Evening Republican, Volume 59, Number 68, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 March 1917 — SECRET OF REST [ARTICLE]

SECRET OF REST

Taking Christ’s Yoke Upon Us Means Help and Rest in Bearing Life’s Load. 2 I want to const secret of rest, and to do so under the guidance of the New Testament. There is this advantage about the subject, it Is certainly not remote from the urgent call of common need.’ There Is a suggestion of weariness about the majority of us, al look of strain and tiredness as though wewere burdened with the greatness of the way; there Is surely a holy, urgency that we try to find the secret of God’s rest. There are one ,or two distinctions we must make before we can clearly think of a really royal spiritual rest. Rest is not ease. Ease is doing nothing; rest is fullness of strength to do what we need to do. Ease is rust, not rest. Ease is the feeling of indolence; rest is the sense of power. Ease evades its task; rest feels level with it and sTIII has strength to spare. Ease is to lie down; rest is to walk with God. And then again, rest is not isolation. We do not obtain rest by cutting ourselves adrift from the human calls and needs of our fellowmen. Beat is Fruit of Restoration, Rest is the fruit of restoration. It is life ever being filled with the imparted life of God. So that the symbol of rest 1s not a man lying on a bed, but a tree rooted in some wealthy bed and drawing up into all its branches, and into, every twig and leaf, the vigor which will make It invincible in the fiercest days of drought. So that at the very foundation of things rest is just a wealthy sense of the immediate presence and power of our gracious God. How, then do we come into possession of this rich ~and~±eaullfut reslT

What guidance does the New Testament give to us? Let us turn to the - teachings of the Lord. “Take my yoke upon you and learn of me . . . and ye shall find rest.” There are two sorts of yokes, single yokes and double yokes. The single yoke is for the single oi who pulls his load without a partner. The double yoke is for a pair of oxen, each sharing the burden of the other. And in human life there are two sorts of yokes, and I can choose which I will wear. I can wear a single one, pr I can accept The double one which is Offered me by Christ. The Lord says to me: “I bring thee a double yoke in exchange for the single one I My yoke is for two! Take my yoke upon you and let us pull the load together.” When I wear the single collar I confront everything in my individual strength. When I wear the double collar I face everything in partnershfel_

it is the fellowship of the Lord and me. Divine Fellowship. Now this is the first and primary secret Of rest. The restful life Is bora of divine fellowship. We are to accept the yoke-fellow and plow every furrow with him. This is precisely what the, apostle meant when he made his triumphant boast: “I can do alt things through Christ, who strengthened me !•” So it is needful that we examine our yokes and ascertain whether we are pulling our load In single collar or in communion with Christ. That heavy load of anxieties which I have been dragging about for some years! Let me examine my collar. Am I regarding it as a merely i-auivruuar or uhi I casting my burden on the Lord? And there Is that big load of small worries, and worrit extraordinarily burdensome. A load of sand Is haavler than ,a load Qt larger stones.

Tiny Worries. A heap of tiny worries can be more depressing than three or four larger cares. What am I doing with them? For the strange thing about this sort of burden is that when we yoke up with Jesus we often leave the cart behind! Then there is that bit of difficult road I am traveling, fall of ruts and holes, and with many steep gradients, so that in many places it is scarcely a road at all. What a hard pull it is for a soul I What am I doing with it? Am I Using the single collar or the double yoke? Is lb a lonely travail or is it a divine communion? “Take my yoke upon you.” This is the secret of essential rest.—Rev. J. H. Jowett, D. D.