Holidays

“If the master of the house had known in what hour the thief was coming he would have watched and not left his house to be broken through.” — Luke xii. 39.

In an address on Education Edward Thring says: “The mighty leisure hours with their occupations are all-powerful.... The mighty question of leisure hours ought to be the most important question of all since it affects the character most.,.. Leisure hours are the hinge on which true education turns/ This great master in the science of education had seen, that noble character, and truth of being, come first, and then after that, as second, the training of skill and strength. He had seen, too, that while a teacher can do much in word and deed by high belief and true work to stimulate ‘and to guide, every boy has to work out his own character. And because it is in the leisure hours, when free from constraint and observation, that the boy shows what is really uppermost within him, that he spoke of the leisure hours as all-important and all-powerful, the hinge on which true education turns. In religion this is intensely true. Thousands of “3 students have felt it, without knowing how to express or explain it. At college or school their morning watch has had its place in their time table. The whole mind is braced up to regular and systematic work, and the time for devotion is as duly kept as that for a class or private study.

When the time of relaxation comes, and one is free to do exactly as one likes, many a one finds that the morning watch and its fellowship with God had not become so natural, such a necessity of the spiritual life and such joy, that its observance could not interfere with our holiday pleasure. The holiday becomes the test of character, the proof of how far one could say with Job,” I have esteemed the words of thy mouth more than my necessary food.’ The question of leisure hours is indeed all important. In them I turn freely and naturally to what I love most. In them I prove and increase the power to hold what I have.

J^^jteacher in a large school in America is reported to have said, “the greatest difficulty with which we have to contend is the summer vacation. Just when we have brought a boy up to a good point of discipline, and he responds to the best ideals, we lose him, andVhen he comes back in the autumn, we have to begin and do it all over. The summer holiday simply demoralises him.” This statement, referring to ordinary study and duty, is strong: within certain limits it is no less applicable to the religious life. The sudden relaxation of regular habits, and the subtle thought that perfect liberty to do as one likes means perfect happiness, throws many a young student back in his Christian life. There is no point at which it is more needful that older and more experienced members of the Students’ Association should help and guard their younger members than this. The attainment of months may be lost bx theneledLol A..”^YeeL We know not in what hour the thief cometh. The spirit of the morning watch means unceasing vigilance all the day and every day.

There are various aspects in which the danger, and safety from it, may be put before the student. With the holiday we are set free from the school laws under which we live during our stay there. But there are other laws: laws of morality, laws of health, from which there is no relaxation. Let the student be warned that the call to daily fellowship with God belongs not to the former but the latter class. As much as he needs every day during the holidays to eat and breathe, he needs Every Day to Eat the Beead and Breathe the Air OF Heaven.

Make it clear that the morning watch is not only a duty, but an unspeakable privilege and pleasure. Fellowship with God, abiding in Christ, loving the Word and meditating on it all the day — to the new nature these things are life and strength, health and gladness. Look upon them in this light; believe in the power of the new nature within, and act upon it; though you do not feel it, it will come true. Count it a joy, and it will become a joy to you.

Above all, realise that the world is needing you and depending on you to be its light. Christ is waiting for you as a member of His body, day by day, to do His saving work through you. Neither he, nor the world, nor you, can afford to lose a single day. God has created and redeemed you, that through you He may, as unceasingly as through the sun He lightens the world, let His light and life and love shine out upon men. You need every day anew to be in communication with the fountain of all light. Bo not think of asking for a holiday relief from this intercourse. Still less Take it. Prize the holiday for the special time it gives you to study what lay outside your ordinary Bible study course. Prize your holiday for the special opportunity of more fellowship with the Father and the Son. Instead of its becoming a snare, instead of all your energy being exhausted in just being kept from losing ground, prize the holiday as a blessed time for grace and victory over self and the world, of great increase of grace and strength, of being blessed and made a blessing.