CARRIED INTO CAPTIVITY

^[p. 514] CARRIED INTO CAPTIVITY

My fear as to you is that you are exhausting your land! You are not giving it rest. You never keep the sabbatical year, and like Israel you will be carried into captivity in order that the land may enjoy her sabbaths. The best land is worn out by continual cropping, and the good of fallow is that the soil is exposed to the atmosphere and thus prepared for the growth of plants. Israel lost the brightest period of favour and blessing when they overlooked the sabbatical year. In that year they were made conscious that they were the objects of God’s favour, and they enjoyed it; though they toiled not, they partook of the fruits of their land with a sense of divine favour that was incomparable. All I desire for you is that you keep your sabbaths. Great assiduity is no evidence of high quality. When Peter went a fishing he was so hard at work that he was, as we say, ‘stripped to it’, and yet it was all a mistake. His great assiduity was only to conceal the lack of Christ’s presence and leading. I am anxious about you, lest you should be carried into captivity because you do not observe the rest which is the great moment for the soul to receive from the Lord, and the virtues of which would enable you to do work of the first quality.