LECTURE 26
OF HOW THAT NATURE CALLS ON EVERY MAN TO REST HIS MARROWS AFTER A ‘TIRING EARTH-LIFE’
I am yet to see a man who works for a whole day without any rest or sleep? Sleep is the third of the four great essentials of life. It comes after air and water. Surprisingly, it even comes before food. I, for one, can leave without food for a good number of days but I can’t do same with regards to sleep. I don’t have the brow to keep a vigil for two conservative days without even a minute shuteye. Sincerely yours, I can’t. My body wouldn’t just allow me. Let me dare give it a try and the organs within would soon send a hormone to rebuke me. They will whisper into my ears and say, “Buddy, you better allow us some rest or we do something nasty to you.” That is how God has designed the body. It wont take any nonsense from us. And they serve us better if we allow them their rights.
No man can do without this great essential of nature. God being the Omnipotent and the Indefatigable even had to take some rest after six days of putting the chaotic world in order and “calling those things which be not as though they were.” That is not to insinuate that ‘The Almighty’ was tired. No! Because that Great One of Israel is Indefatigable. He by doing so only wanted to set a precedent for man to follow and observe; for He often instructs and leads His people by example. Wherefore He normally charge us after His Personality and Example. And so He says, “Be thou merciful, for I am merciful” , “Be thou Holy for I am Holy” , “Be thou … for I am ...”, thus always calling and instructing us after His Sovereign Personality and Example. Gracious! He does call us to rest as well.
Sleep or should we say ‘rest’ is entirely important. Even robots and lifeless machine which run under the direction of push buttons and external powers are designed to have some moment of rest after hours of recurrently responding to commands. Try working them beyond their authorized limit, and they will begin making awkward sounds. They will rebel every command you issue thereafter. And if you insist on overworking them, they will enter into a ‘sleep mode’ to cool themselves of heat until they have rested enough to suffer another abuse from the operator. We often experience this on our computers, phones and almost all of the 21st century gadgets. It is their way of telling us that they need some rest. Nothing, of course, can stay working forever.
Therefore, just as time demand sleep from us after a hard day’s work, eternity also demands that we rest our marrows after a tiring earth journey. Someday, we all will retire to the grave. When we are tired treading upon rocks and stones and pressing hard after our duties, nature will lay us a mat there to dream away our trouble. Each and every one of us will retire there. The beggar will retire there, and the rich will retire there. The sinner and the saint alike. The fool and the wise. The teacher and the student. The clergy and the laity. The master and the servant altogether. No man will continue working forever. Sooner or later, we all will start dozing our way to that bedchamber beneath.
Men and women on hospital beds, whining in pain, will also retire there; they will not keep travailing in pain forever. When they are tired swallowing pills and drinking mixtures, death will soothe them to sound sleep and retire them to eternal rest. It will but set them free from the claws of mineral medicine.
The grave is indeed the bedchamber of all men. That is where we rest our wearied feet after trekking on dust and ashes and chasing hard after pride. That is where we hide to pay our oxygen debt when our hearts can no longer endure the marathon of life.
Just as counselors and physicians admonish men to take enough sleep after each days work, nature and eternity does also call us to an eternal rest after wearing ourselves out in the matters of life. That is nature’s way of refreshing us so we may wake up sound in the morning of judgment to account to Judah’s Lion.
QUIETLY REST THE WOODS AND DALES (STANZAS 4-8)
By Paul Gerhard, Translated by Sandra Findlater
Now this body seeks for rest,
From its vestments all undrest,
Types of mortality:
Christ shall give me soon to wear,
Garments beautiful and fair--
White robes of glorious majesty.
Head, and feet and hands, once more
Joy to think of labor o'er,
And night with gladness see.
O my heart! thou too shalt know
Rest from all thy toil below,
And from earth's turmoil soon be free.
Weary limbs, now rest ye here;
Safe from danger and from fear,
Seek slumber on this bed:
Deeper rest ere long to share,
Other hands shall soon prepare
My narrow couch among the dead.
While my eyes I gently close,
Stealing o'er me soft repose,
Who shall my guardian be?
Soul and body now I leave,
(And Thou wilt the trust receive,)
O Israel's Watchman! unto Thee.
O my friends! from you this day
May all ill have fled away,
No danger near have come.
Now, my God, these dear ones keep;
Give to my beloved sleep,
And angels send to guard their home!