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wavering, but, through His own immutable, eternal Spirit, will pour into your heart the power to change no more.

Then, to prove to your Saviour that you really mean what you say (though even this He knows far better than yourself), hasten to commit yourself to some definite acts of obedience. Give up some things in which you at present indulge yourself. Exert some self-denials. Enter upon practical duties. Are Are you wealthy?-increase your charities; and besides those which you discharge in public, do others in secret, which shall only be known to your God. Are you poor? You may still "visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and keep yourself unspotted from the world." To these acts, and such as these, the lowly duties of a Christian, humbly commit yourself in faith. In them patiently continue. And He who knows all hearts, and sees that you really desire to alter your ways, doubt not but He will at last have mercy upon you, "stablish, strengthen, and settle you;" that "henceforth you be no more a child tossed to and fro," but "in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, come unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ."3

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SERMON XXII.

CHRIST'S YOKE THE CHRISTIAN'S REST.

MATTHEW Xi. 28.

Come unto Me, all ye that labour 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."

IN these words our Saviour gives from His own lips a most merciful invitation to the children of men. "Come unto Me," He says, "all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." "Come unto Me." Observe, my brethren, that expression; for it is the same which we also find in the Old Testament, addressed by Christ to the Israelites, at a time when, not yet having become flesh, He spake unto them by His Spirit in the prophets. Thus in Isaiah we read: "Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together. Look unto Me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth for I am God, and there is none else."1 1 Is. xlv. 20, 22.

Again: "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? Incline your ear, and come unto Me: hear, and your soul shall live."

Thus it was that, even before His Incarnation, the Eternal Word, the Everlasting Son of the Father, spake by His Spirit; and now, having come forth from the Father, and having come into the world, He again, with His own lips, entreateth us, saying, "Come unto Me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.”

"All ye that labour and are heavy laden." How many sorts of persons are here understood! How many thousands throughout the world, in one way or another, labour and are heavy laden! This was the case with the heathens of old, this was the case with the Jews in our Saviour's days, this is the case with many in these Christian times. The heathens laboured and were heavy laden under divers idolatries and foul superstitions, under ignorance concerning the nature of God and of themselves, under the weight of many deadly vices,

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through fear of death all their lifetime subject to bondage." The Jews, with a clearer revelation than was the lot of the heathens,-a religion. which, to those who had sufficient faith, spoke plainly of an Atonement to come,-lay nevertheless under the bondage of the law, looking rather to its 2 Heb. ii. 15.

1 Is. lv. 1.

letter which killed, than to its spirit which gave life,' and seeking righteousness, not by faith, but by the deeds of the law, by which no flesh could be justified: "for they stumbled at that stumblingstone." Then also, in addition to the letter of the law, they had suffered themselves to be laden by the Pharisees with divers traditions of men; "heavy burdens," as our Saviour Himself says, "and grievous to be borne;" and which could not deliver them from sin. And now, again, in these days many labour and are heavy laden, even among Christians! How many are there who, in their baptism, were made members of Christ, yet as they grew up, instead of keeping themselves pure, by the aid of the Holy Ghost given unto them, as they might have done, have fallen into divers wicked lusts and deadly habits, which have again brought them into bondage to Satan, and have laid heavy burdens upon them! And how And how many, while thus heavy laden, labour indeed, but only for this world; and being overwhelmed with covetous desires and inordinate love of riches, are neither able nor willing to follow Jesus Christ! Others, again, there are, who labour and are heavy laden in a different way, who are grieved and groan at thinking over the variety and greatness of their sins; yet, through ignorance of the true faith, never come to their Redeemer for His Absolution in the way which He would have them come, and so continue 2 Rom. ix. 32.

1 2 Cor. iii. 6.

3 Matt. xxiii. 4.

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burdened all their days. Others are wearied and labour under the troubles of life: under bodily pain, sickness, lowness of spirits, afflictions, or the loss of relations, things which, as they declare, make life itself a burden to them; and numbers every year do, in fact, on this account put an end to their lives, thinking, foolishly, to escape their burden in that way, whereas they only change it for one far heavier and more lasting.

Now, to all persons whatever, who in any manner labour and are heavy laden, there is no way but one of throwing off this burden; and that is to be found in Him "who is the way, and the truth, and the life."

"Come unto Me," says our blessed Saviour, " all

ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Hearken unto this, as though your Saviour Himself was speaking to you; and as He died for yourself in particular, and in your baptism has vouchsafed unto you admission into all the privileges of His incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection; so be you also persuaded, beyond all doubt, that whatever kind of burden you have on your soul, it may be removed by rightly coming to Christ, who is both able and willing to ease you of it. Happy indeed if you but feel your burden so only as to seek Christ for the removal of it; for too many are quite ignorant of their own wretchedness, and seeming to themselves to have

1 John xiv. 6.

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