And What Was His Yoke?

Christ's yoke was His Father's will. "I delight to do Thy will, O God." Tow it is not to my purpose to discuss here the human and the divine side of Christ's character. But to me it is as though Christ curtained off His divine attributes, as we might allow the curtain of a theatre to drop from the roof and to shut off the whole of the apse behind. Any moment the curtain could be lifted, and I suppose you would still grant that apse to be a part of the building, but it would be curtained off for a definite purpose.

So for the purposes of understanding our human life in all its aspects, our Lord voluntarily emptied Himself, laid aside the use of His divine attributes, and was content to live as Elijah, or" John the Baptist, or as you and I have to live, a life of perpetual dependence upon God. Directly a creature lives so, it has to take God's plan, and then to take God's power. Whenever God gives a plan, He gives the soul everything which is necessary for its completion. So when Moses on the mountain saw the plan of the tabernacle, every diamond and pearl and piece of gold and silver and wood and carved work and embroidery complete, painted by the rainbow upon the cloud or standing before him like a fair vision, he knew that down below amongst the people he could find a duplicate for everything that he had seen.

So Jesus Christ was always looking at the Father's will, the Father's plan, and then seeking by faith the Father's power. That was His yoke. It came into evidence so often. For instance, when He healed on the Sabbath day, and they accused Him, He said: "I could not help it. My Father worketh hitherto, and I could do no other than work out what My Father wrought in." He went across the lake to give His disciples a vacation. Five thousand hungry men broke in, and in their advent He saw the intrusion of His Father's plan, and adopted it.

He started for the home of Jairus. A woman with a touch arrested Him, and in her slight touch He saw again His Father's will and plan, and waited to heal her. Then He moved leisurely forward, knowing that at the house of Jairus He would have sufficient power to raise his daughter. And in the garden it was His Father's will beneath which He bowed His meek soul, saying: " Not My will, but Thine!" In the context also there is a most lovely illustration of this. He had been wrestling from the human side (so to speak) with the great problem--why God hides things from the wise and prudent, and reveals them unto babes; and He said: " Even so, Father."

The Revised version translates it: " Yea, Father," but it ought to have translated it: " Yes, Father." Christ's life was a perpetual " YES" to God. And if you want to live a life of rest you must pace the weary furrow of your life with an upturned face, saying: " Yes, yes, yes." Always yes! A gentleman went into a deaf and dumb institution in London to inspect it, and at the close the boys and girls were gathered at the foot of the platform. He wrote on tile slate; "Why did God make you deaf and dumb, and me able to hear and speak?"

A sob went through the audience. Then a little boy came down the aisle, and took the chalk and wrote the answer beneath: " Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in Thy sight." That boy said "yes " to God. Some one says to me: "If I always had to do with God, I would not mind. If it was disaster, shipwreck, fire, anything which I could trust to God, I hope I am Christian enough to bow to it. But what worries me, and makes me feverish and restless, is that things come to me from my fellow-men. I cannot say 'yes' to those." Ah, my friend, you must! You will never get rest if you do not. I tried that myself once, and I found that I had at last to come to this, and to make