^ The wholesome and happy holiday should have its own proper occupation. As William Cowper sings —
'Tis easy to resign a toilsome place. But not to manage leisure with a grace; Absence of occupation is not rest, A mind quite vacant is a mind distressed. * G. H. Morrison. ST. MARK — 12
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And Pascal, throwing all his power and passion into this subject; says : — " Nothing is so insupportable to man as to be completely idle. For he then feels all his nothingness, all his loneliness, all his insufficiency, all his weakness, all his emptiness. At once in his idleness, and from the deeps of his soul, there will arise weariness, gloom, sadness, vexation, disappointment, despair." ^
^ What was the method of Solomon with the men who were engaged in building the Temple ? They worked two months in Jerusalem, and then they were sent for a month to Lebanon to hew down cedars and quarry marbles. Among the mountains of Lebanon they would breathe fresh air, see grand sights, inhale the fragrance of the cedar forests, which had a wonderful healing power in them; and with new strength and vigour, inspired by their new surroundings, they would prepare in one month sufficient materials to last them for their work — in shaping the walls and partitions and roofs of the Temple — during their two months' residence in the city.^
2. In Communion with Nature.
Christ invites His disciples into a " desert place," not a waste sandy desert, as many figure to themselves, but a thinly peopled region away from towns and crowds. There can be no doubt that it was to the country east of the Sea of Galilee, among rolling hills and grassy plains and quiet mountain flocks, with the blue sky overhead and distant glimpses of the deeper blue of the lake. Christ knew every nook among the hills. He had wandered among them since He was a boy. Where the grass was greenest He had dreamed His dreams, and read the writing of His Father's hand. And now, looking upon His wearied twelve, He thought of one choice spot He had long loved, and He said, " Come ye apart and rest a while." For Him, there had been rest in nature. For them, there was to be rest in nature. Taught by the breeze, the mountain, and the stream, they were to come to their true selves again. They were to bathe in that deep and mighty silence that spreads itself out beyond the noise of man. They were to let the peace of lonely places sink with benediction on their souls.
Hackneyed in business, wearied at the oar. Which thousands, once fast chained to quit no more, The statesman, lawyer, merchant, man of trade, Pant for the refuge of some rural shade,
' A. Whyte. 2 Hugh Macmillan.
ST. MARK 179
For regions where, in spite of sin and woe,
Traces of Eden are still seen below,
Where mountain, river, forest, field, and grove,
Eemind him of his Maker's power and love.
To them the deep recess of dusky groves,
Or forest where the deer securely roves,
The fall of waters, and the song of birds,
And hills that echo to the distant herds.
Are luxuries excelling all the glare
The world can boast, and her chief favourites share.^
3. In Intercourse with Men and Books.
The wish to cultivate a life of repose separated from the active world has shown itself in almost every religion. There is a yearning for it in certain natures ; and if the state of society be very corrupt, and the mind quiet and self-inspective, it becomes very strong. We know how early and how often it has shown itself in Christianity. It is many centuries since the monks of Egypt hid themselves among the dreary sands of the Thebaid ; and the most lonely islands of the Hebrides have the cells still standing in which solitary recluses, who found lona too social, sought to perfect their spiritual life. Perhaps most of us have felt times of weariness of the toil and temptation and strife, when we have thought that if we might reach some isolation of this kind we could become wiser and better. And yet few things have been more repeatedly proved by experience than that tranquillity of spirit is not to be attained in this way. The very austerities and penances that these men practised is one of the surest tokens that they had not gained quiet. They had to do battle with their own hearts, and the conflict was all the fiercer that it was a single combat. There are times when complete retirement for prayer and heart communion is good for every one. He can never stand firmly among others who has not learned to be alone ; but the retirement should never shut out thoughts of one's fellow-men, and should prepare for renewed intercourse with them. When Christ invited His disciples to come apart into a desert place, it was that they might be more in each other's company. He wished to give them an oppor- tunity for the quiet interchange of experience which they could not enjoy in their work among the multitude. * Oowper, RelirtmefU,
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^ Good books are as necessary for the healthy mind on a holi- day as good bread is necessary for the healthy body. And a wise and experienced holiday-maker will no more neglect to go to the bookseller than he will neglect to go to the baker. And what an intense delight are good books, new and old, on an autumn hoHday ! New books that we have not had time to read in the city, and old books that we want to read over and over again, as Jowett read Boswell for the fiftieth time, and as Spurgeon read Bunyan for the hundredth time ; the best novel of the year, the best poem, the best biography, the best book of travels, or science, or philosophy, or of learned or experienced religion; and old books — our old Shakespeare, and Bacon, and Hooker, and Milton, and Bunyan, and Butler. It is only well-experienced and wary holiday-makers who can tell to new beginners what memorable summer mornings and summer evenings can be spent in the society of such old and long-tried friends as these. ^