Deuteronomy 12:9

"Handfuls of Purpose"

For All Gleaners

"For ye art not as yet come to the rest." Deu 12:9

Still, it is of infinite value to the soul to know that there is a rest. A man is helped through the week by knowing that he is coming to a period when labour will be suspended, and quietness will be at least rendered possible. If we are stimulated by beginnings, we are comforted by promised endings. To be told that there is no termination to the road we are upon, discourages us for advancing even the next few yards; but to be told that every few yards traversed will bring us nearer the end, where we may expect home and rest and security, is really to nerve us for service and danger. Heaven is not promised as an appeal to our selfishness, but as a comfort to our weakness and a sure reward of all obedience and excellence in human life. Even the Apostle looked forward to the close with the highest gratification and thankfulness, seeing, as he did, the crown of righteousness which was laid up for him, and knowing that he should join the general assembly and church of the firstborn. A man need not work the less energetically on Monday because he sees in the distance the quiet Sabbath-day offering him harbour and refuge. There is a period of strife which is to be succeeded by a period of rest. But what rest can he have who has never known the strife? Is not all pleasure, in some degree, by contrast? The sleep of the labouring man is sweet, simply because he is a labouring man and has earned the repose which his exhaustion needs. What heaven can they have who have made earth into a mere sleeping-place or garden of delights, having walled out, so far as it is possible to human wealth and vanity to do so, all darkness and necessity and trouble? What a home-coming must the true soldier have who is conscious of having fought patriotically and daringly in the interests he went out to serve! A beautiful picture is given of the ending from all toil and strife in the good cause. "And the Lord gave them rest round about, according to all that he sware unto their fathers: and there stood not a man of all their enemies before them; the Lord delivered all their enemies into their hand." Christ himself was encouraged by the disclosed termination of his toil and suffering. He knew that he must reign until he had put all enemies under his feet. For the joy that was set before him, he endured the Cross, despising the shame. Here every good worker may be comforted and stimulated: if the work were to go on for ever, it seems as if our poor strength would regard its continuity with despair; but not knowing how soon it may end, and knowing that all faithfulness will end in heaven, the soul is encouraged to put on its strength, and to do with its whole might whatsoever it may find to do. "There remaineth therefore a rest to the people of God."