ly 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, he has to take God’s plan and then 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 power. That was His yoke. We begin by willing the will of God, we come to choose it, and we end by delighting in it. And that is The Secret of Rest Will you take the yoke of God today? God’s will comes to us (first) by His Spirit, (second) by His Word, and (thirdly) by circumstances. And I think it is in circumstances that we are most tested. It is just there that we have to meet God, and just as in some electric light the two points have to come very close together before the light shines between them, so the point of your will and the point of God’s will have to touch, and then the light of acquiescence and peace flashes out. You know of course what a corn on the foot is—the shoe rubs it, and nature throws out a shield of hard skin, which we call a corn: and the tender flesh is under the corn. There have been things in my life that fretted and worried me, and I seemed to throw out a little corn, and was strong and hard and bore up like a martyr, like a hero. But I learned that that was not the sweetest way. I was running away from God’s will whenever I had a chance, and evaded it. I have learned better lately—just quietly day by day to let God’s will play upon my heart, not running from it, not hiding from it, but taking it. I take His yoke. There are some people who bear the yoke because they cannot help it; there are other people who take it. Have you taken it? Take it now by your will. You have lost your dear husband or wife or you have lost your money. Learn to look up into the face of the Crucified, and say: “ Jesus, I take the yoke.” When you are driving a young horse, if that horse frets and kicks, it simply gets itself into a lather, but it has to go your way after all. Much better for the young horse if, instead of plunging and kicking and fretting, it would only take the collar and the bit right away. That is what you are—a young colt; and you are foaming and fretting and working yourself into a fury. You will never get right in that way. Come back, and quietly take what God permits, and understand that in that there is the secret of rest: and a new tranquillity will come. You will have your floods of tears, but you will say: “ I take the will of God.” “ Anoint thine head and wash thy face.” I am very fond of that verse. We go about whining: “ 0 dear! my suffering!” And so we give people the conception that God is very hard, and everybody pities us, and it is rather comfortable to be pitied. You feel that you are somebody if you excite somebody else’s pity, and in that you get your reward. But if you anoint your head, and wash your face, and put on your sweetest look, and dress your nicest, and live your sweet orderly self, hiding your pain in your heart, God who seeth in secret, will reward you openly, and you shall live to see what you thought absolutely necessary to your life to be a handful of withered leaves. I thank God for my disappoint ments, because I see now that they were His appointments. There are the two other methods by which you can find rest in your soul. The one is by faith. “ We which have believed do enter into rest” (Heb. 4:3). Faith has two hands. With one hand faith is always hand ing over, and with the other she is always reaching down: the “ up and down” life. The angels went up on the ladder carrying Jacob’s worries, and they came down the ladder bringing God’s help. Page Ten
G O D BLESS M Y MOTHER G o d bless her hands that blessed my infant head, The day that they first laid me on her bed! G o d bless her hands, now clasped in prayer for me— ' The hands that taught me first to worship Theel G o d bless her head, now white as winter snows, And shelter it from every wind that blows! God bless her heart, whose constant mother love O f each fond wish, each eager plan, each dream! "Love never faileth!" Grant, O God, the gleam O f mother love's fair vision may not pass, But, when the mirror of life's darkling glass Is shattered, may give place to joyous sight! 0 Love Divine, W ho gave Thine only Son To bear the guilt and shame of souls undone, And give them glory— grant her wish, I pray, Her love's dear hope, fulfilled upon that day When faith is lost in sight . . . G o d bless her now, Beyond my tenderest thought— Thou knowest howl —Gaylord Du Bois. Do you know what it is when you are worried, to kneel down and say to God: “ Father, take this,” and by one definite act to hand over the worry to God and leave it there? If there is one thing that annoys me more than another, it is for a man to say to me: “ Will you do this?” I say: “ Certainly.” Then he keeps sending letters all the time to remind me. I conclude: “ That man does not trust me.” So when I have really handed a thing over to God, I leave it there, and I dare not worry for fear it would seem as if I mistrusted Him. But I keep looking up to Him—I cannot help doing that—and say: “ Father, I am trusting.” Like my dog at home: he used to worry me very much to be fed at dinner, but he never got any food that way. But lately he has adopted something which always conquers me: he sits under the table, and puts one paw on my knee. He never barks, never leaps around, never worries me, but he sits under the table with that one paw on my knee, and that conquers me: I cannot resist the appeal. Although my wife says I never must do it, I keep putting little morsels under the table for him. Soul, do you know what I am talking about? That is the way to live—with your hand on God’s knee. Say: “ My God, I am not going to worry; I am not going to fret; but there is my hand, and I wait until the time comes, and Thou shalt give me the desire of my heart.” Take His yoke, and trust Him. And then, lastly, reckon on God’s faithfulness. 1 remember so well J. Hudson Taylor coming to my church the first time I ever met him. He stepped on the platform and opened the Bible to give an address, and said: “ Friends, I will give you the motto of my life,” and he turned to Mark 11:22: “ Have faith in God.” The margin says: “Have the faith of God,” but J. Hudson Taylor said it meant: “ Reckon on God’s faith to you.” He continued: “ All my life has been so fickle. Sometimes I could trust, sometimes I could not, but when I could not trust then I reckoned that God would be faithful.” There is a text that says: “ If we believe not, yet he abideth faithful, he cannot deny himself.” And I some times go to God about a thing and say: “ My God, I really cannot trust Thee about this, I cannot trust Thee to pull me through this expenditure of money with my means, but I reckon on Thy faithfulness.” And when you,cease to think about your faith, and, like Sarah, reckon Him faithful, your faith comes without your knowing it, and you are strong. T H E K I N G 'S B U S I N E S S Best speaks to me of that which is above: Love that believeth, hopeth, beareth all For me. no matter how far short I fall
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