Sistersville oil review. [volume] (Sistersville, W. Va.) 1896-1901, 1898-03-23

Promised TO All the Believers In Christ
Our Lord.

1eXC, hebrews 40. 1HSIS lS
naineth, therefore, rest for the
people of God"
Rest is one of the necessities OF
nature. Soil, from which comes SC
much of the vegetation necessary to
life, needs rest. The body needs
rest also. 1t is part of our consti'
tuition that if we overwork we need
to recuperate to regain strength and
power; so God has provided means
for the attainment of rest for the
body. The mind also needs rest. If
we overwork the mind, we need to
gain strength by resting the mind.
So, also, there is the need of soul
rest. The Psalmist had this before
him as he spoke of the returning
into its rest, and so it was in the
mind OF Christ when he addressed
men and asked them to come to
Him and find rest. Just as nature
needs rest the body needs rest, the
mind needs rest, so the soul needs
rest.
The Lord has given us so many
ways by which we may attain rest:
and in connection with the body
and mind. one of the best ways is
the Sabbath He has instituted-in-
stituted for the good of man. Then,
men should cherish it, should ap'
preciate its worth and should use
it with the idea of gaining rest for
his body and mind, as we'll as his
soul.
1t cannot be, then, that in a
Christian land we will throw away
the Sabbath day give it up to the
pleasures and work that weary the
body as we'll as the soul. On the
other hand, it must be that we shall
save this Sabbath from destruction,
and in this Sabbath day attain to
the rest God means for us to enjoy
We learn, also, from Scripture
that this Sabbath which we enjoy
here is simply beginning of the
eternal Sabbath of rest that remain
eth for the people of God And an
illustration taken from the weekly
Sabbath, is used by the Apostle,
turning the thoughts of men to the
eternal rest for Gods people.
1t is my purpose today to speak
of these thoughts in connection with
this rest.
The first thought is, it is prom
ised rest, yet none the less actual
for it's being a promised rest. If
God has promised His people rest,
His people shall surely enjoy that
rest. If God has given us to hope
tor eternal rest, as His people, we
certainly shall come into possession
Of that rest. And, we may take as
an illustration of this, the history
of Gods ancient people. God held
out to them Canaan as the land of
rest, to show them how it was to be
type Of the heavenly rest. And
just as surely as these ancient Isra-
elites came into the possession OF
Canaan, in due season, so Gods
people now, shall just as surely
come into possession Of their heav-
emily rest.
And, l think we may see the
certainty of this from the invitation
Christ gives to men, in inviting
them to be. his followers; he adj
dresses the weary and heavy laden,
that have no rest in their
WEAKNESS and heavy ladenness.
Christ looked out upon the working
work, with all that produces unrest
init, and gave the invitation: Come
unto me and 1 will give you rest.
l have no doubt that He thought
of the aspirations and the hopes of
men. There is hardly man that
starts out in life that does not look
forward to the time when he can
rest from labor; and there is not a
man on earth that starts out on his
daily toll that does not welcome the
night that brings cessation from it,
and this whole earth teaming with
activity and energy as it is, has as
its ideal the enjoyment of rest. And
our Saviour in the fullness of his
divinity and with the sincerity of
God himself gives the invitation to
men to "come and l will give you
rest" And he means not onlv soul
rest here, but eternal rest hereafter,
because l think that the sincerity
and truthfulness of Jesus Christ is
based upon this promise, l think
that God could not, in any sense,
have given the invitation unless
there was before him the thought