Frankfort Pilgrim College - Pilgrim Yearbook (Frankfort, IN)

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Awake, O Church Of God! Over eighteen hundred years ago There was a lukewarm church, And Christ in tenderness told it, Its state was one of dearth. That poor, lost church e'en did not know That they were blind and poor- They thought that they were very rich, That they would want no more. The Lord from Heaven said to them, t'Wretched and poor thou art. Naked and miserable and blind, With no peace in thy heart. Thou knowest not thy poverty, He told that boastful crowd, And thus with all thy wretchedness Thou darest shout aloud! I counsel thee, said His sweet voice, Repent and buy from me Tried gold, that thou may'st riches have Through all eternity. Receive the eyesalve that I give- Divine illumination, The scales will then fall from thine eyes, Then, what a revelation! Iyll give thee raiment white and fair- Of saints the righteousness, That. thy great shame may not appear, Then I'll thy name confess. If Christ would then spue from His mouth That lukewarm church I-Ie found, How must He feel in these Ulast days When sin doth thus abound. O Church o God, arouse! awake! Preserve thy garments fair, Lest thou be found in nakedness When Jesus shall appear. -Susie Bursch Lorimor. g -53.-

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. Tears and Agony EARS and Agony, what is meant by them? enquires the youth of 1930. Are we not living in a day of changes? Yes. and such vast changes that some are now asking, f'Do the people of God still carry a burden like they did in olden times, or has the cross ceased in the Christian life?l' We would answer, God forbid! Vllhen the cross ceases and Zion no longer tra- vails, spiritual death begins immediately. Looking back nearly two thousand years ago we get a picture of crimson agony. Here we see the Christ with His disciples as He enters into a small garden called Gethsemane. He takes with Him into the garden three of the disciples, leaving the others at the garden gate-perhaps to watch the ap- proach of Judas and the band. The sufferings which the Christ is just about to undergo are very great. His heart is pierced and heavy, it has been rent to the very depths. He knows what it means to be forsaken of His own. Crushed, under the weight of the sins of a lost world, He cries out, My soul is exceedingly sorrowful even unto death, tarry ye here and watch with me . After giving this urgent request to the three disciples, He leaves them. Going about a stone's cast He falls on His face to the ground. Bowed be- neath this cruel, heart rending load, behold the Son of God, as out of the anguish of His soul He cries, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless, not as I will but as thou wilt. Here bowed beneath this terrible weight is the Son of God, the One who never knew sin, alone, away from all earthly help. Those who have been His nea.rest friends are now fast asleep. He longs for help, He rises and goes to His disciples. He wants them, He needs them, not merely to converse with, but that they might get underneath and lift with Him in the spirit as Ht, passes through the crucial hour of His life. Finding His disciples asleep only adds to His agony. He awakens them but in a short time they are again found slumbering. His sufferings become so great that they strain the whole body to such Cl violent degree, that the blood, as it were, passes through the pores of His skin and falls in large drops to the ground. Every moment the burden seems to get heavier. We have read of martyrs going to the stake shouting, of others shouting as flames were kindled around their bodies, but oh, the depths of the suffering of the Son of God that these martyrs might meet death rejoicing. It is in- describable. Is it any wonder that the disciples had to repent after this? O that they could have been able to have blotted from their memory the thought of that last night. The night when Jesus conferred upon them the honor of being with Him, and yet, they fell asleep-not only once, but three times. People of God, let us stir ourselves lest we be caught in the same snare. Let us cry mightily unto God day and night for deliverance from this deaden- ing lethargy into which the Church has drifted. Let us hasten back to the old fashioned Garden Travail for lost souls! He said, When Zion travails, chil- dren shall be born into the kingdom . O Church of Christ. has not God awakened you once, twice, yea, three times? Has He not pulled the scales from your eyes? But each time you have settled back into a spiritual slumber. For Christ's sake, and for the sake of a lost world, let us arise, shake ourselves and begin to prevail mightily in prayer. -Pearl Harbison. -5 7-

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