Two painters each painted a picture to illustrate his conception of
rest. The first chose for his scene a still, lone lake among the
far-off mountains. The second threw on his canvas a thundering
waterfall, with a fragile birch-tree bending over the foam; at the
fork of a branch, almost wet with the cataract's spray, a robin sat on
its nest. The first was only _Stagnation_; the last was _Rest_. For in
Rest there are always two elements--tranquillity and energy; silence
and turbulence; creation and destruction; fearlessness and
fearfulness. This it was in Christ.

It is quite plain from all this that whatever else He claimed to be or
to do, He at least

KNEW HOW TO LIVE.

All this is the perfection of living, of living in the mere sense of
passing through the world in the best way. Hence His anxiety to
communicate His idea of life to others. He came, He said, to give men
life, true life, a more abundant life than they were living; "the
life," as the fine phase in the Revised Version has it, "that is life
indeed." This is what He Himself possessed, and it was this which He
offers to mankind. And hence His direct appeal for all to come to Him
who had not made much of life, who were weary and heavy-laden. These
He would teach His secret. They, also, should know "the life that is
life indeed."


II. WHAT YOKES ARE FOR.