The Rest of Faith [pp. 454-457]

74 HE LADiES' REPOSITOR Y.
supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God, and the peace
of God, xNwhichl passethl all undclerstanding, shall
keep ) our hlearts and minds tlhrough Jesus
Christ."
The Lord Christ said, "Come unto me all ye
that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me, for I am meek and lowxly in heart, and
e shlall find rest unto your souls." In Christ
we can rest from all care about the hereafter.
"WVe know whom we have believed, and that
he is able to keep that which we have committed unto h)im." No one can pluck us out of
his hand. As long, as we submit and trust, the
best we can, any doubt about the future would
be doubt of his love or power. We may rest
from care about our present state. Our lives,
as we look back over them, may seem a patchwork of mistakes and failures, yet, if we now
submit and trust to the limit of our knowledgewhlichl is the limit of our responsibility-we are
perfectly saved and perfectly safe. The Savior
so hates sin, hle so resolutely purposes to fit lhis
children for their home of holiness, that if lhe
gets control of us hle will surely washl us in his
on cleansing blood.
We may rest fiom all temporal care. He
has talken pains to tell us that hle cares for
oxen, feeds the ravens, notices each sparrow,
clothes thle grass, and counts our hlairs; will lhe
not surely care for us? He will even attend to
our culture of mind and spirit. He does not
rest Ni,th hlaving things merely live and grow.
He makes them wondrously beautiful. He
paints gorgeous sunsets that glow an hour and
fadcle out in darkness; will hle not see to it that
our souls grow in symmetr-y and beauty?
WVe may rest fi-om care about our usefulness.
A good general makes the most of his soldiers.
A good master keeps his servants busy at wlhat
is most pr ofitable to him. Our Father will
make the very most possible of each of us if lhe
once gets us in hand. To doubt this is to
doubt his wisdom or his purpose to save the
w orld.
Tlhe rest that Jesus died to purchase for his
clhildren is not a rest of inaction. This is
one of the paradoxes with wxhich our faith is
crowded. We never work better than wvhen xe
are perfectly at rest, because, having ceased
from our oxn xxorks, xe understand that it is
God that xxorketh in us to xwill and to do of his
oxvn good pleasure. As we are never so fully
alive as xhenx we are dead and our life hid with
Christ in God, so xxe never do so resolutely and
successfully as wxhen we "lay the deadly doing
down" and let Jesus do it all. In this rest the
soul is like an ocean steamer running before a
good wind, sails full, all steami on, no countercurrents or swaying gales, the internal enginery
worlking its best, a force without helping on
toward port.
If God's gr-ace is sufficient, if Christ's atonement is not a failLure, a fearful price for a
small salvation, if "all thing,s are ours, and we
Christ's, and Christ is God's," if we may really
be complete in him, then this rest of soul is not
a fine fancy, not a Utopian dream, but a glorious possibility. The mode of its attainment is
given in its definition-thle rest of faith. Faithl
is the medium of salvation. It is clone to us
"according to our faith" as surely as to those
lwho came to the Master xwhen hle was on earth
in person. It is impossible to explain how an
intense thinlkiing about the crucified Son of
God, his love, and powver, and present action
in our belhalf, wllen wxe have given up all hope
of self-help-it is impossible to explain how tlhis
trust makes the sin that wearies and the cares
that lharry slip firom us, leaving us pIure and
peaceable, clean and at rest, our souls anchored
to his infinite calmness. "Without controversy,
great is thle mystery;" yet we accept it on the
authority of the Wordcl, and, testiing it, we do
find rest to our souls.
The results of this rest are glorious. It
helps the physical life. Thlere is nothing bI)etter for poor dig,,estion or weak nerves. We find
tlhis entry in Wesley's journal: "June 28thll I
entered the eiglhty-thlird year of my age. I ami
a Nxoncler to myself. It is now twelve years
since I lhave felt any such sensation as xveai-iness. I am never tir-ed-suchl is the goodness
of Gocl!-eithler xxi tlh wiriting, preaclhing, or
traveling."
In thlis rest one is just ready to enjoy. Howv
few people enjoy religion! A lady asked lher
husband, "Now, do you really believe, after all,
I enjoy relig,-ion?" " Whyl, no, I can't say I
tllink yon do. You are a Christian, ILut you let
Satan woiri,y you out of most of the enjoyment
of the thing." How few knoxv "the joy that is
unutterabl)e and full of glory!" How few "rejoice evermore and in every thing give thanks!"
All the wveek in a financial struggle, all Sunday
trying to arouse in themselves sufficient religious emotion to make them feel sure that they
will "finally outride the storms of life and land
their xeary souls in heaven!" So little of the
ring of perpetual triumph, so little of being
"more than conqueror in their utterances, andd,
sacldest of all, so few souls rescued through
their efforts firom the bondage of hell!
This rest fits us to grow. If an acorn gets
a start upward it will growx, even firom under a
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