^ Blauco White.
220 REST AFTER TOIL
some great feat of self-sacrifice ; some " giving of my first-born for my transgression " ; some deed of self- mortification and self- crucifixion, after which the world shall be dead to me and I to the world ; this surely must be the life to which God calls one who, being a sinner, would be an heir of salvation ? Mark the answer. " This is the work of God, that ye believe on hira whom he hath sent." To work is to believe. To believe is to rest. "Say not in thine heart, Who shall go up for me into heaven? or. Who shall descend for me into the deep? The word is very nigh thee. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." Faith is rest.
^ It is not by retiring from active life or business, or by going down to a cottage in the country, that a man can secure peace of mind. Trifles may be as exhausting and troublesome, as worrying and irritating, as commerce or concerns of State ; leisure leaves the mind open to conscience : the only real peace is in the mind ; but if the mind is in a turmoil, to retreat into it is only to exchange one set of troubles for another. No man lived more in the rush and turmoil of the world than our great Prime Minister, Mr. Gladstone, and one of the secrets of his success was that when he returned home from the House of Commons he threw off his cares and left them behind him on the Treasury Bench. He used to call his library at Hawarden " the Temple of Peace." If he could do so with his immense responsibilities, surely any man might make his mind a sanctuary.^
0 Thou upon whose bosom lay Those hearts made weary by the way
Of life's incessant care, My spirit too, with toil oppressed, Seeking in vain an earthly rest. Is driven dove-like to Thy breast.
And bid to nestle there.
It is not that I wish to lie Forgetful of the earth and sky, And hid from human ken :
1 would not prize, I would not crave A rest unconscious like the grave, Nor seek repose that could not brave
The wills and wants of men. ^ Lord Avebury, Peace and Ha.jypiiiess 346.
PSALM IV. 8 22 1
I seek Thy rest that I may find A stronger impulse to the mind,
And higher stretch of wing, Even as the lark more freely soars Because he hears the song he pours, And is impelled by music's oars
To work as well as sing.
Thou didst Thyself on earth recline Upon Thy Father's breast divine,
And rest on Him Thy will; And therefore it was given to Thee The mightiest of all souls to be, — To walk upon the stormy sea
And bid its waves be still.
If I am sheltered by Thy love, I shall not hurt by heaven above
The path of earth below ; But in my spirit's deep repose I shall be strong against my foes, And bear the thorn upon the rose,
Unmurmuring as I go.
If first upon the mountain height I see Thy radiance calm and bright
Before I seek the plain, With face illumined by the skies I'll go where the demoniac lies, And by Thy rest will soothe his cries,
And burst his iron chain.^
2. There is a resting of faith which is occasional.
(1) After long confusions and conflicts within, as to the true way of salvation, at last we see and apprehend it. Christ is all. He has made peace. He has brought in an everlasting righteous- ness. In Him God is well pleased. In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Can it be but that the soul, finding Him, should, for joy of that finding, rest and refresh itself, consciously, in the Lord ?
(2) Sometimes doubt returns. A book which has fallen in our way, the conversation of an unbeliever, something less
* G. Matheson, Sacred Songs, 134.
222 REST AFTER TOIL
palpable — a thought of unbelief, springing we know not whence within — has caused us new perplexity, new searchings of heart. What are we to think of Christ ? Art Thou He that should come ? or must we still look out, as of old, for some one who shall come — or perhaps never come — to be the Saviour of sinners and the Light of the world ? At last the clouds disperse, and we see above the brightness of the firmament a form like that of the Son of God in heaven. The clear shining after rain has been vouchsafed to us and faith has rest and is edified.
(3) So it is sometimes after great labour. We have under- taken some work which is all for God. Ashamed of the idleness and self-indulgence which has bo long bound and debased us; feeling the wickedness of such a return for the self-forgetting, self-sacrificing love of Christ ; seeing the days passing away, and nothing done, nothing even attempted, to bring Him one life, one soul, for His travail even unto death for us ; we did at last arouse ourselves by the help of prayer, and calling Him in went forth into the vineyard to bear something of the burden and heat of the day. The toil was at first difficult ; flesh and blood rebelled, Satan opposed, conscience misgave me; but I persevered; per- severed unto weariness; came back at late evening, faint and hungry ; but faith strengthened and brightened within me as I stood before the Lord to report to Him of my poor endeavours : I found Him nearer to me when I thus began to treat Him as a Person, as One who had work for me and would receive my reckoning ; that night I was able to say, as never before, " In peace will I both lay me down and sleep : For thou, Lord, alone makest me dwell in safety."