The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1874-07-01
REST.

There is no feeling more common, per
haps, than that of having no time to rest
In the busy lives of those who are, in an.
sense of the word, workers. especially IL
our own land, where everything consplres t.
quicken our nervous energies to the utmost
there seems to be little room for repose.-
From years end to years end, with the ex
ception of an occasional day, or fortnigh
in the summer, hand and brain keep on, do
ing their utmost, till by aud by health wanes
mental prostration ensueS, or in some way
nature makes its reprisals. The brilliant
student who carries off the prizes in the
school examinations not unfrequently misses
them in the sterner competitions of life.-
The oVerworked professional men dies oi
exhaustion midway to the summit of success
The merchant who pours his very life into
profit and loss, and balances his accounts in
his dreams, falls victim to paralysis or ap
oplexy. 81 can not take time to sleep,
says the ambitious toiler, pressing on to the
goal and the crown of the future, needless
of the day when he shall seek sleep, and find
it flying from his pillow. Overtasked faith
ers and mothers set to their chidren-in-
heritors of their own excited brains and un-
certain nerves--examples of fretfuluesS and
impatience In arly-lined brows and early
fading bloom we see the effects of too much
hurry, too little rest.
God sometimes sends an enforced pause. "
1t comes in the shape of trouble, and fever,
an unforeseen journey sperhaps-what we
call an accident-and we are taken out of
our ordinary lives and obliged to stop. From
the confines of the sick room the world re-
cedes. The cares that loomed so large to
our sight yesterday seem to have gone away
indefinitely. The things that we thought
nobody else could do must be done by some
body, and it seems to US strange that We
felt ourselves so important. Our vacation
has come--not the one We wanted, or planned
for, or intended, but the best for US, be-
cause God has put it into our lives-and he
makes no mistakes There are fathers who
would-strange as it may seem, and wrong
as it is-never get acquainted with much but
their children's faces, if they were not now
and then kept at home for few days by
illness. There are mothers who, in their
anxiety for their children's dress and deport-
ment and culture, lose sight of the souls that
they possess, till some sharp wind of sorrow
blows the mists from their eyes, and they
feel that " the life is more than meat and
the body than raiment." In hours of con-
valescence the Book is read that has been
awaiting an interval of leisure the song is
listened to that the little daughter has learn
ed at school; the buds on the rose bush in
the window are counted and exulted over
something kind and sweet is planned to be
done for the neigh6or over the way. Not
in vain has the Lord sent his pause into the
whirl and the hurry and the tumult in which
the hours and days were passing.
If we could, for ourselves, recognize tht
fact that, to work well, we must rest well
we should save ourselves the necessity oI
many an hour of pain. One of the meretrici
GUS phrases that has wrought mischief with
many of us is that familiar one, "Bettel
wear out than rust out" If there were any
real antithesis involved here-if one, no
wearing out, must needs rust, and become
useess-there might be sense in words lik
these But the fact is, that half of us wea
out before we have done any real earneS
work, and some of US rust even while we ar
trying to do our best. We shall most trul.
serve our Master when we are physically AM
mentally at our best. And therefore W
ought to secure every day, even the mos
intensely active days, some little COLDER
space for solitude and leisure.
Of one, whose gifted sons and daug ghter
have stamped their impress upon their gene
ration, it is said that, even when most occu
pied with the crowding cares of minister
wife in country parish, with the superin
tendence of school for young ladies, an
the duties that fill a mothers heart an
hands, she found time every morning for he
hour in the little chamber upstairs, whenc
she would come with brow shining wit
the peace of God. How often do we, wh
have less to do, abbreviate our moments {
devotion, and so wear our days with ragge
edges, and miss the glory of Gods sun-ligl
from our hearts, Keeping the vineyards
others, the refrain beats sadly on the ca
"'M Mine own vineyard have | not kept ;
not because was too idle, but because
tried to be too busy" Let US rememb'
that God himself has put dignity upon re
that he has made it the joy of the heavt
we hope for; and let US not chafe or be il
patient when he enforces it on US now.-
N. b. s., IN Sunday Teachers Treasu,
The DAYS OF DARKNESS COME, and tn,
are many, but our eye takes in only the 6ri
One wave hides another, and the efo
, to encounter the foremost withdraws o.
thought from evils which are pressing on
If we could see them all at once we might
down, like Elijah, under the juniper tree, al
y li i. - A.A..l L. 80 ..o4 l;uo D