"Remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how He said"--
"My yoke is easy, and my burden is light."--Matt. xi. 30.
The Joyful Servitude.
Can the same be said of Satan, or sin? With regard to _them_, how
faithfully true rather is the converse--"my yoke is _heavy_, and my
burden is _grievous_!" Christ's service is a happy service, the _only_
happy one; and even when there is a cross to carry, or a yoke to bear,
it is His own appointment. "_My_ yoke." It is sent by no untried friend.
Nay, He who puts it on His people, bore this very yoke Himself. "He
_carried_ our sorrows." How blessed this feeling of holy servitude to so
kind a Master! not like "dumb, driven cattle," goaded on, but _led_, and
led often most tenderly when the yoke and the burden are upon us. The
great apostle rarely speaks of himself under any other title but _one_.
That _one_ he seems to make his boast. He had much whereof he might
glory;--he had been the instrument in saving thousands--he had spoken
before kings--he had been in Cæsar's palace and Cæsar's presence--he had
been caught up into the third heaven,--but in all his letters this is
his joyful prefix and superscription, "The _Servant_ (literally, _the
slave_) of Jesus Christ!"
Reader! dost thou know this blessed servitude? Canst thou say with a
joyful heart, "O Lord, truly I am Thy servant?" He is no hard
taskmaster. Would Satan try to teach thee so? Let this be the
refutation, "He loved me, and gave _Himself_ for _me_." True, the yoke
is the appointed discipline he employs in training his children for
immortality. But be comforted! "It is His tender hand that _puts_ it on,
and _keeps_ it on." He will suit the yoke to the neck, and the neck to
the yoke. He will suit His grace to your trials. Nay, He will bring you
even to be in love with these, when they bring along with them such
gracious unfoldings of His own faithfulness and mercy. How His people
need thus to be in heaviness through manifold temptations, to keep them
meek and submissive! "Jeshurun (like a bullock unaccustomed to the
harness, fed and pampered in the stall) waxed fat, and kicked." Never is
there more gracious love than when God takes His own means to curb and
subjugate, to humble us, and to prove us--bringing us out from
ourselves, our likings, our confidences, our prosperity, and putting us
under the needed YOKE.
And who has ever repented of that joyful servitude? Among all the ten
thousand regrets that mingle with a dying hour, and oft bedew with
bitter tears a dying pillow, who ever told of regrets and repentance
here?
Tried believer, has He ever failed thee? Has His yoke been too grievous?
Have thy tears been unalleviated--thy sorrows unsolaced--thy temptations
above that thou wert able to bear? Ah! rather canst thou not testify,
"The word of the Lord is tried;" I cast my burden upon Him, and He
"sustained me?" How have seeming difficulties melted away! How has the
yoke lost its heaviness, and the cross its bitterness, in the thought of
whom thou wert bearing it for! There is a promised rest in the very
carrying of the yoke; and a better rest remains for the weary and
toil-worn when the appointed work is finished; for thus saith "that same
Jesus,"
"TAKE MY YOKE UPON YOU, AND LEARN OF ME, ... AND YE SHALL FIND _REST_
UNTO YOUR SOULS."