The Ocala evening star. [volume] (Ocala, Fla.) 1895-1943, 1898-01-31
Rest in Life


heart as the breath of peace and
sweet contentment. But few
words have more meaning, or,
rather, more applications. The
labOrer, wearicd with the toll and
heat of the day, goes home at
night, task done, wage earned,
to wife and little ones, TO put his
strained muscles at ease. He
finds rest in cessation from toll.
One who has given the day to
ease and pleasure finds great
need Of change and gets rest in
sleep. Hunger and thirst afilict
the traveller in the wilderness,
and there is no rest for him until
he gets food and drink. In the
hospital lies a patient whose bones
have ached, whose pulse has
raced and whose flesh has burned
with fever day and night. He
finds rest in the flight of the
malady. The man Of business
has had great financial burdens
which he could not lay aside;
they have tormented his waking
and broken his sleeping hours.
Rest comes when he has passed
the crisis and met the obiiga tions.
The guilt Of a crime lies heavy
upon this mans conciencc; he is
troubled because he cannot es-
cape it. Life becomes a horror
to him. At last he confesses,
surrenders himself and, having
made restitution SO far as he can,
he has rest. The poor suicide
thinks there is rest only in ceas-
ing to be. Greece has been at
war. She staked her very eX-
istence on her defiance Of Turkey.
All her resources were strained
to meet the enemy which was far
too powerful for her. Her rest
comes with peace.
What, then, is rest: Is it ces-
sation from toll, or satisfaction
of hunger, or the coming of sleep,
or the return of health, or the
laying down of business burdens,
or confession of crime, or declara-
ton of peace, or death:
There is rest the desire for
which has a deeper hold on the
nature of man than any of these.
We are made with higher long
ings than the horse or the sheep,
which, having food and drink and
companionship Of their own kind,
are satisfied. Rest from toll and
all the burdens and Ills of life,
and even from life itself, does not
fill up the measure of our hopes
and aspirations. We believe in a
life continuous. At death we do
but cross stream to live forever
on the other side. God sends our
spirits and takes them again.
We are anxious; we must be anx-
ious to understand his purposes
and to fulfil the destiny he created
us for. When we are made to
see how far we have gone astray
and to what adverse fate we are
tending, there is and can be no
rest for us until we have found
our way back again. The desire
for this rest in God is likened in
the Bible to hunger and thirst,
to longing for sleep, for health,
for ceSSatio OF war, for life. 1t
is not Of supreme Importance that
the brief days we spend here
should be free from trouble, toll,
illness, hunger and thirst; or that
they should be heightened out;
but it is the one great object to
learn Gods will and conform our
lives to it, Not to know that
will means a blind conflict with
the Almighty; to know it and 10
defy it means the most unequal,
hopeless, terrible battle ever
wagcd. How can there be rest
when there is ga certain fearful
expectation of Judgment"
Rest IS the sweeter for the toll
or waking, the trouble or agony