What a delightful word “rest” is! It has so many meanings in everyday use, and in the Bible also; and all of them are suggestive of benefit and good to soul, mind, and body. Glance for instance at Psalm cxvi., and you will find a picture of one who had “found trouble and sorrow,” and been full of fears and anxieties; but he had gone with crying and prayers to God, who heard and answered. So, bursting into a hymn of gratitude and triumph, he exclaims—
“I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. I was brought low, and He helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.”
Here, my dear ones, you see that rest means the calm confidence in God which brings the soul a peace which passeth all understanding. This is the rest which Jesus linked with those sweetly familiar words of invitation so often quoted: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”
This rest means “peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ,” which those who love and trust in Him enjoy even in this troublesome world. With this soul restfulness all the trials of life lose much of their keenness; without it they pierce more deeply and are doubly hard to bear. Yet there are so many worries and anxieties in daily life to give us unquiet minds. Even when our own paths are fairly smooth, we often have uneasy minds and sleepless nights on account of those we love, or we are harassed by mental visions of coming evil, till we are ready to cry, as David did, “O that I had wings like a dove! for then would I flee away and be at rest.”
A little later, in the same Psalm, comes the remedy: “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.”
From Psalmist, Apostle, and, better than all, from the lips of Jesus Himself, we receive unfailing guidance to the one source of rest, both for troubled souls and disquieted minds. When all the world fails us, let us, my dear ones, try to remember that He is faithful Who promised, “I will give you rest.”
Then there are these poor frail bodies of ours that have to bear weariness and the pain which makes the rest they cry out for impossible. How many of us have felt our utter helplessness at the sight of suffering which we could not relieve, though we would gladly have borne it for a while in order to purchase an interval of rest for one we loved?
One of you, who asked that the subject of “Rest” might be considered at a Twilight gathering, told me that she was an invalid, crippled with sciatica and muscular rheumatism, only able to move from place to place by means of a wheeled chair, seldom free from pain, and sleeping but little. Yet she was able to show me that her mind was active in planning for the good of others, and that her thoughts shaped themselves into songs of thankfulness and longings for a more complete submission to God’s will. So, as I read, I said to myself, “Thank God for this record! Though it tells of pain, it also tells of patience. The body suffers, and the burden is a heavy one; but it is borne by means of God-given strength, and ‘There is a rest that remaineth’ for His people.”
When this world, with its sorrow, suffering, trouble, and weariness, shall have passed away they shall find eternal rest in the Father’s home above. “And God shall wipe away all tears from their faces, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.”
“Rest comes at length; though life be long and dreary,