p. 5 | Rest for the Weary by MRS. LUELLA L. HARMON

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Oct 21, 1915

Rest for the Weary

By MRS. LUELLA L. HARMON

MRS. LUELLA L. HARMON

Hasten, hasten, hasten! O how tired we are! As we go, we hear the sweet songs of the birds, and should like to stop for just a few moments to listen. We pass the beautiful flowers by the wayside, and long to linger to admire and gather them. We see the love hunger in the little faces, the aged faces, and many other sad countenances, which makes us long to stop and speak words of cheer to each one; but we must hasten on.

We had scarcely greeted yesterday, when we had to bid her a hurried adieu, and welcome today. Today “the sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down, and hasteth to his place where he arose,” and we must be ready for tomorrow. Time, O Time! why dost thou never wait?

The bird in its long flight waits to rest. The fastest train waits for fuel and passengers. The great ocean steamer waits. Everything except time may wait sometime, somewhere; but Time never tires, never fails, never waits, but hastens on and on forever.

Look backward, you with the white hair and wrinkled face. It seems almost but days, instead of years ago, when you sat within your mother’s arms and heard her sweet songs and stories. “Behold, thou hast made my days as an handbreadth; and mine age is as nothing before thee: verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity.”

Do you wonder that the psalmist said to God, “For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night”? Is it strange that the apostle Peter warns us thus, “But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day”?

Ye tired and weary ones, worn with the work and trials of this life, tossed to and fro like a bark in the gale, often does your soul cry, “Oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I fly away, and be at rest.” Oftentimes you wonder why Jesus does not give the rest he has promised to the weary. You are looking for the wrong kind of rest, weary pilgrim.

Labor? — Yes, labor! Let us continue to hasten on, for we are laborers together with God. “The harvest truly is plenteous, but the laborers are few; pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth laborers into his harvest.” “And let us not be weary in well-doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

Let us sow bountifully, for “he which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” Work on! Work “while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.” And then when the night is come and work is finished, our Father will send for us to come home to the rest he has prepared for us, and he will make us all clean; cleanse us from all the grime, sin stains, and infirmities of earth. He will give us pure, white robes and golden crowns, and invite us to the marriage supper, and “blessed are they which are called unto the marriage supper of the Lamb.” Then shall you rest where “there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.” There you may wait to listen to the songs of the birds and admire beautiful flowers throughout endless ages.

But while in this earth, where men hate, fight, and kill one another; where the miser hoards his wealth while the poor beg for bread; where the husband

rails at the wife, and the wife nags at the husband, and the children dishonor the parents; where the drunkard reels to his loathsome hovel; where death reigns, and the millions of mourners weep, there shall be unrest and weariness. But in the hearts of those weary from the labor for souls, there is a peace and joy that the world neither gives nor takes away.

Rejoice, weary pilgrim, rejoice! We are nearing the beautiful land of Canaan, where we shall dwell evermore! “Wherefore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless.”