^ When our surrender is made, the pain of our sacrifice is great in proportion to our former selfishness. It is also harder to bear, or more protracted when there is any looking back. When we have once renounced our self-will and deliberately chosen the Will of God, if we look back we not only expose our- selves to grievous risk, but also we make everything so much harder to accomplish. If we would be brave in the surrender of the will, we must set our faces in the way of the higher life, con- template the beauty of the graces proposed to us, and deny the former gratifications and appeals of self-love. We shall indeed
1 A. M. MacVay.
282 REST UNDER THE YOKE
prove that the surrender of our will and the acceptance of God's Will is no pleasing action of the soul ; but rather that, again and again, as grace increases so love will be tested. And yet, so perfect is the response of Divine love, that habitual surrender of the will to God leads to great peace in the fact that we have no will but His. Thus St. Catherine of Siena was enabled to make so complete a surrender of her own will that our Lord gave her His "Will. She had made her communion with such devotion that she was led to pray "that He would take away from her all comforts and delights of the world that she might take pleasure in none other thing, but only in Him." If we are moved by a like holy desire, we should persevere in the constant surrender of the will ; nor let us be discouraged though we have to renew our efforts at ever-increasing cost. New and higher ways of self- surrender will appear, new opportunities of sacrifice will be pre- sented, greater and more interior sufferings will test us, whether our love is equal to really great things ; whether we will aspire to the heroism of the Saints in the effort after perfection. " Be ye perfect " is the Divine precept which echoes in the soul inflamed by love.1
4. When we give ourselves up to the Father as the Son gave Himself, we shall find not only that our yoke is easy and our burden light, but that they communicate ease and lightness ; not only will they not make us weary, but they will give us rest from all other weariness. Let us not waste a moment in asking how this can be ; the only way to know that is to take the yoke upon us. That rest is a secret for every heart to know, for never a tongue to tell. Only by having it can we know it. If it seem impossible to take the yoke upon us, let us attempt the impossible, let us lay hold of the yoke, and bow our heads, and try to get our necks under it. If we give our Father the opportunity, He will help and not fail us. He is helping us every moment, when least we think we need His help : when most we think we do, then may we most boldly, as most earnestly we must, cry for it. What or how much His creatures can do or bear God alone understands; but when it seems most impossible to do or bear, we must be most confident that He will neither demand too much nor fail with the vital Creator-help. That help will be there when wanted — that is, the moment it can be help. To be able beforehand to imagine ourselves doing or bearing we have neither claim nor need. 1 Jesse Brett, Humility, 11.
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^[ They tell ine that on a farm the yoke means service. Cattle are yoked to serve, and to serve better, and to serve more easily. This is a surrender for service, not for idleness. In military usage surrender often means being kept in enforced idle- ness and under close guard. But this is not like that. It is all upon a much higher plane. Jesus has every man's life planned. It always awes me to recall that simple tremendous fact. With loving, strong thoughtfulness He has thought into each of our lives, and planned it out, in whole, and in detail. He comes to a man and says, " I know you. I have been thinking about you." Then very softly — 'T — love — you. I need you, for a plan of Mine. Please let Me have the control of your life and all your power, for My plan." It is a surrender for service. It is yoked service. There are two bows or loops to a yoke. A yoke in action has both sides occupied, and as surely as I bow down my head and slip into the bow on one side — I know there is Somebody else on the other side. It is yoked living now, yoked fellowship, yoked service. It is not working for God now. It is working with Him. Jesus never sends anybody ahead alone. He treads down the pathway through every thicket, pushes aside the thorn bushes, and clears the way, and then says with that taking way of His, "Come along with Me. Let us go together, you and I. Yoke up with Me. Let us pull together." And if we will pull steadily along, content to be by His side, and to be hearing His quiet voice, and always to keep His pace, step by step with Him, without regard to seeing results, all will be well, and by and by the best results and the largest will be found to have come.1