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 phrase in the Revised Version
has it, "that is life indeed." This is what He himself possessed, and it
was this which He offers to all 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."




WHAT YOKES ARE FOR


There is still one doubt to clear up. After the statement, "Learn of
Me," Christ throws in the disconcerting qualification, "_Take My yoke_
upon you and learn of Me." Why, if all this be true, does He call it a
_yoke_? Why, while professing to give Rest, does He with the next breath
whisper "_burden_"? Is the Christian life, after all, what its enemies
take it for--an additional weight to the already great woe of life, some
extra punctiliousness about duty, some painful devotion to observances,
some heavy restriction and trammelling of all that is joyous and free in
the world? Is life not hard and sorrowful enough without being fettered
with yet another yoke?