Beloved! this is our spirit’s deepest need. It is thus that we can learn to know God. It is thus that we receive spiritual refreshment and nutriment. It is thus that we are nourished and fed. It is thus that we receive the Living Bread. It is thus that our very bodies are healed, and our spirits drink in the life of our risen Lord, and we go forth to life’s conflicts and duties like the flower that has drunk in, through the shades of the night, the cool and crystal drops of dew. But the dew never falls on a stormy night, so the dews of His Grace never come to the restless soul.

We cannot go through life strong and fresh on constant express trains with ten minutes for lunch: we must have quiet hours, secret places of the Most High, times of waiting upon the Lord, when we renew our strength and learn to mount up on wings as eagles, and then come back to run and not be weary, and to walk and not faint.

The best thing about this stillness is that it gives God a chance to work.

“Anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from their works, just as God did from his” (Hebrews 4:10); and when we cease from our thoughts, God’s thoughts come into us; when we get still from our restless activity, “God . . . works in [us] to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13), and we have but to work it out.

Beloved! let us take His stillness! A. B. SIMPSON

Jesus, Deliverer, come Thou to me; Soothe Thou my voyaging, Over life’s sea!

Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, . . . they . . . rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.—There the wicked cease from troubling; and the weary be at rest.—Samuel said to Saul, Why hast thou disquieted me, to bring me up?

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest.—The dead praise not the Lord , neither any that go down into silence.

I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day.

There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God. For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.

They weary themselves to commit iniquity.—I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.—Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

He that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works.—Not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.—This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing.

Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction: . . . strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.—The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.—Labour not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you.—Give diligence to make your calling and election sure: . . . for so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.—So run, that ye may obtain. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a corruptible crown; but we an incorruptible.

For he that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works, as God did from his.—The Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light, and thy God thy glory.

The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.—Rest in the Lord .—He that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works.

Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace.—That . . . we be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.

I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.