The Sabbath of the Heart
“And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it He had rested from all His work.” — Gen. ii. 3.
Creation goes from the wing to the nest. It begins with the Spirit moving, and it ends with the Spirit resting. But observe, it is the rest of a spirit. What is the rest of a spirit? It is the opposite of a body’s rest. The body rests when it has reached exhaustion; the spirit, when it has reached satisfaction. The body reposes when it has closed its eyes on everything; the spirit reposes when it has opened its eyes on its own image. God could not rest until He beheld His likeness in the pool. Without that likeness the pool was stagnant, and stagnancy is not the spirit’s rest. My heart can never find repose until it has found something like itself, something made in its own image. Then alone it meets with that delicious thing, reciprocity. Reciprocity is the Sabbath of the heart. It is a Sabbath bell ringing across the snow. It tells me there is somewhere in the void a house of kindred
sympathy where I can find communion, fellowship, response. When I want to rest in my body, I wish no one to speak to me. But when I want to rest in my spirit, I wish to be spoken to. It is a voice I crave for — the answer of a heart to my heart, the throb of a soul to my soul, the reply of a life to my life. My spirit will rest when it finds its other self.
O Thou Divine Man, I shall find it in Thee. Thou art that for which I have been waiting, without which I have been weak. It is my want of rest that has made my want of service; my spirit in its Gethsemane has been sleeping for sorrow. Thou comest to awake me out of sleep, to wake me by Thy rest. When I repose in Thee, I shall repose in nothing else. The calm of my heart shall give it wings. There is no flight so high as that of the bird that has been in Thy bosom. Rest my heart, O Lord, that it may soar! It has no pinions out of Thy sunshine. It sings in Thy beams; it plays in Thy smile; it flutters in Thy nest; it flies in Thy pavilion; it leaps to Thy music; it stirs to Thy peace; it gathers endless strength when it makes an end in Thee. If I sleep in Thee, I shall do well.