gathered up into a sentence, "He is your Father. You ought to be anxious about standing in right relations with your Father." It is easy to show how that will open out into an answer to the questions, "How can we get back into right relations? And how can we keep in right relations?" Jesus says, "I am the Truth about the Father; I am the Way back to the Father; I am the Model Life of the Son with the Father," "No man cometh unto the Father but by me." Then we see the meaning andfoint of the closing verses of the chaprer. Jesus really says, "Come unto me, and will teach you how to be a son with his Father; and you will find that is rest to your rouls." I. THE RELA~0N~ o! TilE SoN A~D THE FfTHER. It would be to miss the point altogether to brmg lll ideas concernmg what lS called the "eternal Sonship." Our Lord is not thinking of his abstract and absolute Divine relationships. He was a Man; as a Man he was a Son; he was a model Son, a firstborn Son. His Sonship was 11, headship, a leadership; after him come a multitude of sons who, with him, call God their Father. In the expressions our Lord uses we can find two things characteristic of t~e relations between the Son and the Father; and representative of the proper relat10ns between every son and the Father. 1. Intimacy. "Truly our fellowship is with the Father." Observe, however, that our Lord speaks of it as a present intimacy, fullest confidence, mutual confidence, between the Father and the Son, though the Son was a Man in earthly spheres. 2. Trust. 'I'he Father fully gave all the earth- concerns, the redemptive earth-concerns, into the hands of his Son. In this, too, representing the trust he still pots in all who are sons in his Son. IL THE COMPETENCY OF THE SoN TO REVEAL THE FATHER, " The Son will reveal him." This will open out simply by showing how Jesus reveals (1) the Divine holiness; (2) the Divine pitifulness; (3) the Divine power; (4) the Divine love. But it needs to be seen that Christ reveals the Father by what he was, even more than by what he said or did.-R. 'I'. Ver. 29.-.A yoke for two. "Take my yoke upon you." Christ's yoke, of which he speaks here, is the yoke of Sonship, bis relation to God, and the responsibilities, duties, and burdens which it involved. And his point is that he did not want to bear that yoke alone. It wa.s a yoke meant for two. > It could only be borne a.right when disciples and he bore the yoke together. Illustration may be taken from the yoke fitted to the shoulders of the two oxen that drew the Eastern plough. 'I'hat yoke was only easy for each ox as they both cheerfully bore it together. So with the yoke of Sonship. It did not lie easy on Christ's shoulder unleRS his disciples bore it wilh him, It never could lie easy on their shoulder unless he bore it with them. It is true that rest comes for man in the spirit of sonship; but it is also true that it does not come to man in a lonel,y sonship-only in a sonship fully shared with Christ. I. A YOKE FOB ONE. "Take my yoke." There must be a sense in which our Lord's yoke was his own, and could be shared by nobody. And there is a sense in which each individual man must" bear his own burden." But Christ and we have more that is common to humanity, than that is unique to ourselves. We can a.nd do "bear one another's burdens." There is a tendency to exaggerate the uniqueness of our Lord's experience. It is healthier and wiser to dwell fully on the commonness of his experience and ours. The piece of the yoke on Christ was exactly his piere, and had its peculiar pressure; but it was only part of a yoke, which really lay on two shoulders. IL A YOKE Fon TWO. "Take my yoke upon you," and let us share it together; then it will grow light and easy for us both. Can we bear Christ's yo~e with ~m? Yes, if we understand aright what that yoke was. 1. It was. honouring God lJ;1 a gracious human life. We can shar~ in that. 2. It wa~ revealing God as the_ lovmg Father, in a beautiful human Sonsh1p. We can share lll that. 3. It was dorng the Father's work and seeking and saving the wandering and lost sons and daughters. We can share'in that. And the strange thing is that lifting up and sharing Chri~t•s yoke is the way to rut, the only way. Rest for any ~n can only come. ~ut of findmg the Father in heaven. No one can find the Father until he gets the Spmt of the Son in to his heart. Jesus seems to say, "My rest is in being a Son; my yoke is the yoke of Sonship. Bear my yoke, and you too shall find rest unto your souls."-R. 1'. ou. JUI. 1-60.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. MATTHEW. 483
Ver. 30.-The exchange of yokes. It is remarkable that so much attention should be given to the fir~t clause of this very familiar and beautiful passage, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden," and so little attention should be given to the later clause, "Take my yoke upon yon." These later clauses present the very auggeslive thought, that our spiritual dealing with Christ is an exchange of yokes. The "yoke" gives us the idea of a burden which calls for effort, and even strain, to bear it, and keep on bearing it. There is an exchange in all yoke-bearings of love. We and those whom we love bear yokes together. My friend bears mine, and I bear his. L OuB YOKE, AND THE WAY IN WHICH CaBIST TAKES IT. Our sins, our cares, our sorrows. Estimate what these are to Christ by what they are to us. Never think they become lighter because our Lord takes them on himself. But what a relief to us that shifting of our yoke is I Christ takes it: 1. Wholly. We need keep none for lonely bearing. 2. Cheerfully. Making us feel as if it were he that was benelited by the taking. 3. Lovingly. As if he would melt and win us by the taking. "'Tis enough that he should care ; Why should I the burden bear?" II. CHBIBT'B YOKE, AND THE WAY rn WHICH WE TAKE IT. 1. Yoke of Christian profession. 2. Yoke of Christian living. 3. Yoke of Christian duty. 4. Yoke of Christian affliction. These go to make up Christ's yoke, as it can become our yoke. We too often bear it half-heartedly, as a sort of must. Persons will sometimes say, "Oh yes, I submit, for there is nothing else I can do." But a true submission is willing submission, whether anything else can be done or not. Or we bear Christ's yoke carelessly, as though nothing were involved in the bearing, not even the supreme honour of our Divine Lord. How different Christ's yoke for us appears and is I We never really find out what it is while we only look at it. We know it when we lift it up on our shoulder; then. we find that the "yoke is easy, and the burden light."-R. T.