Old things need not be therefore true, 0 brother men, nor yet the new: Ah, still awhile the old retain. And yet consider it again!
Alas! the old world goes its way. And takes its truth from each new day; They do not quit, nor can retain, Far less consider it again.
3. It is necessary for the spirit. There are cases in which there may be a constant strain of active religious work which at last deadens feeling and produces formality. This is one of the dangers to be guarded against in seasons of strong religious excitement, in what are called revival movements ; and we should either try to keep the movement healthful by dealing with the understanding and conscience as well as the emotions, or we should interpose a quiet, thoughtful interval.
^ A few years ago I had a dear friend, who was, as the Apostle counsels, " diligent in business, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." He had a hand in every congregational agency and some outside. He was at every one's call for help or service. His evenings were all occupied with meetings of various kinds
174 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
or visiting his district. He used laughingly to say he never had a leisure hour. Once at a meeting the hymn was sung —
Take time to be holy, the world rushes on; Spend much time in secret, with Jesus alone,
and at the close he remarked, half -smilingly, half -sadly, "Well, however it may be with you, I have no time to be holy ! If I am to be holy it must just be through the hurry and pressure of daily life, with the help of such oddments of time as are at my disposal." Not long after, he was laid aside for some months, seriously ill. At first he fretted about his work, but soon he began to realise what it meant. The Lord was with him in the sick-room, giving him revelations of His abounding love. He had now got "time to be holy." When he returned among us again, all felt that he was changed. Some said that his illness had chastened and mellowed him. He said, " The good Lord saw that I had no leisure to eat bread, and He took me aside into a quiet place to rest a while. He was with me and blessed me there." ^
m
The Usb of Eetirement.
1. It is a remedy for the perplexities of life. — The disciples had just experienced the shock of a great sorrow. John the Baptist had been done to death. The deed had come upon them as an awful collision with their rosiest expectancies. The great Deliverer was near ; the Kingdom was at hand ; the Divine sovereignty was about to be established ; on the morrow He would be on the throne ! And yet, here was the pioneer of the Kingdom, in the very dawning of the victory, destroyed by the powers of the world. The disciples were stunned and bewildered. The world of their visions and imaginations tottered Hke a house of dreams. And it was in this season of mental confusion that our Lord called them apart to rest. The retirement will help them to realise the reality of the invisible, the immediacy of things not seen, and will place the things of time and the world in their proper place.
2. It is an escape from the distractions of life. — " There were
» W. T. Fleck,
ST. MARK 175
many coming and going." There is a strangely exciting interest about a multitude. It whips up the life to a most unhealthy speed and tension. And the peril is that we do not realise the intensity when we are in it. When we are on board ship we do not realise how noisy the engines have been until for a moment they cease. We are not conscious of the roar and haste of the trafl&c of Ludgate Hill until we turn aside into St. Paul's.1
^ Alike in the Church and in the world, a spirit of unrest has taken possession of all ranks and classes. It infects those whose hearts are surrendered to our Lord, and sends them hurrying from church to church ; from service to service ; from one form of philanthropy to another. It takes possession of the mere pleasure-seekers, so that their very amusements become a toil, as the sunken eyes and the wearied face reveal the utter exhaustion of a London season. And what shall I say of those who, from choice or from necessity, are toiling amid the teeming populations of our large cities? Work, work, work is the cry which day by day arises from the vast labour-fields of England. On and on the huge machine is ever moving ; one after another of the hands by which it is plied falls down exhausted; for a moment there is a pause, until the vacant place is filled; then onward again it moves, commencing afresh with redoubled vigour its never-ceasing whirl.*
^ Most people in London look tired. Look at the rush in our streets. A boy from the country once said to a friend of mine, " It looks as if a great many people were ill, and all the rest were rushing for the doctors." A fine description that! It was not only the rush that he saw, but the sadness too.^