Article November 8, 1930 Issue

Rest in Humility

ETHEL MAUDE BAIRD

How many long for rest and cry with Job, "Oh that I knew where I might find him!" It is comforting to remember that Job's deep desire to find God was answered. Our prayer, too, will be answered; for Isaiah voices God's promise, "I said not unto the seed of Jacob, Seek ye me in vain: I the Lord speak righteousness, I declare things that are right." It is spiritual understanding which enables one to find God.

Rest is to be found, not in some far-off heaven, but at our very door, within us, even in the valley of humility. Let one who is discouraged with a false sense of responsibility and battling with an erroneous material sense of life and pride of intellect say, as Jesus said, "I can of mine own self do nothing." Let him return to his Father, and he will find rest. How strikingly Isaiah speaks of humility and rest in the simile, "As a beast goeth down into the valley, the Spirit of the Lord caused him to rest." It is Spirit, God, who gives us true rest. To all "that labour and are heavy laden," Mrs. Eddy says (Miscellaneous Writings, p. 328), "Dost thou suspect that the valley is humility"?

The Scriptures are full of pearls of thought, free to all. Each individual must study the Bible for himself, and make these treasures his own, before he can comfort himself and others with the promises they contain. Let him rejoice in knowing that, as a well-loved hymn declares, "God's promises are kept," and that they will be kept in his own or in his brother's experience in the exact proportion in which he trusts them. It is well for us if with childlike confidence we know this.

Send a comment to the editors

NEXT IN THIS ISSUE

Article

The Prayer of Confidence