It was whilst partaking of the chief Pharisee’s hospitality that another suffering man came under the notice of the Great Physician, and was healed, and sent away rejoicing on the Sabbath day. In like manner, the impotent man, who had been thirty-eight years helpless, was bidden to take up his bed and walk. With the command came the power to obey, and “the same day was the Sabbath.”
What have we learned from these glimpses of Jesus on the day of rest? Surely that it was a happy day which included attendance at public worship, the study of the Scriptures, the teaching of them to others, healthful outdoor exercise, indoor social intercourse, and the acceptance of hospitality, together with the instant seizure of every opportunity for good doing. There is no trace of gloom in connection with the Sabbaths of Jesus. So you and I, dear ones, when in God’s house, can say, “Coming here regularly, I follow Christ’s example.” If teaching the little ones of the flock, “My master taught in the synagogue. In my humble way I can pass on to those younger than myself the lessons He gave. I can work no miracle of healing, but, if the mind is in me that was in Christ, I can and I will make some poor sufferer’s Sunday the brighter for my presence and my help.”
If I am walking by the way, or a guest at the table of another, my conduct shall be in harmony with the day. I will neither act nor speak so that I should be ashamed to think, “My Master knows the thoughts of my heart, and has heard my words and seen my actions.”
We can do, or leave undone, many things in the home which will be helpful to the servants. We can save them trouble without any effort to ourselves, and thus give them a fair share of Sabbath privileges. It is sad when servants have to say “Sunday is the hardest day of the week to us,” yet this often happens, not because of necessary work, but owing to the indolence and self-indulgence of the family, and the extra labour entailed by many visitors. Believe me, only those can truly enjoy God’s gift of a day of rest who are His servants, and who have in them the spirit of love, which comes from Him Who “is love.” With it they will need no written rules. They will be a law to themselves. The Sabbath will be looked forward to with gladness as a day to be dedicated to God and our neighbour, by worship, good doing, occupation without toil or weariness, and happy intercourse with those we love. We shall not say, “I can make the fields my church, and worship the Creator in the midst of His works as well as I could under the roof of a cathedral.” We shall love to join with those who are gathered in His name and house, but we shall not on that account forget to praise Him when we walk by the way and discern Him in His works. We shall be glad to put the toils and cares of the workaday world as far out of sight and mind as possible, that Monday may find us strong and ready to bear the heat and burden of the six coming days.
I was once deeply touched by the words of a dear woman, a cottager’s wife, of whom it might be said she just “knew, but knew no more, her Bible true,” for she could read it, and that was all, and it was her one book. How real it was to her! How she dwelt on its messages of cheer and hope, and was gladdened as she spelled out the words of some sweet promise! How she revelled in Sunday as a gift that only those who toiled week in, week out, could fitly value! She would not have the worries of the other days intruding themselves upon the hours sacred to joy, and peace, and rest.
It happened that she and her husband had been passing through a time of trouble and anxiety. There had been sickness in the home, and this meant suspended work and wages, more need for money and less to meet it. The week-end saw them in sore straits for quite a little sum, and the thought of what might happen on the Monday, if it were not forthcoming, troubled the mother’s mind for a moment.
“But it was Sunday,” she said, when speaking of it afterwards, “and I wouldn’t have that spoiled. There was the rest day for us, whatever Monday might bring, and bread for so long, anyway. Every now and then I seemed to hear those words, ‘The Lord will provide,’ and I took the message and put the worry right out of my mind. I had got into a way of never asking for money or anything of that sort on Sundays, and I didn’t on that one. I just enjoyed it in the reg’lar way with my John and the children, and, though I did see a bit of a cloud on his face now and then, I never pretended to notice, but smiled back, and it went. I never slept better than I did that Sunday night.”
“And when Monday came?” I asked.
“Help came, in quite a nateral sort of way, as it seemed, through John’s old master. He said we had been on his mind all Sunday, and he’d brought us the loan of a sovereign. We could pay it back at sixpence a week, but there was no hurry. We must be a bit behindhand through John’s illness. The master was always just, but he was reckoned a hard man, and he went out of his way when he lent that sovereign. Didn’t my heart go up to God in thankfulness that Monday morning, and wasn’t I glad to tell my John, ‘He has provided.’”
I have always thought that this dear woman realised the privileges and preciousness of the Sabbath in a greater degree than anyone else I ever knew.