THERE was one man whom men would not have; that man was standing, as Son of the Father, in the light, with the consciousness of the Father's eye brightly beaming on Him, and that man said, " Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." He alone had the secret of rest, and if there was that divine inexhaustible fullness in Him, all the divine glory being in Him, and we having it revealed to us (for He says, " he that hath seen me, hath seen the Father") to whom could He not, and to whom would He not give rest? It is not the question how much you have to bear, but of the Lord's eye upon hindrances. When He looks on any one, even if it be a little child who does not yet feel its burden, He sees it and knows all that is connected with conflict. He sees the burden within each heart; sees everything that is against us. I may be like a ship wrecked between two seas; well, He says, " Come unto me, and I will give you rest." How can you get away from that word? Is anything beyond His power? It is just there that we get the very essence of the gospel. He goes on: " Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, and ye shall find rest unto your souls." How was it that Christ found such perfect rest in the midst of all that was against Him? Ever quiet and at home, in the midst of it all; and He says, " Learn of me."
It is one thing to own Christ as the one who can give rest, and another thing to walk with Christ under the yoke, so that we find rest ourselves when all is against us; to walk with Him in everything, saying, " I have got nothing to do, save to please my master;" and I have to walk so that whatever occurs, I can say, " I thank Thee, 0 Father." This is not the case with us. We have ways and plans of our own, and we do not like Christ to pass us through them under His yoke. He would have His light so to shine in us, as to bring out all that is in us, and that we should so walk according to the light that the world should reject us, even as it rejected Him. The more closely I am bound up with Him, the more I shall feel the contrast between His ways and my own. If I am under His yoke, do you suppose He will allow self-will-" I like and I do not like"? If Christ has given me rest, and yoked me up with Himself, He does not let me go my own way, but His way. Christ set Himself in service, as the perfect servant of God; He could see in every step of the way something that called His heart to the Father. It was sweet to His heart to prove what a perfect servant He was; His rejection marking His oneness with the Father.
It was not only Him they hated, but the Father also. He would not, as a servant, have any association save only with God; and He tasted the rest that flowed from that in all its perfection. That which is the most bitter sorrow to us, the breaking of our will, the Lord never got, for He had no will but the Father's. We have a will that must constantly be broken, because it will not bend. It is very solemn to think that we do not know how to bend our will to the will of God; with Christ it was always, " not my will, but Thine:" as He passed from one thing and followed into another, it was always, " God and my Father."
The thing through life which has caused the most intense bitterness to the heart, has been this self-will thwarted: " I do not want to do that, and I do not like to do this; I must go hither, and I would rather go
thither." Ah! I have got to learn what His will is, by this very breaking. If you take a bullock, and bind a weaker animal under the same yoke with it, the weaker Must go the same way and pace with the stronger. Elijah, Peter, and Paul, found it no use trying to avoid the fellows of the yoke. They were bound up with Christ in it, and must walk where He walked; and Peter was brought up in the end to receive a crown of martyrdom. If we walk willingly where Christ leads, and seek to learn of Him, seeing in everything that may happen the hand of "God and our Father," all will be easy.
I am meek and lowly in heart," says Jesus. Where do we learn this meekness and lowliness of Christ more than when under the yoke with Him? Oh, how gentle He has been l He will not turn aside from His purpose, but with what patience has He borne with our manners! Cannot you recall times without number when the dearest friend you have would have shaken you off and said, " I have done with you forever"? Whilst that Christ in heaven quietly acted out His purposes of love for you! If you were left in the hand of the brightest saint on earth, what a contrast there would be (you can feel it) with this Christ, who could lift up His face to heaven and say, "No one knows me but my Father," and then could turn to a feeble thing like you or me and say, " Take my yoke upon you and learn of me."
If we could put down self in every way and entirely, we should find rest in all circumstances. If we walked as Christ did, we should see God and our Father in everything. Privations, temptations, difficulties-God and our Father in all. Subjection to His word in everything-saying, " It is written"-makes the bitterest thing sweet. Christ has pledged Himself that I shall have rest; He reveals the Father to me, that is the blessing He has shut me up to. All blessing comes from Christ teaching me every day to find rest by seeing God and my Father in everything. G. V. w.