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of the world, by the choice of God,-separation from the world, to the fellowship of God,-sanctification by the truth for a holy mission into the world; identity also with the Eternal Son, in his knowledge of the Father, and his commission from the Father;—these constitute the unity of which we speak.

It is a unity whose beauty and whose blessedness a single, isolated, and solitary believer may himself experience, and exhibit to the conviction, or confusion, of some portion of the world's unbelief. Any two or three, agreeing together, may make it more palpable. And, as the branches of the visible Church become more pure in discipline, and more catholic in communion; and as the thick-coming and thick-crowding events of these last days force them more and more to coalesce; and, above all, as the Spirit is poured out from on high;-growing up into the Head, they will grow into one another; and thus at last a preparation may be in progress for the more open harmony of millennial glory.

CHRIST'S CALL TO THE WEARY.

"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."-MATT. xi. 28-30.

THIS is the voice of one promising great things; and things of surpassing excellence. Rest for them that labour; a light yoke and an easy burden for them that are heavy laden; and a lesson, moreover, in that meekness and lowliness of heart, which can wear the yoke without being fretted, and bear the burden without being oppressed;-what blessings more precious than these, or more suitable for those to whom they are proposed!-What blessings could be more valuable in themselves, or ought to be more welcome to the parties within whose reach they are placed!

The very ox knows the happiness of relief from toil, and sweet rest after drudging labour. And the patient ass, submissive to any yoke however galling, and any burden however excessive, can yet be grateful for a yoke that sits more easily on the neck, and a burden that does not crush the bent and broken back. The weary sinner is worn with travel over many a rough road and many a pathless waste. He is hungerworn, and toilworn also, through fruitless spending

of his money for that which is not bread, and his labour for that which satisfieth not ;-worn out, moreover, and worn down by the long-endured pressure of a weight too heavy to be borne. Wasted thus, through fatigue and famine,-through working for himself in vain, and wearing the felon's chain that rivets on his festering limbs the felon's intolerable load,-the weary sinner may well hail the prospect of these three inestimable blessings ;-first, for the present, refreshing ease; secondly, for the future, a reasonable service; and thirdly, the promise of being taught the art of turning both of these gifts to the best account;-and learning that temper and frame of mind in which the present ease is to be most fully enjoyed, and the future service most pleasantly rendered.

Rest, then, a yoke and burden easy and light,and instruction in meekness and lowliness of heart,— are the benefits here to be bestowed.

They are to be bestowed, moreover, on terms of most unbounded liberality; on all alike and indiscriminately, without restriction, limitation, or respect of persons; and on all with equal freedom and abundance; gratuitously and unreservedly-without upbraiding and without grudging, without money and without price.

One only stipulation does the bountiful bestower of them make, that they shall be received at his own hands, and taken directly and immediately from himself alone; "Come unto ine." Nor is this an arbitrary or unreasonable stipulation. For not only is he entitled, as the procurer and author of them, to require of all who want them, that they shall go nowhere else for them but to himself alone ;—it is a requisition rendered necessary by the very nature of the case. For the

blessings to be bestowed are of such a sort, and are to be communicated in such a manner, that the giver of them cannot but insist on these two conditions ;-first, that he shall himself be the sole dispenser of them; and secondly, that in obtaining them, all who labour and are heavy laden shall separately and individually— each on his own account and each for himself—" come unto him." He would have every one to deal personally and exclusively with him.

For, in a word, the blessings here to be bestowed are his own. They are his own,-not merely in the sense of their being his to purchase, merit, and obtain, and his to distribute and dispense, but in a sense far more special and personal,-a sense implying that they are his own so strictly and inseparably, that they never can be parted with or given away. He may share them with others, but he never can part with or give them away to others. If he could, they would not be the same excellent blessings that they are.

This is true of all the benefits which he has to bestow, whether here or hereafter.

I

says, "are

"In my Father's house," he "are many mansions, go to prepare a place for you: and if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again," To do what?To hand over to you the place so prepared ?—No, but "to receive you unto myself, that where I am ye may be also" (John xiv. 2, 3).

"To him that overcometh will I grant,"-What?— A throne of his own? No, but "to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame and sat down with the Father on his throne" (Rev. iii. 21).

"The glory which thou gavest me, I have given them."-How?-By parting with it, and giving it

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away to them? No, but by sharing it with them,"that they may be one as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one" (John xvii. 22).

Hence the singular and touching emphasis of such expressions as these,-" my peace," "my joy;" indicating that the peace and the joy meant are not merely the peace and the joy which He purchased and which He bestows, but His own peace and His own joy: the very peace and the very joy which Christ himself possesses, experiences, and feels; and in which, as his own— as thus actually possessed, experienced, and felt by himself he admits his people, as partners and partakers, to share.

easy,

The same idea seems evidently to be involved in the Lord's closing expressions, where he enforces his call by the consideration: "My yoke is and my burden is light." My yoke, he says, and my burden. It is not merely the yoke and burden which I impose,—that is but half the meaning, and a poor, cold, and tame meaning too, but the yoke and burden which I bear. It is my own yoke and burden; the very yoke and burden imposed upon myself.

It is "my yoke,-my burden;"-mine exclusively and inseparably ;-mine, for none can bear it instead. of me ;-mine, for none can bear it without me ;-mine, not to be received or taken by you from me, but to be taken upon you, with me and in me.

So also, when the Lord says, "Learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart,”—this is not merely a general commendation of himself as a teacher or tutor, at whose feet it may be very pleasant to sit, and under whose mild eye and gentle hand it may be a privilege

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