Peace within makes peace without. Where there is no dis- turbance in the heart, there can be none in the billows, there can be none in the storm. These may wanton furiously. Their wild sport may threaten shipwreck to the vessel. But God's sleep can exist amid them. It can hold in sweet oblivion the untroubled soul. And herein lies its chiefest virtue, its most refreshing use. Among storms and billows it is that the righteous man obtains the full blessedness of sleep. He cannot escape the troubles of life ; they are part of the heritage of humanity. He is not exempt from business cares. He can claim no immunity from disaster and defeat. But in all perplexities and all distresses he enjoys the inestimable blessing of a quiet conscience at peace with man, at peace with God. And this will give him rest, refreshment, repose. After the longest and weariest day, he can lie down and lose all painful recollections in the untroubled atmosphere of sleep. For weary heads and aching hearts there is no remedy like this.
^ How beautifully has the sleep of one at peace with God been represented in a well-known modern picture. The amphitheatre is crowded by a fierce and eager throng ; tier after tier is lined with the cruel faces of those who have come there to see the Christian martyr torn to pieces by savage beasts. The arena is prepared. The hungry tiger leaps with impatient roar at the bars
PSALM cxxvii. 2 99
of his cage, thirsting for blood. A slave pushes back the doors of the cell where lies the man doomed to death for his adherence to Christ, that he may come forth, and with his dying agonies make sport for the emperor, his court and the people. And what do you see there, as the door opens, and the cell of the martyr is disclosed ? A youth sleeping peacefully, with the symbol of his faith clasped to his heart, and heaven's own sunshine resting on his face ; for all is well between him and God. The death which he knew last night was to be met to-day has no terrors for him ; he has made it " Christ to live," and shall find it " gain to die." Looking on that scene, we have a comment on the inspired verse, " Even so he giveth unto his beloved sleep." ^
^ Eemember the last moments of a noble Scottish Covenanter, the Earl of Argyle — son of the Great Marquis — who was beheaded in 1685. An officer of State came to see him an hour before his execution, and found that he was taking his usual after-dinner sleep. The officer rushed home in a highly excited state, exclaim- ing, " Argyle within an hour of eternity, and sleeping as pleasantly as a child! "2
3. For the enjoyment of this deeper gift, as of the nightly rest, we must put ourselves in the way of it. We have to prepare a welcome for it. We have to let ourselves sleep. We cease from self; we resign responsibility for ourselves; we pass into God's hands. We are content to do His will and to wait His will. We are sure that His will, whatever it may be, is our true good. We trust a love and wisdom and might infinitely better than our own. Hence a peace that passeth all understanding — no care, no fear, no duty too hard, no trial too sore, death no longer a foe and judgment a welcome ! Even God — the Giving God — could give His beloved no more ; for bliss itself shall be but this same peace free from all dispeace and made fully aware of itself.
•[j Martyrs, confessors, and saints have tasted this rest, and counted themselves happy in that they endured. A countless host of God's faithful servants have drunk deeply of it amid the daily burden of a weary life — dull, commonplace, painful, or desolate. All that God has been to them, He is ready to be to you ; He only asks that you should seek no other rest save in Him. It is a rest which has never failed those who honestly sought it. The heart once fairly given to God, with a clear
^ Canon Bell, The Name above every Name, 237. ' C. Jerdan, Messages to the Children, 198.
loo THE GIFTS OF SLEEP
conscience, a fitting rule of life, and a steadfast purpose of obedience, you will find a wonderful sense of rest coming over you. What once fretted you ceases to do so ; former unworthy exciting pleasures cease to attract you. No miser ever so feared to lose his treasure as the faithful soul fears to lose this rest when once tasted. Such words may seem exaggeration to those who have not tried it ; but the saints will tell you otherwise. St, Paul will tell you of a peace which passeth understanding ; Jesus Christ tells you of His peace which the world can neither give nor take away, because it is God's gift only. Such peace may undergo many an assault, but it will but be confirmed thereby, and rise above all that would trouble it. He who has tasted it would not give it in exchange for all this life can give ; and death is to him a passage from this rest to that of eternity.^