On January 27, 1850
Venerable John Henry Newman, C.O., preached a sermon, of which the following notes survive:
On Labour and Rest
"1. INTROD.-On Septuagesima, beginning a time of penance and penitential work. No more Alleluias. The colour purple.
2. Labour is the lot, the punishment of man. Bad and good labour, nay, evil labours and virtue labours.
3. It is otherwise as God made things. There is motion and activity in Nature, but it is without effort; all creation is as it were hung upon wheels, and moves noiselessly and gracefully?the sun, the stream, the breeze, life.
4. And so in paradise. Adam's tending the flowers was but a specimen of divine labour without effort; such, too, was his service of God; such the angels' service-without effort.
5. But sin has made things otherwise. Henceforth labour changes its character. It is no longer Eden, but that vineyard into which the labourers were sent in today's gospel-to pull out stones, to destroy the weeds, worms, blights'-and a wall round it?for there is a warfare. Labour is a war and aims at conquest.
6. Take bodily labour, labour of the field-preparing the earth, felling trees, making roads, canals-then building houses; it is all penitential, all the punishment of sin-the mind does not come in, but a weariness.
7. And much more with intellectual labour and the labour of the mind-the mere wear and tear of business; the necessity of providing for a family; anxiety, suspense, fear, failure, dreariness and hopelessness. But even when successful, one enterprise leads to another, till the mind is overburdened and overwrought, and is sucked into a vortex. Most engrossing; no time for the thought of religion; religion must take its chance, and that they feel.
8. Much more sin; the bondage and service of the devil most wearisome-the drunkard, the sensualist. (I knew one who was tempted to fatalism.) Wearing, restless feeling, even when they call themselves happy.
9. Nay, virtue here is too a toil, because there is war between good and evil. Read the saints' lives. Such is labour, and it wearies soul and body. The body shows it. whether it is manual, mental, or intellectual.
10. Oh! if we must labour, let us labour in the service of the Great Master of the Vineyard-that only pays, that only has hire. Then we shall labour that we may rest, then only. Sin never rests; there is no rest in hell. This is that penny which they one and all received, because nothing better or higher.
11. When the evening of life comes, then shall we know most fully the meaning of labour by being freed from it.
12. The blessedness of rest, of freedom from sin and toil, even though in purgatory. Purgatory is rest compared with this life.
13. And much more in heaven, where we see the face of God. "
Venerable John Henry Newman, C.O., preached a sermon, of which the following notes survive:
On Labour and Rest
"1. INTROD.-On Septuagesima, beginning a time of penance and penitential work. No more Alleluias. The colour purple.
2. Labour is the lot, the punishment of man. Bad and good labour, nay, evil labours and virtue labours.
3. It is otherwise as God made things. There is motion and activity in Nature, but it is without effort; all creation is as it were hung upon wheels, and moves noiselessly and gracefully?the sun, the stream, the breeze, life.
4. And so in paradise. Adam's tending the flowers was but a specimen of divine labour without effort; such, too, was his service of God; such the angels' service-without effort.
5. But sin has made things otherwise. Henceforth labour changes its character. It is no longer Eden, but that vineyard into which the labourers were sent in today's gospel-to pull out stones, to destroy the weeds, worms, blights'-and a wall round it?for there is a warfare. Labour is a war and aims at conquest.
6. Take bodily labour, labour of the field-preparing the earth, felling trees, making roads, canals-then building houses; it is all penitential, all the punishment of sin-the mind does not come in, but a weariness.
7. And much more with intellectual labour and the labour of the mind-the mere wear and tear of business; the necessity of providing for a family; anxiety, suspense, fear, failure, dreariness and hopelessness. But even when successful, one enterprise leads to another, till the mind is overburdened and overwrought, and is sucked into a vortex. Most engrossing; no time for the thought of religion; religion must take its chance, and that they feel.
8. Much more sin; the bondage and service of the devil most wearisome-the drunkard, the sensualist. (I knew one who was tempted to fatalism.) Wearing, restless feeling, even when they call themselves happy.
9. Nay, virtue here is too a toil, because there is war between good and evil. Read the saints' lives. Such is labour, and it wearies soul and body. The body shows it. whether it is manual, mental, or intellectual.
10. Oh! if we must labour, let us labour in the service of the Great Master of the Vineyard-that only pays, that only has hire. Then we shall labour that we may rest, then only. Sin never rests; there is no rest in hell. This is that penny which they one and all received, because nothing better or higher.
11. When the evening of life comes, then shall we know most fully the meaning of labour by being freed from it.
12. The blessedness of rest, of freedom from sin and toil, even though in purgatory. Purgatory is rest compared with this life.
13. And much more in heaven, where we see the face of God. "
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