Come Apart And Rest A While

Repose is as needful to the mind as sleep to the body. Our Sabbaths are our days of toil, and if we do not rest upon some other day we shall break down. Even the earth must lie fallow and have her Sabbaths, and so must we. Hence the wisdom and compassion of our Lord, when he said to his disciples, "Let us go into the desert and rest a while."

What! when the people are fainting? When the multitudes are like sheep upon the mountains without a shepherd? Does Jesus talk of rest? When Scribes and Pharisees, like grievous wolves, are rending the flock, does he take his followers on an excursion into a quiet resting place?

Does some red-hot zealot denounce such atrocious forgetfulness of present and pressing demands? Let him rave in his folly. The Master knows better than to exhaust his servants and quench the light of Israel. Rest time is not waste time. It is economy to gather fresh strength.

From "Lectures To My Students," by Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Image by Nicholas A. Tonelli on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

Setting out on a good errand

Now-a-days we are willing to testify if we can do it very comfortably; but I love to hear of those good brethren who will walk many miles on the Sabbath day to preach the gospel, who are willing to sacrifice ease and comfort so that they may do good to others, just as these did.

Oh, for more enthusiasm in telling of the Savior’s love and hearing of it! We want nice cushions and very comfortable pews, don’t we now-a-days? When we were first converted we would stand anywhere in the crowd, if we could but hear the Savior’s name. I remember when I would have gone over hedge and ditch to hear about my Master, or to preach about him either. May our earnest love to him never grow cold, and our enthusiasm never depart. May a midnight’s walk be nothing to us if we may but declare even to unbelieving brethren what we have seen of our blessed Lord. It is a good message, and it is a good errand to go upon, when we go to tell of Jesus, and it will bring good to our own souls.

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Jesus Near But Unrecognised." Image by Geof Wilson on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

We need our Sabbaths

Ah, brethren, this age is an age of care. We live too fast by half, we do too much and accomplish, therefore, too little. Our good sires could afford time for lengthened family devotions of a character which seem impossible to us. They could listen to sermons which would altogether tire us, and snap the bands of our patience, because their minds wore of a more solid order and their lives were vexed with fewer cares. We are all hack and hurry, we ride the whirlwind, we are scarcely satisfied with the speed of lightning. Now, Christian people cannot rush at this pace without serious injury to themselves unless they often refresh themselves with the comforts of God.

The Sabbath day is the great safeguard for the sanity of merchants and business men, and those who break the Sabbath to bring business cares into the one day in seven act a suicidal part. If oftener in the other six days Christian men would get alone with God, pour out their hearts before him, tell him their cares, and unveil to him their souls, they would have more ease of mind, be more strong for the struggle of life, and less likely to fail through an over-wrought brain. “In the multitude of my thoughts within me thy comforts delight my soul.”

The Londoners in the olden times went into the fields on May Day morning to bathe their faces in the dew, for they thought it made them fair; I would that every morning we bathed our faces in the dew of heaven, so should we be comelier to look upon when mingling with men in the business of the day. If every night before we went to sleep we dipped our foot in the ocean of divine love our sleep would be more sweet to us, and care would not corrode and eat into the heart and even into the bodily constitution, as I fear it does in a great number of cases in this weary age. Get away to your God, O Christian!

From a sermon by Charles Haddon Spurgeon entitled "Medicine For The Distracted," delivered June 8, 1873. Image by Steve-h on Flickr under Creative Commons License.

A day of rest

You know what Solomon says. He says — “If the iron be blunt, and he do not whet the edge, then must he put to more strength: but wisdom is profitable to direct;” by which he means to say, if the man would stop and whet his tool, it would be sharp, and he would not need to expend half the strength, while he would do far more work. But here you have some who think the Sunday must be all work, work, work; instead of which, if they were to stop to whet the edge of the tool, they would do far more in the end, while their soul would not be half so soon worn out.

You have heard persons say, “I would sooner wear out than rust out.” There is no occasion for either, if we would but keep this day of rest as a perfect rest to our heart and soul; but that we can never do unless we love Christ, for a Sabbath is an impossibility to an unconverted man. If we would but, as Christians resting in Christ, keep this first day of rest, giving our souls thorough ease, there would be no fear of the brain giving way, we should labor on, even to a good old age, and then die in peace, and our works would follow us. I cannot expect you to believe me if I should say, you can carry on your business all the days of the week without care, without diligence, without very earnest thought. We must be “diligent in business,” and you must put both your hands to the wheel, if you would make it go. But do leave the wheel alone to-day.

From a sermon entitled "Abram And The Ravenous Birds ," delivered November 24, 1861. Flickr photo by John Haslam; some rights reserved.