SUNDAY READING.

Taranaki Daily News, 26 February 1921, Page 9

SUNDAY READING.

THE MASTER GF THE ART OF RIGHT LIVING. “Take Mv yoke upon you and learn of Me.”—Matt>Xl., 28/ (Rev. A. 11. Collins, New Plymouth.) Some years ago a striking picture was hung in the Royal Academy. London. It immediately arrested attention and revealed the touch of genius. A king was represented sitting on the broad, flat roof of an Eastern dwelling. His crown lay neglected at his feet, his face was worn and anxious, as he scanned a sombre and stormy sky, across which a flock of white-winged doves was speeding. There was no need of an interpreter The picture told its oWn story. The king was David. The murky sky was his troubled life. The wistful, anxious gaze said plainly, “Oh! tha( 1. had wings like a dove; then would I fly away and be at rest.” We can all sympathise with the monarch in his crave for rest, and few of us have, even yet, learned that rest does not come by flight; that rest is not found in change of circumstances, but in change of spirit; not in having, but in being. There is a cause for restlessness and a cause for rest, and wisdom lies in seeking out the cause, rather than concerning ourselves with the effect. When the Master uttered this memorable saying his eye rested on a picture like that I have attempted to describe. Around Him surged a crowd of toilers, jaded and joyless. They worked all the hours God sent, but they had no joy, no hope, no rest. The harvest of the land, and the harvest of the sea which their aching limbs gathered, were swept into the insatiable maw of the Roman tax gatherer. Their religion brought them no respite, indeed it only added to life’s load. The people were oppressed and depressed, and oh! so weary Looking over that sea of human faces, Jesus saw them care-ploughed and weather-tanned, and His kind ty?art ached for their misery. He read their unspoken cry for rest, and He answered the mute appeal in words that will never be outworn while a tear remains unwiped from the eye of sorrow: “Come unto Me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.’ But those gracious words were followed by others: “Take My yoke upon you,” and those later words seemed to take back all the former words had given. Calling men to “rest” in one breath, in the next He speaks of a new “yoke.” How, can both be true? I can imagine the wind of sighs that passed over the crowd of tired folk at mention of the *word “yoke.” Hadn’t they enough burdens to carry without another yoke to bite into their bowed shoulders? They wanted “rest/’ not “yokes.” Is it true after all, that following* Jesus Christ means a sensible addition td the load men must carry? Does religion mean painful devotion to unwelcome tasks, heavy restrictions on a free and joyous life; the fettering and imprisoning of the. soul? One hears a good deal about “taking up the cross,” about “making sacrifices,” and “practising self-denials,” and now to all the dreary catalogue must we add the w’ord “yoke”? Ask yourself, what is the common impression of the Christian life? and say is it not something like this—that being a Christian means taking the sparkle and the vim and the zest out of life; it 'means wearing drab and dowdy gowns, and singing hymns tha’t are not poetry, to tunes that'are. not music? Have you never met people whose idea of Jesus Christ is summed up in the, phrase, “I know thee that thou art a hard man,” one who narrows life with petty and irritating restrictions and burdens, on things that don’t matter, and makes a virtue of being Miserable! Against such an interpretation I enter an emphatic protest. It is not the purpose of the Christian religion to do jiny of these things It is not the purpose of Christianity to impose limitations, and restrictions and burdens; its purpose is to enlarge emancipate .and ennoble human life. The pathway of Christ through the centuries is strewn with the fetters He has struck off the limbs of men. He is the Joy Bringer. -There is not a trade or a pleasure that is lawful for any man to follow which is not equally lawful for Christian men to follow—not one. Still there is the word “yoke.” Quite so. But that imposes no new burden. Whbt are “yokes” for? “Yokes” are not designed to fret the neck of the patient beast. The owner’s object is to ease the burden. Fasten a pair of oxen by any other means, and the task will be harder. The yoke is not an instrument of torture, it is a provision of mercy. It is not a malicious contrivance for making hard work harder; it is a merciful contrivance for making hard work easier. It is not intended to cause pain, but to spare pain. Jesus was probably drawing on His own experience. In the carpenter’s shop at Nazareth, He had made and fitted the yoke on the oxen’s shoulders, and He knew the difference between the rough and file smooth, the ill-fitting and the°well-fitting y?ke. He knew what it meant for the farmer and his team. The rough yoke galled the neck and hindered the work. The smooth yoke made the burden light, and left no blister. So here th£> Master is not adding some extra weight to life, but He is showing us the fray to ease the load we must all carry. He saw men taking life painfully. To some life was a weariness, to some it was a tragedy, and to all a struggle and a pain; and He offered them the secret of handling life’s load successfully. How to make the best and the most of life is an old, old problem, and this is. Christ’s solution of the problem. Christian people must toil, sorrow, suffer, live and die, like others. Jesus Christ never promised His friends freedom from these common experiences. He was quite frank on the subject. “In the world ye shall have tribulation.” What he offered was to teaclf them how to handle their load. We harness ourselves to life clumsily. The collar does W fit. The position we occupy isn’t congenial. We think we should do better elsewhere, and what with difficulties that are real, and those that are purely z imaginary, we get raw and sore. Christ draws near, not to reduce the load, but to adjust it; not to take the burden off, but to show us how to carry it without friction; not to materially alter circumstances, but to alter the man He says, “you must labor, but labor as I do.” “You must suffer, but suffer as I do.” “You cannot be rid of life, but interpret life as I do.” Think how the ease stbod. Was there ever sorrow so abysmal as our Saviour’s? Was there ever joy so deep and pure and lasting? His “yoke” was “easy” and His burden was “light.” Christ’s life was not an easy life; it was, fn fact, a very hard life; and yet how fresh, how calm, how sunny! The reason? This is the reason: His “yoke” was skilfully adjusted. I have read a book called “The Secret of a Beautiful Life,” but it seemed mechfiuna £&x from the pinch &

things; but the secret of Jesus is “the secret of a beautiful life,” and it is so sane, so self-evidently true. “Tak> My yoke upon yon and learn of Me.” Look at Christ’s life on its outward side, and think what it was like. His wants were reduced to a minimum. His dress homespun, His food the simplest and plainest. Books He had none; His home a limewashed cottage. I suppose He never possessed £5 in all His life. The only time He shared the lot of the rich was in Joseph's grave. Yet what a serene Mind ample life He lived. How it meant to Christ that He adjusted Himself to outward circumstances and never was in, “unsimple ways ensnared.” For after all what is it that makes life so hard? Not providing necessary things. The best things in life can be had “without money and without price.” It is the frills, the decorations, the non-essential things that cost so much in cash and care-. Live simply, say “No” to ambition, and pride, and show, and how the drag’ on the wheels would fall oft’.

Think of the life of Jesus on its intellectual side. He was the centre of discussion. He set men’s minds in a simand yet how singularly calm He was, and free of useless and bitter discussion. He never argued. He avoided controversy.

Consider the religious life of Jesus, blow simple His creed! What an entire absence of concern about doctrines, and orders, and forms which divide Christendom!

He willed as the Father willed, and worked as the Father worked, and rested as God rests. He lived at the centre. Fasten a strip of paper on the outer rim of a fly-wheel, and see how fast it flies; how far it travels. Bpt fasten the same strip to the axle. There is always least motion a midship. O Test in the Lord, who is the centre of all created things. Live your life in God, and see how the strain of life will ease off. “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, and ye shall find rest to your soul.”