| The Secrets of a Beautiful Life |
Chapter 5 |
Page 4 |
“Endure and hold thy peace” is not all of the lesson. There is something better than stoicism. We need not struggle unaided. It is not a mark of weakness to accept help in hours of great need. Jesus desired to be sustained as he entered his agony. First, he craved and sought the help of human sympathy. It seems strange to us, at first thought, that he, the strong Son of God, could receive help from men. And from such men as his disciples were. It showed his true humanity. It showed, too, how real human friendship was to him. We know that his friends received help and comfort from him, but we are not so apt to think of him needing them and receiving strength from their love. But here we see him leaning upon them, wanting them near to him while he struggled and suffered, and craving their sympathy and tenderness. How sad it was, then, that the three chosen disciples whom he lead into the depths of the Garden that they might watch with him and strengthen him by their love, slept instead of watching!
In Brittany, among the peasants, they have this beautiful legend of the robin. They say that when the Saviour moved toward Calvary, bearing his cross, with enemies all about him, a robin hovered near. And, reckless of the tumult, the bird flew down and snatched a cruel thorn from the Christ’s bleeding forehead. Then over the robin’s bosom flowed the sacred blood, tinting with its ruby stream the bird’s brown plumage. This, the peasants say, was the origin of the red spot on the robin’s breast.
“And evermore the sweet bird bore upon its tender breast
The warm hue of the Saviour’s blood, a shinning seal impressed.
Hence, dearest to the peasant’s heart, ‘mid birds of grove and plain,
They hold the robin, which essayed to soothe the Saviour’s pain.”
This is only a legend. No bird plucked a thorn from that sacred brow. Not by even so small a soothing was the Saviour’ anguish that day mitigated. Yet it was in the power of his disciples to have soothed his bitter agony immeasurably. But when he came back to them after each struggle, hoping to find comfort from their love, they were asleep. They failed him, not through carelessness, but through faintness. The spirit was willing, but the flesh was weak. Had they been stronger, it would have been a little easier for Christ to endure the cross. Their love would have taken at least one thorn from his crown of thorns.
Page 4