2. The rest of God, so far from being inactivity, is full of work. When Christ was telling these Jews the principles of the Sabbath day, He said to them : " My Father worketh hitherto, and I work." The creative act is finished and God rests ; but God, in resting, works ; even as God, in working, rests. Preservation is a continued creation. The energy of the Divine power is as mightily at work here now sustaining us in life as it was when He flung forth stars and systems like sparks from a forge, and willed the universe into being. God rests ; and in His rest, up to the present hour and for ever, God works. True, He is not now sending forth, so far as we know, suns, or systems, or fresh types of being. But His power is ever at work, repairing, renewing, and sustaining the fabric of the vast machinery of the universe. !N"o sparrow falls to the ground without Him. The cry of the young lion and the lowing of the oxen in the pastures attract His instant regard. " In Him all things consist."
3. God's rest is thus the pattern and pledge of man's rest. And when we turn to that marvellous apocalypse of the past \vhich
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in so many respects answers to the apocalypse of the future given us by the Apostle John, we find that, whereas we are expressly told of the evening and morning of each of the other days of creation, there is no reference to the dawn or close of God's rest-day; and we are left to infer that it is impervious to time, independent of duration, unlimited, and eternal ; that the ages of human story are but hours in the rest-day of Jehovah ; and that, in point of fact, we spend our years in the Sabbath-keeping of God. But, better than all, it would appear that we are invited to enter into it and share it ; as a child living by the placid waters of a vast fresh-water lake may dip into them its cup, and drink and drink again, without making any appreciable diminution of its volume or ripple on its expanse.
It is true we cannot possess that changeless tranquillity which knows no variations of purpose or of desire, but we can possess the stable repose of that fixed nature which knows one object, and one alone. We cannot possess that energy which, after all work, is fresh and unbroken ; but we can possess that tranquillity which in all toil is not troubled, and after all work is ready for double service. We cannot possess that unwavering fire of a Divine nature which burns in love without flickering, which knows without learning, which wills without irresolution and without the act of decision ; but we can come to love deeply, tranquilly, perpetually ; we can come to know without questioning, without doubts, without darkness, in firm confidence of stable assurance, and so know with something like the knowledge of Him who knows things as they are ; and we can come to will and resolve so strongly, so fixedly, so wisely, that there shall be no change of purpose or any vacillation of desire. In these ways, in shadow and copy, we can be like even the apparently incommunicable tranquillity which, like an atmosphere that knows no tempests, belongs to and encircles the throne of God.
^ I hear a troubled soul say, " Is it possible that I may be so delivered that the peace of God shall keep me amid sorrows, evils, and injustice ? " Many of God's children do not know how much there is for them in the new covenant. There is a reserve in the trust of many — they trust their souls but not their bodies; for eternal safety but not for temporal things ; for the past and for heaven. All their difficulty has reference to that short space
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between. If they could only put in God's hands the piece that lies between ! A wonderful deliverance ! Sorrow and worry are found in two things, — not getting your own way, and fear of futurity. A man said he had in life suffered from many troubles, but most of them never came ! We must have confidence in our Father's care and love. What a relief to your poor heart; no care, no worry ! "He that believe th shall not make haste." Is it possible ? Yes : you may have it ; may now enter in. A little child is lost in a forest ; at last his father finds him and takes him by the hand. He finds rest from anxiety before he gets home — anxiety about the way home. His mind is full of other things ; he has rest from the moment he puts his hand in his father's. Put yours in your Father's, and you shall have rest — in difficulties, in trials, nothing, nothing can work evil for you.^
^ The Apostle clearly and largely proves unto them : That it is the end of all ceremonies and shadows to direct them to Jesus Christ the substance, and that the rest of Sabbaths and Canaan should teach them to look for a further rest, which indeed is their happiness. My text is his conclusion after divers arguments to that end, a conclusion so useful to a believer, as containing the ground of all his comforts, the end of all his duty and sufferings, the life and sum of all Gospel promises and Christian privileges, that you may easily be satisfied why I have made it the subject of my present discourse. What more welcome to men under personal afflictions, tiring duty, successions of sufferings, than rest ! What more welcome news to men under public calamities, unpleasing employments, plundering losses, sad tidings, etc. (which is the common case), than this of rest ! Hearers, I pray God your attention, intention of spirit, entertainment and improve- ment of it, be but half answerable to the verity, necessity, and excellency of this subject : and then you will have cause to bless God while you live that ever you heard it ; as I have, that ever I studied it.^