The herald., 1897-01-11
claims that his kind of life is full of


followed him? A life of hunted perse-
cution and suffering. BE taking heed
Of men. for they will deliver you up to
councils, and in their synagogues they
Will scourge you; yea, and before gov
ernors and kings shall we be. brought for
My names sake. l send you forth as
sheep in the midst of wolves. And ye
shall be hated of all men for My names
sake. And when they persecute you in
this city. flee into the next. They shall
put you out of the synagogueS; yea, the
hour cometh that whosoever killeth you
shall think that he offereth service unto
God. In the world ye shall have trib-
ulation. but fear not. l have overcome
the world Like the call of the devoted
Mazzini who lifted up his voice in the
midst Of Italy's sorrow and cried to
the young life Of his fatherland to fol-
low him in his crusade for freedom, and
said: L have nothing to offer you but
poverty and rags and hardship and suf-
fering, yea, and death, with devotion to
our native country; so the cry of Christ
ringing out into the night of the worlds
misery and woe was no summons to
luxury and ease-it was an invitation
to sorrows and stripes and sacrifice. 1t
was the call to the cross And when we
come to think about it, either there is
a strange incongruity. in His words or
we have q false method of living. Come
and 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 If
any man would come after Me let him
deny himself and take up his cross daily
and follow Me- ross-bearing does not
appeal to US as restful occupation. To
put ON the yoke of sacrificial service is
the last method anybody would think of
as means OF securing peace and JOY.
Yet Jesus said that the way to find rest
was to take his yoke and learn of him
to follow the cross bearer.
Nor is the philosophy of this position
difficult of comprehension when we get
at the Masters definition both of life
and happiness. To Him life was not
made up of things but of principles. 1t
did not consist i'll the abundance of pos
session. To live was to come to state
of God-consciousneSs, to point where
man realized the large and divine pos
SibilitieS of his manhood. To strive and
worry in order to heap up petty ac-
emulation of tinsel and dross, to work
and agonize for the passing plaudits of
the multitude was not to live. But to
grasp the divine purpose running
through every one of US, to catch
glimpse of the holy ideal that hoverS
over our life seeking to actualize itself
III uS, " Dt lllitu dDONt lIlc DldHe vi
shifting circumstance and condition into
the mighty calm of God, and to give ones
self up to an utterance in every day eX-
perience of the mind and heart of God,
this was to live all else was mere eX-
istence. MY meat and drink is to do the
will of Him that sent me-" The Master
never measured His life or His happi-
ness by what men were doing to Him or
what they said about Him. Whether He
possessed much or little did not enter
into the question of life. He lived in
duties and service. He found the center
of life in something other than external
conditions. He lived on a plane where
things had no power to disturb him. His
great concern was not in eating and
drinking, or in gathering together
bundle of stuff he could call his own.
but it was in bringing his practice up
to the measure of his conscience. Life
was a matter of Righteousness, of 10y
atty to the best truth He knew. To the
man whose heart is not centered in
things. there is no power in mere things
to disturb. Unrest to such a one is
not matter of circumstance but of soul.
Disquiet is the issue of a conflict be-
tween conduct and conscience. The life
of the Master was a life of utter dedica-
ton to the task of making others bet
ter. 1t was a complete conservation to
what he considered His Messiaric mis-
SlOIl. I1cllCe every SOIIOW ttldl met II iii
in the way, every suffering that fastened
itself to Him as He toiled in what He
conceived to be the work God gave Him
to do had no power to disturb Him.
The very cross was to Him sign that
He was doing the will of His Father
So crosS-bearng was restful to His
spirit though it tore His flesh asunder.
Here is the secret of the rest that he
had and which He promised to the men
who would follow Him: L do always
the will of My Father which is in heav-
en- Measuring life less by its comforts
than by its conservation, he could be
joyful when surrounded by conditions
that were breaking His poor body in
twain. BY His very suffering he was
proving His sonshp.
His conception of happiness was. diff
ferent from ours. who profess to be His
disciples. We call ourselves happy when
1t goes well with us materially. Not so
the Master. He was happy when He
did well. Look at His description of the
happy ones as recorded in the opening
of the sermon on the mount--in what we
are wont to call the 'beatitudes,' or
sources of happiness. Who are the hap
py? They are the poor in spirit, those
who weep with the Wretched, the gen.
tie and self-repressive, they that show
mercy, the pure in heart the peace
makers, they that are prosecuted for
tDelr III lTlSnleOuSDeSS,tney
that are hungry to be righteous and to
get Righteousness into the life of men.
"At no time did Jesus promise external
peace to His followers. He warned
them repeatedly that in the world their
portion would be sorrow ard trial. But
He declared that if they would only get
at the business of living from His stand
point that the power in conditions to
disquiet them would fall away, and that
even in the midst of their sufferings they
would have rest unto their souls. 1t
is the calmness of large conviction and
earnest consecra ton. 1t is the still place
in the heart of the storm. 1t is the peace
that comes to the men who know that
they are found in the way of duty. 1t is
the rest of crucifiXon.
$50 Jesus stood up in the midst of our
l,fe, where we are all of us troubled and
worn in getting and spending, busy end
lessly with our poor little schemes to
make money or a name for ourselves,
and as He looked out upon it's sorry con-
fiict and it's useless extravaganza of
mind and heart and time, its fretting and
peevishness, its tears and restlessness.
he cried aloud: Come unto Me all ye
that labor ard are heavy laden. you poor,
foolish strivers after things that bring
10 peace when they are achieved, come
unto Me, take My yoke of unselfish SER
vice upon you, learn of Me the way of
a larger ideal and diviner conservation
and all this wretched conflict will cease
and We shall find rest unto your souls
AS a friend writes in one of his books:
aTba life of fret and friction ia il1Ira