SERMON XXIV.

CHRIST'S YOKE EASY TO THE SUBJECTS OF HIS KINGDOM.

BY THE REV. JOHN MACFARLANE, DALKEITH.

"For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”—MATT. xi. 30.

YES, BRETHREN, it is so!

These are the words of the faithful and true Witness. His yoke is easy, and His burden is light; but in a sense different from that in which it is generally understood by the world. This is one of the declarations of Scripture that is apt to be perverted and misapplied by men, who would make the requirements of Christ easy, by bringing them down to the level of their own natural capacities or sinful inclinations. With unseriptural and superficial views of the nature and extent of Christian obedience, they would employ the language which was designed to soothe and comfort the faint but still pursuing disciple, to extenuate their love of the world, to excuse their sloth and self-indulgence, or even to justify their carelessness and sin.

Here, says the cold and formal professor, whose name is enrolled among the friends of Christ, but whose heart is with the world-here is the text for me. Let men speak as they may about the difficulties, conflicts and trials of the Christian life, I have found none of them. According to the representation of its author himself, religion, even such a religion as He enjoins, is at once easy and pleasant. Christ makes no exorbitant demands upon his followers. He imposes no heavy restraints. There is no undue strictness in his prohibitions or commands. Although, therefore, I make no great sacrifice of personal ease or present enjoyment, and have no pretensions to goodness above my neighbours, I may surely hope that I shall not be disowned by him, who Himself declares, that His yoke is easy, and his burden light. Thus does a gay and an unthinking world construct for themselves a cross of amber-a light and ornamental material which they may almost unconsciously carry about with them, and which, while it indicates profession, neither reminds them of suffering, nor burdens them with its weight.

But look again into the Bible. In every page we see evidence fitted

to undeceive those who have taken up such an impression of what it is to be a Christian. Is not the first lesson, which every disciple in the school of Christ must learn, to deny himself and take up his cross and follow his master? When he has made his entrance upon the Christian course, is he not taught to expect that not only strait shall be the gate, but that narrow shall continue to be the way that leadeth unto life? Are not the diligence and laborious perseverance of the husbandman—the watchfulness and vigour of the soldier-the strenuous efforts of the racer, animated by the surrounding spectators, and cheered with the prospect of the prize-are not these some of the emblems employed in Scripture to represent the carefulness and assiduity demanded of every follower of Jesus?

Is Christ's yoke not easy then? Is there not force and meaning in his own words? Yes, most assuredly; but it is easy only to them who, having heard his voice, have come unto him at his call, and who have thus received the will, the grace, the strength, to take it upon them, and to bear it. A thing is easy to be done just in proportion to the power of doing it. It is easy for a man to lift a weight which a child could not move from the ground. It is easy for the bird to soar into the atmosphere, and for the fish to make its way through the waters; their natures are suited to their respective elements; but it were impossible for man to do either. So, in the spiritual world, what becomes natural and easy to a believing and renewed soul, is impossible to a sinner in his carnal state. What is impossible to nature, is easy to grace.

That the true meaning and practical influence of our text may, by the blessing of God, be understood and felt by us, let us attend for a moment to what is implied in the yoke and burden which Christ requires his disciples to bear. For, how easy and light soever that yoke and burden may be, the language means something, and it cannot mean less, than subjection, restraint, and persevering fealty and obedience.

The yoke is the well known emblem of subjection to the power of a conquerer. Nations vanquished in war, were sometimes made by their haughty victors to pass under the yoke. And this was a form of expression to which the ears of the Jews were familiar, as having been employed by their prophets to represent bondage and captivity. A burden, too, is a no less expressive emblem of servitude and restraint. It is borne, not for personal gratification, but at the will of a master. And both the yoke and the burden which Christ imposes, are expressions which imply, not occasional acts of homage; not a Sabbath day's service; not a morning and evening prayer; but a habitual, steady, sustained recognition of his authority and obedience to his will.

The language of our text, viewed in connection with other representa

tions of Scripture, instructs us, that they who have taken Christ's yoke and burden upon them, have first of all been subdued by his grace. They have given in, and received the victor. The citadel of their hearts has been assailed and taken by the gracious King who is set upon the If the holy hill of Zion. They are not their own, they are Christ's. rebellious will has not been altogther subjugated, it has been brought habitually under his control. If the soul, once dead, has not attained the maturity of the spiritual life, it has at least been made spiritually alive. The heavenly conqueror has made to himself a willing people in the day of his power. His authority is regarded as the rule, his love as the motive, his example as the model, his glory as the end of the service yielded by them, who carry the badge of subjection to their heavenly King.

