in a thirsty land. Much more Christ; much more Christ as Perfect Man;
much more still as Saviour of the world. But it is not this of which I
speak. When Christ said He would give men Rest, He meant simply that
He would put them in the way of it. By no act of conveyance would, or
could, He make over His own Rest to them. He could give them His receipt
for it. That was all. But He would not make it for them; for one thing,
it was not in His plan to make it for them; for another thing, men were
not so planned that it could be made for them; and for yet another
thing, it was a thousand times better that they should make it for
themselves.

That this is the meaning becomes obvious from the wording of the second
sentence: "Learn of Me and ye shall _find_ Rest." Rest, that is to say,
is not a thing that can be given, but a thing to be _acquired_. It comes
not by an act, but by a process. It is not to be found in a happy hour,
as one finds a treasure; but slowly, as one finds knowledge. It could
indeed be no more found in a moment than could knowledge. A soil has to
be prepared for it. Like a fine fruit, it will grow in one climate and
not in another; at one altitude and not at another. Like all growths it
will have an orderly development and mature by slow degrees.

The nature of this slow process Christ clearly defines when He says we
are to achieve Rest by _learning_. "Learn of Me," He says, "and ye shall
find rest to your souls." Now consider the extraordinary originality
of this utterance. How novel the connection between these two words,
"Learn" and "Rest"? How few of us have ever associated them--ever
thought that Rest was a thing to be learned; ever laid ourselves out
for it as we would to learn a language; ever practised it as we would
practise the violin? Does it not show how entirely new Christ's teaching
still is to the world, that so old and threadbare an aphorism should