Spurgeon on Sabbath Rest

“In the midst of a long stretch of unbroken

labor, the same affliction may be looked for. The bow cannot be always bent without fear of breaking. Repose is as needful to the mind as sleep to the body.

Our Sabbaths are our days of toil, and

if we do not rest upon some other day, we shall break down. Even the earth must lie fallow and have her Sabbaths, and so must we. Hence the wisdom and compassion of our Lord, when he

said to his disciples, "Let us go into the desert and rest awhile." What! when the people are fainting? When the multitudes are like sheep upon the mountains without a shepherd? Does Jesus talk of rest? When scribes and Pharisees, like grievous wolves, are rending the flock, does he take

his followers on an excursion into a quiet resting place? Does some red-hot zealot denounce such atrocious forgetfulness of present and pressing demands? Let him rave in his folly.

The Master knows better than to exhaust his servants and quench the light of Israel. Rest time is not waste time. It is economy to gather fresh strength. Look at the mower in the summer's day, with so much to cut down ere the sun sets. He pauses in his labor-is he a sluggard? He looks for his stone and begins to draw it up and down his scythe, with "rink-a-tink-rink-a-tink-rink-a-tink." Is that idle music - is he wasting precious moments? How much he might have mown while he has been ringing out those notes on his scythel. But

he is sharpening his tool, and he will do far more when once again he gives his strength to those long sweeps that lay the grass prostrate in rows before him. Even thus a little pause prepares the mind for greater service in the good cause.” (C.H.Spurgeon)

Spurgeon on rest in regards to Genesis two and God resting on the seventh day. Genesis 2:1-3

[1] Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. [2] And on the seventh day God finished his work that he had done, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work that he had done. [3] So God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it God rested from all his work that he had done in creation.