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THE EASY YOKE

“Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”—Matt. 11:28-30

Satan the prince of this world has placed many yokes upon the necks of all mankind. They are bound and fettered by every device which he could arrange. But Jesus invites all such to come to him and find rest—the blessed rest of freedom from the galling yoke of the oppressor. That rest is found in the meek and quiet spirit which humbly submits to the easy yoke of the divine will and ceases the strife to gratify the perverted human will. The burden of the divinely imposed yoke is easy and light when we let it rest naturally upon us. It is only placed upon us for our good, and only those who cheerfully submit to it have rest and safety.

Our Lord’s words were addressed to those of his day, bound by Jewish creeds and traditions and their own fears, engendered by their erroneous misconception of God and his plan. As with the Jewish church, so with the Christian church, the “yokes” of sectarianism and the “burdens” of tradition, fetter and gall those who possess the spirit of Christ, whose zeal and love are according to knowledge and for Christ and the church which is his body, rather than for a sect of human organization. Such cannot be comfortable with the yokes and burdens of men and must claim the freedom of sons of God, the liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free.

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— February, 1887 —