to do but sing that dear old hymn of refuge and safety I learned in childhood, 'Jesus, Lover of my Soul.' Then a strange thing happened. When I had gotten half through the hymn, suddenly all sense of danger vanished, and I was at peace." Christian Science affirms that that man was watching: he was alert to the recognition of his danger. Christian Scientists "go over" their Lesson-Sermons, go to church services, and attend church meetings. They usually think that is enough, that that is watching; and then they wonder why they often are tumbled over by error, put to sleep and kept inactive and ill. It is because they are not conscious of their danger. They are marching up and down the breastworks, but not watching.

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