Streams in the Desert December 26 Daily Devotional

Sit ye here while I go and pray yonder (Matt. 26:36).
It is a hard thing to be kept in the background at a time of
In the Garden of Gethsemane eight of the eleven disciples were left to do nothing. Jesus went to the front to pray; Peter, James and
John went to the middle to watch; the rest sat down in the rear to
wait Methinks that party in the rear must have murmured. They were
in the garden, but that was all; they had no share in the cultivation of its flowers. It was a time of crisis, a time of storm and stress; and yet they were not suffered to work.
You and I have often felt that experience, that disappointment
There has arisen, mayhap a great opportunity for Christian service. Some are sent to the front some are sent to the middle. But we are made to he down in the rear. Perhaps sickness has come; perhaps poverty has come; perhaps obloquy has come; in any case we are

hindered and we feel sore. We do not see why we should be excluded
from a part in the Christian life. It seems like an unjust thing
that seeing we have been allowed to enter the garden, no path should be assigned to us there.
Be still, my soul, it is not as thou deemest! Thou are not excluded
from a part of the Christian fife. Thinkest thou that the garden of
the Lord has only a place for those who walk and for those who
stand! Nay, it has a spot consecrated to those who are compelled to sit. There are three voices in a verb-active, passive and neuter.
So, too, there are three voices in Christ's verb "to five." There
are the active, watching souls, who go to the front and struggle till the breaking of day. There are the passive, watching souls,
who stand in the middle, and report to others the progress of the fight But there are also the neuter souls-those who can neither fight nor be spectators of the fight but have simply to he down.
When that experience comes to thee, remember, thou are not shunted.
Remember it is Christ that says, "Sit ye here." Thy spot In the
garden has also been consecrated. It has a special name. It is riot "the place of waiting." There are lives that come into this world
neither to do great work nor to bear great burdens, but simply to
be; they are the neuter verbs. They are the flowers of the garden
which have had no active mission. They have wreathed no chaplet; they have graced no table; they have escaped the eye of Peter and James and John. But they have gladdened the sight of Jesus. By
their mere perfume, by their mere beauty, they have brought Him
joy; by the very preservation of their loveliness in the valley they have lifted the Master's heart. Thou needst not murmur shouldst thou be one of these flowers! --Selected.