uld be had without any cause; "Come unto me,"
He says, "and I will _give_ you Rest."

Rest, apparently, was a favor to be bestowed; men had but to come to
Him; He would give it to every applicant. But the next sentence takes
that all back. The qualification, indeed, is added instantaneously.
For what the first sentence seemed to give was next thing to an
impossibility. For how, in a literal sense, can Rest be _given_? One
could no more give away Rest than he could give away Laughter. We
speak of "causing" laughter, which we can do; but we can not give it
away. When we speak of "giving" pain, we know perfectly well we can
not give pain away. And when we aim at "giving" pleasure, all that we
do is to arrange a set of circumstances in such a way as that these
shall cause pleasure. Of course there is a sense, and a very wonderful
sense, in which a Great Personality breathes upon all who come within
its influence an abiding peace and trust. Men can be to other men as
the shadow of a great rock in a weary land; much more Christ; much
more Christ as Perfect Man; much more still as Savior of the world.
But it is not this of which I speak. When Christ said He would give
men Rest, He meant simply that He would put them in the way of it. By
no act of conveyance would or could He make over His own Rest to them.
He could give them

HIS RECEIPT

for it. That was all. But He would not make it for them. For one thing
it was not in His plan to make it for them; for another thing, men
were not so planned that it could be made for them; and for yet
another thing, it was a thousand times better that they should make it
for themselves.

That this is the meaning becomes obvious from the wording of the
second sentence: "Learn of me, and ye shall _find_ Rest." Rest, (that
is to say), is not a thing that can be _given_, but a thing to be
_acquired_. It comes not by an act, but by a process. It is not to be
found in a happy hour, as one finds a treasure; but slowly, as one
finds knowledge. It could indeed be no more found in a moment than
could knowledge. A soil has to be prepared for it. Like a fine fruit,
it will grow in one climate, and not in another; at one altitude, and
not at another. Like all growth it will have an orderly development
and mature by slow degrees.

The nature of this slow process Christ clearly defines when He says
we are to achieve Rest by _learning_. "Learn of me," He says, "and ye
shall find rest to you