that could ruffle the surface of His spirit.
Such living, as mere living, is altogether unique. It is only
when we see what it was in Him that we can know what the word Rest
means. It lies not in emotions, or in the absence of emotions.
It is not a hallowed feeling that comes over us in church. It is
not something that the preacher has in his voice. It is not in
nature, or in poetry, or in music--though in all these there is
soothing. It is the mind at leisure from itself. It is the perfect
poise of the soul; the absolute adjustment of the inward man to
the stress of all outward things; the preparedness against every
emergency; the stability of assured convictions; the eternal calm
of an invulnerable faith; the repose of a heart set deep in God.
It is the mood of the man who says, with Browning, "God's in His
Heaven, all's well with the world."
Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception
of rest. The first chose for his scene a still lone lake among
the far-off mountains. The second threw on his canvas a thundering
waterfall, with a fragile birch-tree bending over the foam; at the
fork of a branch, almost wet with the cataract's spray, a robin
sat on its nest. The first was only STAGNATION; the last was REST.
For in Rest there are always two elements--tranquility and energy;
silence and turbulence; creation and destruction; fearlessness and
fearfulness. This it was in Christ.
It is quite plain from all this that whatever else He claimed to
be or to do, He at least
Knew how to live.
All this is the perfection of living, of living in the mere sense
of passing through the world in the best way. Hence His anxiety to
communicate His idea of life to others. He came, He said, to give
men life, true life, a more abundant life than they were living; "the
life," as the fine phrase in the Revised Version has it, "that is
life indeed." This is what He Himself possessed, and it was this
which He offers to mankind. And hence His direct appeal for all
to come to Him who had not made much of life, who were weary and
heavy-laden. These He would teach His secret. They, also, should
know "the life that is life indeed."