Thus far I have said little about “Rest,” except in connection with the “Day of Rest.” It is delightful to note that from the very beginning there was a Divine recognition of the need for rest, and that the Creator’s plan for bestowing the blessing was so wide in its application. It was ordained for man in the first instance, then extended to the animals that had been subdued to service under him, and, later still, to the land. Long before the children of Israel had ended their wanderings in the desert, the command was given to them by Moses, “When ye come into the land which I give you, then shall the land keep a Sabbath unto the Lord.” “In the seventh year shall be a Sabbath of rest unto the land.” The Israelites, who had been for so many generations the bondsmen of Egypt, and then for forty years wanderers in the desert, had to be divinely taught what pertained to a settled mode of life. As landowners, they had to learn that each crop yielded takes something out of the ground, and that it must have a period of rest, or its power of production will be exhausted. Hence the Sabbath for the land. In our time the chemist has taught the farmer that by putting certain substances into the ground, he can restore what the crop has taken from it; but in times within my own memory the remedy was to let the land lie fallow—that is, at rest for a year before it was sown again. What a delightful word “rest” is! It has so many meanings in everyday use, and in the Bible also; and all of them are suggestive of benefit and good to soul, mind, and body. Glance for instance at Psalm cxvi., and you will find a picture of one who had “found trouble and sorrow,” and been full of fears and anxieties; but he had gone with crying and prayers to God, who heard and answered. So, bursting into a hymn of gratitude and triumph, he exclaims— “I love the Lord, because He hath heard my voice and my supplications. I was brought low, and He helped me. Return unto thy rest, O my soul; for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee.” Here, my dear ones, you see that rest means the calm confidence in God which brings the soul a peace which passeth all understanding. This is the rest which Jesus linked with those sweetly familiar words of invitation so often quoted: “Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”