"What then is Christ doing? He sits in His glory at the right hand of the Father; He sees all this agony, and He lets it still go on. He sustains the sufferers; He strengthens and comforts them often; but—He lets it still go on. 'How can He bear it?' our hearts cry out sometimes. I think the answer is, that He is bearing it. He suffered for the sufferers; that is not all—He suffers with them. That is yet not all; He suffers in them. They are not His people only, but His members; of His flesh and of His bones. For reasons inscrutable to us, His agony must go on still in them—still He cries to the oppressor, 'Why persecutest thou Me?' But one day He and they, and we also, shall see the end. Then shall we know the secret of the Lord; then shall the mystery of God be finished.
"Meanwhile, with the martyrs it is well. 'Therefore are they before the throne of God, and serve Him day and night in His temple, and He that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.' But all are not yet there, beyond the agony. For the thousands upon thousands of sufferers, bereaved, tortured, famine-stricken, dying slowly in Turkish prisons, or, deepest horror of all, in Turkish harems, what shall we say? Is the burden laid on our hearts for them too heavy to be borne? Remember, Christ bears it with us, as, in a deeper sense than we can fathom, Christ bears it in them.
"I think this answers our second question, What shall we do?
'It is MY SAVIOUR struggling there in those poor limbs I see.'
Friends, if He is there indeed, in His members, what sacrifice would we not make, what treasure would we not pour out with joy, to come to His help?
"But perhaps you say, 'What can we do?' I am not speaking to those who can influence the councils of our rulers, except by prayer, and by the formation and expression of that intelligent opinion which does, in the end, make its power felt. Therefore it is beside the question to ask what they should have done, or what they should do now. We have to find out what we should do, each one of us.
"There are thousands of little children, fatherless and motherless because their fathers and mothers have gone to God, often through the gate of martyrdom. They are wandering in the streets, homeless and destitute. They die, or haply they are taken by Moslems, and taught to hate the faith their parents died for. We can rescue these.
"There are thousands of widows, desolate in heart and home, each with her tale of anguish, longing, it may be, to lay down her weary head and join her loved ones in the grave, yet forced to struggle on for the daily bread of those still dependent on her. We can succour these.