Night by Mrs. M. L. Brock

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park, Washington, D. C. · Sep 19, 1912

Night

By Mrs. M. L. Brock

MRS. M. L. BROCK

"The sun knoweth his going down. Thou makest darkness, and it is night, Wherein all the beasts of the forest creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey, And seek their food from God. The sun ariseth, they get them away, And lay them down in their dens. Man goeth forth unto his work And to his labor until the evening. O Jehovah, how manifold are thy works! In wisdom hast thou made them all: The earth is full of thy creatures." Psalm 104, A. R. V.

Time to Rest and Sleep

"This dead of night, this silent hour of darkness, Nature for rest ordained and soft repose."

When night spreads her sable curtains, the din of business is hushed; the fowls and cattle, obedient to the signal, retire to their resting-places. A refreshing coolness pervades the air, and a dreamy stillness rests upon the earth, all inviting to repose. How strange, then, that human beings should be deaf to this divine and eloquent language! How strange that they should pervert the order of nature by converting day into night and night into day!

With multitudes, night is not a season of rest for the invigoration of the mental and physical powers, but a time for body- and soul-destroying dissipation. This is the time used for fashionable parties, where in addition to lack of rest, the system is poisoned by impure air, and oppressed by excessive and improper food and drinks, while the mind and all the moral feelings are worked into a feverish state of excitement, which acts with terrible effect on the abused and overburdened physical frame. Can any one for a moment believe that the laws of nature may be thus violated with impunity? As surely as God has a care for the works of his hands, so surely will every violation of the physical laws be visited with its legitimate punishment. These laws are written in our frame by the hand of the Creator himself; and they are as fixed and immutable in their nature and consequences as is the author of them. One of these laws is that night was ordained for physical rest in quiet sleep.

With many the idea prevails that the Sabbath was given to man merely for physical rest. The Sabbath could not give all the physical rest needed for the daily repair of the daily waste. It does not require a holy day to give the needed rest from labor. The Sabbath was ordained to be used for holy and divine purposes. The law, Christ says, that governs the Sabbath, commands us to do good on that day. The night comes at the close of each day's labor, and is just what the laboring class needs. The Sabbath is just what the child of God needs to afford him an opportunity to do good. God could have had one long day reaching from one Sabbath to another, and then have given the Sabbath to man as a physical rest day; but he knew just what the daily life of toil would require, so he placed darkness between the days, and called it night.

During the shades of night we are to receive physical rest from our daily labor. During the hours of the seventh-day Sabbath, in addition to physical rest, we should experience a holy rest of faith. As this calmness of faith passes over our Sabbath rest, we receive a spiritual rest in our hearts. To receive this Sabbath rest we must lay by every worldly care on the seventh day, and keep in harmony with its true purpose and spirit. Kissimmee, Fla.