Religious Joy

Bear no burden on the sabbath day.” — Jer. xvii. 21.

Did you ever ask yourself why the Jew forbade work on Sunday? It is commonly thought that the prohibition originated in his gloomy views of religion — in his tendency to regard worship as a penance. I believe the motive was just the opposite. I think the design of the command was to associate the Sabbath with brightness. Wherefore is it said, “Bear no burden on the Sabbath day “? Is it meant to suggest a privation? No, it is intended to convey a privilege — the sense of a holiday. The Jew associated his Sabbath with the absence of a burden. He associated it with leisure of mind and freedom of body. He linked it with the idea of pleasure, he bound it to the heart with a thread of gold. It is as if he had said:” Let your Sabbath be a happy day, a burdenless day, a flowery day. Let it be a day when you will have a sense of release from toil, of freedom from worry, of emancipation from care. Let it be a day from which gloom 168

shall vanish, in which joy shall reign. Let it be a day for the birds to sing, for the brooks to warble, for the sunbeams to play. Let men think of God’s presence as an hour of revelry, as an abandoning of care, as a release from the trammels of the school. Let them receive God’s Kingdom as a little child receives its toy.”

Forbid, O Father, that I should ever associate Thy service with a burden! I shall never serve Thee well till the burden is fallen from me, till it is buried in the sea. As long as Martha is cumbered, she works badly. My soul is unlike a steamship; it only goes rapidly when it is without effort. I am never quite active till I am passive — unresisting in Thy hand. If I am to serve Thee, I must be captivated by Thee. Take my heart captive, O Lord, and it will be free. I speak of my Sunday duties, of my religious responsibilities. These are not the words of love, of the captivated heart. Shall the lark meditate on the duty of its morning song! Shall the child say, “My father will be angry if I do not ask him for a holiday “! It is not the sense of ditty I would cultivate; it is the sense of privilege. Why should my heart be the only creature which does not sing in its element! Thou art its element, O God; why does it not sing in Thee! The lark’s element is 169 the morning, and it trills in the morning. The nightingale’s element is the shadow, and it sings in the shadow. The fish’s element is the sea, and it leaps in the sea. The ox’s element is the meadow, and it browses in the meadow. But I never leap before the Beautiful Gate of my temple, O Lord; I seek the dirge instead of the dance, the silence instead of the song. When shall I be caught up to meet Thee in the air? When shall I repair to Thee as the hart repairs to the water-brooks? When shall I seek Thy tabernacles as the swallow seeks her nest? When duty shall be merged in love, when law shall melt in privilege, when service shall find that it is free. Jheyi shall the burden fall from the Sabbath day.