The Grenada sentinel. [volume] (Grenada, Miss.) 1868-1955, 1902-07-26

encouraging to excuses and indulg-
ences which would never be thought
OF in the soberer moments. 1t is
robbing a privilege of it's wholesome
fruit, and is changing in the worlds
laboratory of opportunity, by the
chemistry of reckless human ingen-
uity, a blessing into a positive curse.
Here is where the warning note
wants to be struck. Here is where
Gods voice needs to be heard and
needed. Not a cry against vacation
rest, but against the unrest of the
age, which turns the Saturday half
holiday into a blighting influence and
the summertime outing into a pc
riod of unrestrained indulgence in
every within and caprice the self-in-
dulgent flesh bankers after. The
~perversion of the Saturday half-holi-
day is beginning to cast its miasmal
pail over the Lords day and is sap
ping the spiritual life and strength
of the disciples of Jesus Christ. And
to many it is proving the easy gate
way TO the downward road of self
indulgence and pleasure, and the
very threshold of hell. The modern
development of the vacation habit is
proving an allurement whose swift,
broad. current is yearly drawing its
thousands and hundreds of thousands
away from wholesome influences to
the distractions of summer resort
life and merely sensual indulgences.
The place to which our Lord led
His disciples for their vacation rest
was a quiet and restful spot, where
the beat of the heart of Nature
could be felt, and where God could
bless soul as well as body. To-day,
think you, He would lead to some of
the popular resorts and watering
places? Do you believe He would be
found with His disciples at many of
the pleasure places and root gardens,
and Sunday excursions and outings,
which to-day, are filling the land and
the world with their distractions?
Pleasure, such as the world can give,
and plenty of it., but not that body
and soul invigorating rest which
comes as a wholesome portion to him
who, following the bidding of the
Master, %withdraws with Him apart
into a desert place. Not desert in
the sense of a wilderness waste, but
a desert which is a stranger to the
whirl and allurements of the world
and where the voice of Nature can
be heard. Where one has time to
listen to the ''heavens declare the
glory of God" and the armament
shew forth His handiwork; where
day unto day may utter speech and
night unto night shew forth knowl-
edge. Not where gay companionshiI
is essential to happiness, but where
Bryant found the inspiration for his
lines:
ITO him who in the love of Nature holds
Communion with her visible FORMS, sh'
speaks
A various language
Vacation Purpose.-The man o,
Jesus parable, who heedlessly bull
his house upon the sand ecaus i
happened to be the most c~onvenlen
spot available at the time, was not les
wickedly careless than is he wit
thoughtlessly runs hither or thithe
on his vacation with no other purpos'
than that of going somewhere or do
ing something. in quest of recreation
and change and so-called rest. III
vacation should be definitely purpose
full. Three elements are discernible il
the purpose of II Lord in providin!
an outing for His weary disciples
Primarily it was that they might oh
tain much-needed rest. But as tn
/, events of that short vacation rapid,
, unfold under the quick pen of Marx
r we find that Jesus sought to lead Hi
, disciples thoughts away from tn
I things of men to the things of Coo
to help them to know Nature and Ma
lures God better, and to feel the puisa
tion and throb of Gods almight
, arm as it reaches out to shelter an
protect and feed a needy world. An
= lastly, He wanted them to learn tina
the most perfect rest was to be foun
I in a new and enlarged service. An
without these three elements, vacs
ton plans are lacking and fail to pre-
n vide adequately for the weary body an
Z needy soul. Rest for the body, ell
largement for the soul and new char
+ nels of service-where these three col
o. ditions can be best realized, there
n where the Lord is calling you apart I
d rest awhile.
r Rest for the Body.-It is interestin
f! to note that the disciples we're so il
terested in the work in which the
e had been engaged as apparently to
IS unconscious of their bodily needs u
It til Christ said unto them: Come
IS yourselves apart into a desert plac
l. and rest awhile" How blessed
n would be if to-day Jesus disciples wei
so e~ngrossed in the Masters bushes,
There would not be so much self-plaI
ming weeks and months ahead as to IL
h summer outing, if such were the cas-
To-day Christian people have hard
e returned from one outing and TAKE
IS up the dropped work before the
); heads are full of plans for futu
s rest and recreation, and they 6
ready to let go again. Keep busy
Is the work of the Lord; don't think