Article July 11, 1936 Issue

"Could ye not watch with me one hour?"

ELLA H. HAY

In the night of trial in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus withdrew from his disciples to pray; and as he took three of his faithful followers a little farther he requested that they tarry there and watch. But the disciples slept, slept at a time when need for alertness and watchfulness was great, when wicked minds were plotting to silence the voice of Truth by destroying the one who more than any other bore witness to Truth by blessing and healing those who in faith sought him.

It was more than a yearning for human companionship and understanding which elicited from the Master the words: "What, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." Jesus knew that the seed of Truth had been sown in the consciousness of his students, and great was his yearning to aid those earnest workers in their growth Spiritward. He realized that alertness and a right spirit of watchfulness were qualities essential to their individual growth, as well as to the establishment of the cause he held so dear, namely, the demonstration of Truth in human experience. His students must learn to maintain a positive watch for the appearance and unfoldment of Truth in human consciousness. This attainment was necessary to their individual salvation and to the fulfillment of the Master's glorious mission—the spreading of the gospel of peace and good will among men.

The need for positive watching is continuous. Jesus encouraged such watching when he added to his query the words, "The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak." The five corporeal senses constitute the flesh, and these senses are indeed weak, for they have no authority, no foundation, no truth, no reality. In speaking of the devil or evil the Master said, "When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it." The material senses seem to govern mankind, but their sway is dispelled by the recognition and acceptance of the fact that God's will is beneficent and all-powerful, the law of destruction to any opposite so-called power or presence. God, Spirit, always wills good. Anything contrary to good is entirely unlike His nature and could not constitute His will.

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