^ When a man, by touching a button or turning a switch, causes an electric lamp, or a dozen or a hundred lamps, to flash into incandescence, it is plainly not from the switch or from the operator's finger that the light proceeds. By turning the switch
ST. MARK 183
he merely makes the necessary contact between the wire that serves the lamp and the source of power or illumination. And / to make the contact between the individual soul and the Divine ' source of all spiritual illumination is the purpose of a retreat, and in its degree of every sermon. Unless this contact is made and maintained, the soul will not be efficaciously enlightened.^
4. New Strength for New Service. — There is a nobler end for the Christian to realise than the leaving of the world for the sanctuary. It is the carrying of the sanctuary into the world. This is the great sacramental truth of the Christian life. " In the repose of a saintly spirit there is latent power " (John Caird, Spiritual Rest, p. 202). The presence by which you seemed in your retirement to be flooded, is the presence which shall go with you into the world. It is the ark of God which shall carry victory over the enemies, the real presence which transforms your very bodies into the temples of the living God, the light which will brighten and make clear your earthly path, the continual source of strength and nourishment, preparing you a table in the very midst of your enemies, a fountain of living water springing up within you to quench the battle thirst.^
^ The Greek word (avocTCivcng) translated " rest " — whose verb is employed in the text — means more than rest. It marks refreshment and recreation. It suggests that welcome and delightful change which, while it comes as a release from toil, makes it possible to labour afresh — refreshed. It is not mere repose, although this enters into the essence of the word, but refection ; rest, not sought in and for itself, as Aristotle {Nic. Eth. X. vi. 7, ov Irj reXog fj ccvavuvffig) shows, but rest, so that one may work the better.
^ Such seasons of leisure, let it be observed, are not the object of life. They are given to those who have been working, / and given to them that they may work again. " Come ye apart '^ into a desert place, and rest a while." The thronging importunity of the multitude soon broke in upon their quiet, and called them to fresh exertions. And though we had no command from Christ, "Son, go work to-day in my vineyard," and no such words as " Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest that he would thrust forth labourers into his harvest," yet the sight of the waiting fields all around might well break our repose. When we see sin and misery and sorrow, should we sit still — we who believe we have the healing word ? Be sure that only those have a right
* H. Luca8< * Aubrey L. Moore,
i84 THE GREAT TEXTS OF THE BIBLE
to a season of rest, and only those truly enjoy it, who have done real work, and who mean to go to work again. This world is not for enjoyment, not even for self-culture in the highest things, but for taking our part in it as God's fellow-workers, and as the followers of His Son who went about doing good.^
^ In former times, in the Highlands of our own country, the people regularly every summer left their homes in the valley, and went to live three or four months in the sheilings among the mountains. And during these three or four months they prepared, under the stimulus of the purer air and healthier and grander surroundings, enough cheese and butter to last them during the rest of the year, and to enable them to pay the rent of their holdings down in the valley. They enjoyed the freedom and novelty of this kind of life immensely ; and looked forward to it every year with the greatest eagerness. This custom gave rise to the most beautiful and inspiring songs of the people, and made them healthier and happier than they would otherwise have been.2
^ " I'd sooner ha' brewin' day and washin' day together than one o' these pleasurin' days. There's no work so tirin' as danglin' about an' starin' an' not rightly knowin' what you're goin' to do next ; and keepin' your face i' smilin' order like a grocer o' market-day for fear people shouldna think you civil enough. An' you've nothing to show for't when it's done, if it isn't a yallow face wi' eatin' things as disagree."*
Sweet is the pleasure
Itself cannot spoil! Is not true leisure
One with true toil ? That thou wouldst taste it,
Still do thy best; Use it, not waste it —
Else 'tis no rest.
Sweet is the pleasure
Itself cannot spoil ! Is not true leisure
One with true toil ? 'Tis loving and serving
The highest and best: 'Tis onwards, unswerving! —
And that is true rest.^
' John Ker. * Hugh Macmillan.
* Mrs. Foyser, in Adam Bede, i. 437. * John Sullivan Dwight.
Admiration or Adoration.
*«s
Literature.
Armstrong (J.), Parochial Sermons, 302.