The Holy Day and the Holiday

‘The fast of the fourth month, and the fast of the fifth, and the fast of the seventh, and the fast of the tenth, shall be to the house of Judah joy and gladness, and cheerful feasts; therefore love truth and peace.” — Zucu. viii. 19.

UNDERSTAND the meaning of the passage

to be that if religion is to become a thing of truth and peace it must be made a thing of joy and gladness. Four days are to be made feast-days. The worship of God is not to be associated with mere solemnity. It is not to be linked exclusively with the serious things of life — with death, with sin, with sorrow. It is to be wreathed with roses. It is to be clothed in bright colours. It is to be accompanied by music. It is to be greeted with smiles. In nothing was the Jew more wise than in this good rule. It would be well if we of modern

days had remembered it. It is not often we see our little Samuels making a recreation of calling on the Lord. Why so? Because the Lord is to us not a recreation. We never associate religion with a holiday, with an hour of pleasure, with a moment of relaxation. It always brings to us a sense of obligation, of restraint, of imposed fetters. Surely there is something wrong here! Should not the climax of worship be love! Is not love the holiday of the soul! Is it not the hour when I forget my cares, when I lose my burdens! Is it not the season when I get the sense that the lessons are all over, that the tasks are remitted, that the duties are annulled! The academy becomes an Arcadia. The law becomes liberty. The lesson hour is the leisure hour. The place of toil isa playground. Love makes the fretful free, the laden light, the weighted willing. Martha has ceased to be martyred; Peter numbers not his precepts to forgive; Elijah enlarges not on the troubles he endures. Pain becomes pleasure; merit melts; credit crumbles; the pride of doing good is prostrated in gladness. The love of truth and peace makes the fast-feast a feast-day.

Ye who have the care of little children, plant early in their hearts the thought that religion is a joy! Beware how you put a cypress in the place of a rose! Remember that the first plantings in the soul tend to keep their places for ever! If you sow the seed of God beside a grave, it will remain beside that grave when the child is grown. It is hard for the later hours to undo the work of the morning. Our first garden should be planted with evergreens — things which keep their youth; take heed what you sow! It is not enough that you teach the child reverence. I do not think I would begin with reverence. I would begin with love. Let not the solemnity of religion be the foundation! Rather let your child see the ripple on the stream! Begin not by telling him what he must do for God; tell what God has done for him! Point not in the morning to the stern mountains of the Divine Righteousness! Take him first to Cana of Galilee! Let him see his Father in sympathy with his joys! Do not let him think that his gloom manifests God’s glory! Do not let him dream that God smiles when he is smitten or frowns when he is festive! Do not let him link his Sabbaths with sadness or his church with chilliness or his prayers with pain! Sow his faith among the flowers, his religion in radiant places! Plant not his God where the willows wave; build not his temple where the desert dwells! Wreath his God with roses! Paint Him with pleasures! Surround Him with songs! Link Him with love! Reveal Him not as burdensome but as beautiful, not as grave but as gracious, not as solemn but as social! He that serves God with gladness in the morning will find in God his peace when the day is far spent.