1 Hugh Black. 2 Memoir of Principal Tulloch, 202.
Rest Under the Yoke.
jt^
Literature.
Ainger (A.), Sermons Preached in the Temple Church, 30.
Allon (H.), The Indwelling Christ, 43.
Brandt (J. L.), Soul Saving, 251.
Burrows (W. 0.), The Mystery of the Cross, 141.
Chadwick (W. E.), Clirist and Everyday Life, 11.
Curnock (N.), Comfortable Words, 56.
Denney (J.), The Way Everlasting, 308.
Dods (M.), Christ and Man, 38.
Fiirst (A.), True Nobility of Character, 302.
Holden (J. S.), The Pre-eminent Lord, 180. „ „ Life's Flood-Tide, 70.
Kelman (J.), Redeeming Judgment, 19.
Knight (H. T.), The Cross, the Font, and the Altar, 1.
Little (W. J. K.), Characteristics of the Christian Life, 223. „ „ The Hopes of the Passion, 156.
Maclaren (A.), A Rosary of Christian Graces, 145.
Neville (W. G.), Sermons, 9.
Owen (J. W.), Some Australian Sermons, 93.
Bate (J.), Leaves from the Tree of Life, 1.
Bussell (A.), The Light that Lighteth Every Man, 293.
Temple (W.), Repton School Sermons, 84.
British Congregationalist, Jan. 18, 1914 (A. E. Garvie).
Christian World, May 20, 1909 (J. D. Jones).
Christian World Pulpit, x. 309 (H. W. Beeclier) ; xii. 222 (H. W. Beecher) ; xl. 396 (H. Boss) ; xli. 156 (T. B. Stevenson) ; lxv. 305 (J. H. Jowett) ; lxix. 81 (A. F. W. Ingram) ; lxxix. 68 (A. B. Scott) ; lxxxii. 43 (A. C. Dixon).
Church of England Pulpit, lxi. 414 (H. E. Byle).
Rest Under the Yoke.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me ; for I am meek and lowly i.. heart : and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. — Matt. xi. 29, 30.
1. Cheist saw the people as poor, toiling, jaded animals labouring in the yoke, carrying an almost intolerable load, and in sheer compassion and love He cried to them, and said, " Come unto me, . . . and I will give you rest." And this " rest " He proposed to give, not by relieving them of every yoke and burden, but by an exchange of yokes and burdens. He proposed to take away the heavy yoke they were then bearing, and to give them His yoke instead. " The yoke you are bearing," He said to them, in effect, " is too galling ; the burden you are carrying is too heavy ; they are more than flesh and blood can bear. Take off your yoke, lay aside your burden, and take Mine instead, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light."
2. So Christ also lays a yoke upon us. But what sort of yoke ? Justin Martyr, who lived in the first half of the second century of the Christian era, tells us that when Jesus was a carpenter at Nazareth He used to make " ploughs and yokes for oxen." It has been suggested that this ancient Church Father derived that curious piece of information from the now lost "Gospel according to the Hebrews." If we may accept it as correct, — and it comes from very old times, — Jesus was a yoke- maker by trade. Then He knew what make of yoke would be hard to wear and what easy. The easy yoke would be one that would not gall the back of the poor ox on which it was fitted, one, perhaps, that was deliberately eased so as not to press on a tender place. This is what a considerate artisan would be careful to see to ; and we may be sure that in His artisan life Jesus would be thoughtful for the welfare of the dumb animals with which He
272 REST UNDER THE YOKE
had to do. He is considerate as a Master of human souls. There are some whose slightest commands sting like insults, and others so gracious, genial, and considerate that their very orders are accepted hy the servants as favours. It is a delight to serve such masters. Their yoke is easy. Now Jesus Christ is the most considerate of masters. As Milton said, reflecting on the un- welcome limitations imposed upon his service by his blindness, " Doth God exact day labour, light denied ? "
Tf In using the metaphor of a yoke, Christ was probably em- ploying an expression which was already proverbial. In the Psalms of Solomon, which are a little earlier than the time of Christ, we have : " We are beneath Thy yoke for evermore, and beneath the rod of Thy chastening " (vii. 8) ; and " He shall possess the peoples of the heathen to serve Him beneath His yoke " (xvii. 32). " The yoke " was a common Jewish metaphor for discipline or obligation, especially in reference to the service of the Law. Thus, in the Apocalypse of Baruch : " For lo ! I see many of Thy people who have withdrawn from Thy covenant, and cast from them the yoke of Thy Law " (xli. 3). Comp. Lam. iii. 27 ; Ecclus. li. 26 ; Acts xv. 10 ; Gal. v. 1 ; Pirqe Aboth, iii. 8. In the Didache (vi. 2) we have " the whole yoke of the Lord," which probably means the Law in addition to the Gospel.1
Taking the text in its own simplicity we find three things in it —