own hearts, beware of evil, be ever on your guard, be sober, be diligent. The day of deliverance is at hand. Near is that last home where the weary are at rest. Faint not, but persevere. Stronger is He that is with you than he that is against you. His grace is sufficient for you. Ask, and ye shall receive. The path is indeed narrow, yet seek, and ye shall find. The gate is indeed strait, yet strive to enter in, and it shall be opened unto you.

SERMON XI.

CHRIST'S YOKE EASY.

MATT. 11. 28, 29, 30.

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.

We have lately been considering what is meant by striving to enter in at the strait gate. (See Luke 13. 24, and Sermon X.) And from that text we concluded that the true religion of the gospel requires constant exertion on the part of man, both in the belief of its doctrines, and in the practice of its commands. It humours not our pride. It allows not our indolence. It mortifies our passions. It cuts off our excuses. It baffles all our devices for serving God without cost or pains. It plainly tells

us that we are devoted to destruction, and that we can escape only by perseverance, and zeal, and fear, and trembling too, on our part, in working out our salvation.

How then, it may be asked, how comes it that the "yoke" of Christ is described in the text as "easy, and his burden light?" How will they, who labour and are heavy laden, gain by coming unto Him? And what is the nature of that rest which He promises we shall find for our souls? By way of answer to these questions, I purpose now to point out some few chief respects in which the yoke of Christ may be said to be easy, observing, as we proceed, how it comes to pass, that the difficulty of true religion, is by no means inconsistent with the rest which it will give unto our souls.

I. And first observe, the words of the text are addressed to those who "labour and are heavy laden." This shews what a sad condition we are in when without religion. And the yoke of Christ, however difficult in itself, may be reckoned easy, compared with that ignorance and sin

under which man naturally labours. The words were spoken by Christ originally to the Jews, to a people who had corrupted their divine revelation, and had found it to be to them a yoke which they could not bear. (See Acts 15. 10.) But to labour, and be heavy laden, is no less truly the case of every one, Gentile as well as Jew, whose heart is uninfluenced by the spirit of the gospel. We speak not here of those who never heard its glad tidings. However sad be their condition, it must be different from our own. Amongst ourselves then, amongst those who know the word of life, some there are who question its truth and divine obligation, men whose minds are tossed about with doubts, troubled with misgivings, who live without any comfortable hope of a future life, and who cannot be persuaded that the goodness of God has been revealed for the guidance of his creatures. Is not this to labour and be heavy laden? Is not thegospel of Christ able to give rest unto a soul thus ill at ease? Is not his yoke easy, his burden light? And all the mysteries of

his grace, are they not clear and acceptable, when compared with a state of such restless anxiety, such dark despair?

Some again are the slaves of wild and loose passions, living in a tumult of debauchery, idle to every good work, intemperate, impure; their bodies pampered, inflamed, diseased, hasting in youth to decay; their imaginations only evil continually; their tempers selfish, haughty, morose, violent; their souls helpless, hopeless, miserable. Here too, the gospel, and the gospel alone, can afford relief. Here too, if we compare with this service of sin, the duties which the gospel enjoins, we see readily, that, however difficult they may be, they, and they only, can give rest unto the soul. Repentance deep rooted in the heart, faith bringing forth the fruits of temperance, purity, and meekness; these, and no other more easy method can avail for the renewal of the inward man, for the enjoyment of peace in this life, or of heaven in the life which is to come.

Or see again how the love of the world, and of the world's goods, works commonly