Watchfulness

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak (Matthew 26:41).

It is perhaps easier, and certainly more pleasant, to speak of what is positive and aggressive in Christian experience, than of that which is negative in its character, and has to do rather with the defense and maintenance of what we possess than with the acquisition of more. There is something stirring and exhilarating in the call to launch forth upon all the wondrous possibilities of faith, and to take actual possession of all that is ours in Christ Jesus. We listen to the record of the exploits of faith until our ears tingle and our hearts brim over with an irrepressible enthusiasm, and we feel as if we were ready then and there to gird up our loins and go on without a moment’s delay and take possession of “the Land that floweth with milk and honey” (Deuteronomy 6:3).

But when we hear of the necessity for watchfulness and care, and for painstaking attention to the details of daily life, this is apt to have a sobering, and sometimes even a depressing, influence on our spirits. It brings us down from Pisgah, and there we are again surrounded by all the harassing details and worries of life in the camp, where foes have to be faced, and the long journey has to be pursued. Watching is never pleasant work; no soldier really likes it. Men prefer even the excitement and danger of the battlefield to the long weeks of patient vigilance, which nevertheless may do quite as much as a victorious battle to decide the issues of a campaign.

Watchfulness Equals Victory

But whether this is a popular subject or not, it is clearly a necessary one. The bravest soldiers that the world can produce are certain to be defeated unless they are watchful; and in certain conditions of warfare, such as those to which our own forces have recently been exposed in the East, watchfulness is the equivalent of victory; for there is little or no fear of defeat so long as watchfulness is maintained. The British square had little or nothing to fear from the desperate valor of