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Now, we go on to observe, that, in reference to such, Christ's yoke is easy, and his burden light,-1st, Because, having come to Christ, they have received the willing mind to bear it. This you observe is the order of His invitation is things required by Christ in the passage before us, just, Come unto me—that is, believe on me— —give your hearts to me; and easy, for will love then, taking my yoke upon you, you will find it the Master, and you will love his service. But men sadly reverse this order, or they attempt to take up the burden without reference to the previous invitation at all. They are thus soon tempted to break the bands of subjection to Christ altogether; or they modify the form and pressure of the yoke in a way entirely contrary to the will of their Master; or, they sink into a state of discouragement and perplexity under its insupportable weight. This, brethren, is by no means wonderful. They would mount up with the wings of the eagle, but they have no wings. They would run, but they have no feet. The moral precepts of the New Testament enjoin purity of heart, integrity of purpose, consistency, elevation, and spirituality of character-forbid every unholy wish, every sinful propensity, every forming emotion of evil-and call for the constant imitation of a pattern of unrivalled excellence. While all this may be acknowledged as most desirable and lovely, it is utterly at variance with the tastes and dictates of the fallen heart. To give religion a certain measure of regard to let it have what they choose to call its own share of their time and attention-seems to men reasonable enough. But to fear the Lord always-to love him with the whole heart to glorify him in all things-to live every hour and minute of every day as seeing him who is invisible-to pray without ceasing; this, to the natural man who is of the earth, earthy, is to drag a heavy and an ever-lengthening chain. For, every step he advances, while his will and affections are rivetted down to the earth, the extent of the require

ment becomes more visible, while he has no greater disposition or moral power to obey.

In religion, brethren, as in all things else, if we would find the way plain and pleasant, we must begin at the beginning. And this is the beginning of the Christian walk,-" I," saith the Saviour, "am the door; by me, if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out and find pasture." Entering by this the true door, which is opened by the hand of faith, and advancing along the path which is trode by the foot of faith, the will and the strength are supplied by the Spirit of Christ to prosecute the heavenward journey. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Union to him causes the old will, the hard heart, the downward affections to pass away, and all things to become new. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit. He wills what Christ wills. He delights in the law of the Lord after the inward man. He is transferred from a connection with an old and earthly, into a union with a new and spiritual covenant head; and from that point, the most momentous in the history of a redeemed soul, it begins, according to its spiritual nature, to bring forth fruit unto God.

Hence do you see, how and why it is that Christ's yoke is easy. They who are impelled by fear to relinquish a course they love—they who yield a constrained obedience to the duties they are averse to perform-find that the command of Christ is a burden too grievous to be borne. But let me once hear with the ear of faith the voice of Christ saying, "Come unto me," and a new era in my spiritual existence is begun. I have received the willing mind, which is the moral power to obey. It is easy to serve a master whom we love. When my eye, therefore, is opened to see the King in his beauty, to behold the combination of every rare and Divine quality in Him, who is the sum and centre of all excellence, the source and completion of all good, then shall the knee be bowed before him, not in an unwilling or formal homage, but as expressive of the loyalty of the heart. It is easy to serve a generous benefactor, and when I have been brought to feel my obligation to redeeming love-to know that Christ became poor, that I might be made rich; that he endured the curse, that I might obtain the blessing; that He died, that I might live; that He was crowned with thorns, that I might be crowned with glory-then, no service, no devotedness shall be deemed too complete, to give utterance to the gratitude that warms my bosom. It is easy to do what we love to do, and the renewed heart loves dearly to follow Christ, loves to be like Him, loves to be fitted to be with Him, to see and to share his glory. And if, beloved brethren, you know anything of the feeling of the devout Psalmist when he says "As the hart panteth after the water brooks, so No. 25.-SER. 24.

panteth my soul after God, the living God," then do you know in your own experience, better than tongue can tell, that Christ's yoke is easy and his burden light.

2d, The yoke and burden of Christ are easy and light, to such as we have described, because there is a pure satisfaction imparted to their mind, even in the very exercises of self-denial and self-abasement which He enjoins. By an exclusive attention to the preceding observations, we might be led to suppose that there was no struggle or opposition at all to be encountered in the way of Christian obedience. But every believer knows that it is not so. There is a warfare to carry on-a race

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to run-so that we may obtain. This arises, not from anything in the command of Christ, which an innocent or holy creature would feel it an effort or a sacrifice to obey. It arises from the depravity and sinfulness of man. When two elements of an opposite nature meet, the one contends with the other, till the more powerful prevail. Thus, water will quench the fire, or the fire will dry up and dissipate the water. saving grace of God in the heart of man cannot subsist in union with sin that has a previous empire there. Grace assaults sin, wounds it, slays it—but not without a protracted conflict. The breath of sin does not expire but with the breath of life. The soul of man is the arena of this contest. The believing sinner is the subject of that grace, which quickens, strengthens, sustains him to fight the good fight of faith, and to obtain the victory. Hence the many admonitions of Scripture, to mortify our members which are upon the earth, to crucify the flesh, to watch and pray lest we enter into temptation.

But while the subject of Christ's kingdom is appointed to such service as this, and while, in some sense, it is a hard and painful service, what after all is he doing? He is rooting out the enemies of his soul-he is breaking the chains of his captivity-he is removing the barriers in his path to the true perfection of his nature. As each successively yields to the force of that new and holy principle that has been implanted within him, he enjoys the happiness of a triumph unmixed with the insolence of conquest, for he is ever ready to say, "Not I, but the grace of God that was in me." And if, brethren, the pleasure of victory is proportioned to the strength and malignity of the enemy subdued, how pleasing and how pure must be the emotion awakened in the soul which, by Divine grace, has overcome the enemies that would have degraded and enslaved it for ever? Though there is thus, therefore, a struggle continually going on in the soul of a believer-the flesh lusting against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh-it is the conflict of light with darkness-it is the war of holiness against sin-it is the moving of the Eternal Spirit upon the confused and refractory elements of our depraved estate-to