Watch ye therefore, and pray always - Luke 21:36
Let us never release the girdle from around our loins, nor throw ourselves listlessly upon the bank to drink,
whilst the enemy may be stealing up against the wind. It is the art of our great enemy to fill the air with the heavy breath of the poppy; that, like the lotus-eaters of the old legend, we may be indisposed for the perils and toils of our onward journey.
Watch ye in the season of festivity. - When merry voices fill the chamber with mirth, and jokes pass; old stories are retold; quaint anecdotes circulated - remember to look frequently up into the Master's face, to discover if aught has covered it with shame, or filled it with regret. Let not your heart be overcharged with surfeiting drunkenness.
Watch ye in hours of stress and anxiety. These will come between the soul and Christ, oppressing us with anxious care, leading us to think too much of the things which are seen and transient, and filling our hearts with dismay, as though the future would find us orphans and homeless, because the storm had swept away some few gatherings of the earth's perishable stores. When stocks are falling, business declining, competition increasing-Watch! Make supplication! Stand before the Son of Man as those whom He cannot forget or forsake.
Watch ye in seasons of tender lave. - We wear armor abroad, but when we come within the closed door of the home, and our hearts expand beneath the genial warmth of kindred natures, how apt we are to cry, Now, surely, we may unbend, ungird, and let nature have free course. But the Master says, Watch ye at every season; and He reminds us that we never cease to stand before the Son of Man.
