^| It must have been at one of the early meetings [with
University students at Edinburgh], when he had for text the
grand Gospel invitation in the end of the eleventh of Matthew,
that Mr. Drummond used an illustration which caught their
1 0. Silvester Hume. 2 Erskioe of Linlathea.
ST. MATTHEW xi. 29, 30 277
attention and guided some to the discipleship of Christ. "You ask what it is, this coming to Christ. Well, what does Jesus Himself tell you here ? He says, ' Learn of me.' Now, you are all learners. You have come to Edinburgh, some of you from the ends of the earth, to learn. And how did you put yourself in the way of learning what is here taught ? You went to the University office and wrote your name in a book. You matriculated ; and becoming a University student, you went to get from each individual professor what he had to teach. So, with definite purpose to learn of Christ, must you come to Him and surrender yourself to His teaching and guidance." Sometimes thereafter, when a happy worker had to tell of a new addition to the number of Christ's disciples, he would pleasantly say that So-and-so had " matriculated." 1
2. Jesus gives us a perfect pattern of submission. " I am meek and lowly in heart." Here alone in the New Testament is mention made of the heart of Jesus. He whose yoke we take, whose service we enter, whose lesson we learn, is lowly in heart ; His love stoops from heaven to earth ; His care is for all who are weary with earth's vain service, all who are down-trodden in the hurry and rush of life. In Him they shall find what their souls need ; not freedom from sickness, sorrow, or death, not deliverance from political or social injustice. No; He Himself suffered patiently ; He endured these hardships and the agony of loneli- ness, desertion, and misunderstanding. He gives rest and re- freshment to the soul. When meekness enters into the heart and is enthroned therein as a queen, a revolution takes place in that heart. At the gentle swaying of her wand many a Dagon crumbles to the ground. Pride must go, false ambition must go, resentment must go, jealousy must go ; all these false gods must go, and take their baggage with them. And when all those have left, the roots of restlessness and worry will be plucked from that heart.
TJ In the meekness and lowliness of Jesus lies great part of His mastery over men ; in meekness and lowliness like those of Jesus lies our rest. . . . The ornament of a meek and quiet spirit is like the dust from flowers in bloom. It insinuates and instils. The meek man is not without opinions, or a stranger to enterprise. He does not live in an untroubled sphere, but he has no desire to see his
1 G. A. Smith, The Lift of Henry Drummond, 309.
278 REST UNDER THE YOKE
opinion imposed on any. Children find out the meek ; for meekness is the childhood of the soul. Haughty men are never young, the meek never grow old. Most of us have known some. The young are warmed by them, the middle-aged soothed, the old supported. Meek hearts live for ever : they are the stock of an immortal tree. They inherit lives that live after them, they are spiritual children. David says, " God is meek " : Christ says, " I am meek." The Holy Spirit's emblem is a dove. The dove comes when you do not stir it. Ask gently in silent prayer. He came thus to Christ, and will to you when kneeling and broken down. Thou, who art Thyself meek and lowly, take pity and create in us Thy meekness.1
3. We must learn humility, because without it there can be no true obedience or service. Humility is the keynote of the Divine music which Jesus came to make in our world. It is because we have lost it that all has become discord. It is the keystone of the arch of the Christian virtues. It is because that is wanting that the whole structure of the Christian character so often crumbles into ruin. We are loth to give meekness that prominent position among the Christian virtues which Christ assigned to it. We often go so far as to put pride in its place, though pride is probably the most hateful of all vices in the sight of God. Without meek- ness it is impossible to perforin any good and acceptable service to our fellow-men, for pride vitiates and stultifies all we do ; and it is impossible to love and serve God, for pride banishes us from Him, since it is written : " As for the proud man, he beholdeth him afar off." True humility, therefore, must be ours if we would obtain rest unto our souls.
TJ The man that carries his head high knocks it against a great many lintels which he who stoops escapes. The lightning strikes the oak, not the grass. If you wish to be restless and irritated and irritable all your days, and to provide yourself with some- thing that will always keep you uncomfortable, assert yourself, and be on the look-out for slights, and think yourself better than people estimate you, and be the opposite of meek and humble, and you will find trouble enough.2