e yoke with the Son of Man, doing the same labour with
him, and having the same feeling common to him and us! This, and nothing
else, is offered the man who would have rest to his soul; is required of
the man who would know the Father; is by the Lord pressed upon him to
whom he would give the same peace which pervades and sustains his own
eternal heart.

But a yoke is for drawing withal: what load is it the Lord is drawing?
Wherewith is the cart laden which he would have us help him draw? With
what but the will of the eternal, the perfect Father? How should the
Father honour the Son, but by giving him his will to embody in deed, by
making him hand to his father's heart!--and hardest of all, in bringing
home his children! Specially in drawing this load must his yoke-fellow
share. How to draw it, he must learn of him who draws by his side.

Whoever, in the commonest duties that fall to him, does as the Father
would have him do, bears His yoke along with Jesus; and the Father takes
his help for the redemption of the world--for the deliverance of men
from the slavery of their own rubbish-laden waggons, into the liberty of
God's husbandmen. Bearing the same yoke with Jesus, the man learns to
walk step for step with him, drawing, drawing the cart laden with the
will of the father of both, and rejoicing with the joy of Jesus. The
glory of existence is to take up its burden, and exist for Existence
eternal and supreme--for the Father who does his divine and perfect best
to impart his glad life to us, making us sharers of that nature which is
bliss, and that labour which is peace. He lives for us; we must live for
him. The little ones must take their full share in the great Father's
work: his work is the business of the family.

Starts thy soul, trembles thy brain at the thought of such a burden as
the will of the eternally creating, eternally saving God? 'How shall
mortal man walk in such a yoke,' sayest thou, 'even with the Son of God
bearing it also?'

Why, brother, sister, it is the only burden bearable--the only burden
that can be borne of mortal! Under any other, the lightest, he must at
last sink outworn, his very soul gray with sickness!

He on whom lay the other half of the burden of God, the weight of his
creation to redeem, says, 'The yoke I bear is easy; the burden I draw is
light'; and this he said, knowing the death he was to die. The yoke did
not gall his neck, the burden did not overstrain his sinews, neither