The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-08-03
A Vacation Meditation.
HOW DID JESUS REsT2
BY REV. CHARLES c. CONNER.

i
holds entirely the elements of the
topic, and 1 shall take no text this
morning, in keeping with my custom
of taking text only when it holds or
suggests what / shall preach.
1. We might ask in the outset
How did Jesus work? as suggesting
the first consideration. He worked
in the spirit, and found in his work,
to a certain extent, that refreshment
which man ordinarily seeks in cessa-
ton from toll.
The story of his life is that of a
busy career. There were the long
years of preparation. There are
eighteen silent years. But these are
only thick curtain which the biog-
rapher hangs, and with which hides
from view what our reason and imagi-
nation see as busy years. The Gimp
ses of the boy are few. In those we see
prophecy of the youth and the man.
When the man appears we know that
the way led through consecrated
youth, though it be hid from us. 1t
is as if we saw, with the natural eye,
some one advancing in certain di-
rection disappear behind an obstruc-
ton of vision and re-appear in line of
his advance which we had before
seen. We would know that he walked
purposefully and straightforwardly
on while unseen.
In manhood Jesus was nearly al
ways on active duty. He was always
on duty for he rested as duty. He
did not observe the Sabbath as
strictly as the Jews in general. To
his nation the Sabbath was day of
absolute rest. 1t was not lawful to
do good thereon. But Jesus judged
that he was Lord of the Sabbath, and
that he might do good when he stood
ready to do it and it ought to be
done. So he thought, too, with re-
gard to others, and excused or defend
ed his disciples against the censure
of the Pharisees when they sought
food in the field on the Sabbath.
He made reasonable use of the day.
He attended the synagogue service,
and waited upon and improved the
privileges of the hour of worship and
of thought. So far as he might, he
devoted the day, no doubt, to quiet.
But it was not day on which he
would lounge in mere idleness, or
rest, released from the labor of six
other days. He would use it as the
master, while himself would not be
used. 1t was for this reason that he
relieved distress and otherwise did
good on this day, being in touch with
man and his want.
He could not have so worked, he
could not have so held his life to &C.
tive duties, had he not worked in the
spirit and found measure of rest
and refreshment therein. He could
not have so worked had his soul not
been free from the restraints of i'm
perfection and skilled by preparation
for the will of God. How much man
can do when he works in the spirit!
How long may he work and not
weary! When the thought is in the
brain, when the truth lives in the
mind, the hand writes and the head
tires not. Truths task is being done
in the spirit. If, at another time, the
same thoughts are attempted. the
same truths are sought for express
sion, and mind must grasp yainly for
them, the head soon wearies and the
hand does little work, and has be-
come very tired, may be, in the at
tempt to do.
The work is not in the spirit, and
therefore fatigues. The mechanism
of it is burdensome. How much man
can do and not weary in the doing
when he has attained unto a degree
of expertness and tact in that to
which he devotes his powers! 1t is,
in a sense, true that WEAKNESS does
not come from action but from re-
straints put on action" or, rather,
from restraints which one finds in the
way and has not the ready power to
neutralize. A teacher of elocution
who was giving a drill in the Emer-
son system of physical culture at one
of our Pastors Conferences; said that
when one was just learning the exer-
cises he would expend three times the
strength necessary for the movements,
and would tire himself out at some
thing which would seem an easy play
with acquired skill. When one is
learning to write, he expends three or
four times the nervous and muscular
energy in a scrawl-like formation of
letters,-all his thought and energy
concentrated on the making of the
letters,-as another with training and
dexterity who may write the letters