Pax Vobiscum | Page 7

the word "yoke" here in the same
sense as in the expressions "under the yoke," or "wear the yoke in his
youth." But in Christ's illustration it is not jugum of the Roman soldier,
but the simple "harness" or "ox-collar" of the Eastern peasant. It is the
literal wooden yoke which He, with His own hands in the carpenter
shop, had probably often made. He knew the difference between a
smooth yoke and a rough one, a bad fit and a good fit; the difference

also it made to the patient animal which had to wear it. The rough yoke
galled, and the burden was heavy; the smooth yoke caused no pain, and
the load was lightly drawn. The badly fitted harness was a misery; the
well-fitted collar was "easy." And what was the "burden"? It was not
some special burden laid upon the Christian, some unique infliction
that they alone must bear. It was what all men bear. It was simply life,
human life itself, the general burden of life which all must carry with
them from the cradle to the grave. Christ saw that men took life
painfully. To some it was a weariness, to others a failure, to many a
tragedy, to all a struggle and a pain. How to carry this burden of life
had been the whole world's problem. It is still the whole world's
problem. And here is Christ's solution: "Carry it as I do. Take life as I
take it. Look at it from My point of view. Interpret it upon My
principles. Take My yoke and learn of Me, and you will find it easy.
For My yoke is easy, works easily, sits right upon the shoulders, and
therefore My burden is light." There is no suggestion here that religion
will absolve any man from bearing burdens. That would be to absolve
him from living, since it is life itself that is the burden. What
Christianity does propose is to make it tolerable. Christ's yoke is simply
His secret for the alleviation of human life, His prescription for the best
and happiest method of living. Men harness themselves to the work and
stress of the world in clumsy and unnatural ways. The harness they put
on is antiquated. A rough, ill-fitted collar at the best, they make its
strain and friction past enduring, by placing it where the neck is most
sensitive; and by mere continuous irritation this sensitiveness increases
until the whole nature is quick and sore.
This is the origin, among other things, of a disease called "touchiness
"--a disease which, in spite of its innocent name, is one of the gravest
sources of restlessness in the world. Touchiness, when it becomes
chronic, is a morbid condition of the inward disposition. It is self-love
inflamed to the acute point; conceit, _with a hair-trigger._ The cure is
to shift the yoke to some other place; to let men and things touch us
through some new and perhaps as yet unused part of our nature; to
become meek and lowly in heart while the old nature is becoming
numb from want of use. It is the beautiful work of Christianity
everywhere to adjust the burden of life to those who bear it, and them
to it. It has a perfectly miraculous gift of healing. Without doing any

violence to human nature it sets it right with life, harmonizing it with
all surrounding things, and restoring those who are jaded with the
fatigue and dust of the world to a new grace of living. In the mere
matter of altering the perspective of life and changing the proportions
of things, its function in lightening the care of man is altogether its own.
The weight of a load depends upon the attraction of the earth. But
suppose the attraction of the earth were removed? A ton on some other
planet, where the attraction of gravity is less, does not weigh half a ton.
Now Christianity removes the attraction of the earth; and this is one
way in which it diminishes men's burden. It makes them citizens of
another world. What was a ton yesterday is not half a ton to-day. So
without changing one's circumstances, merely by offering a wider
horizon and a different standard, it alters the whole aspect of the world.
Christianity as Christ taught is the truest philosophy of life ever spoken.
But let us be quite sure when we speak of Christianity that we mean
Christ's Christianity. Other versions are either caricatures, or
exaggerations, or misunderstandings, or shortsighted and surface
readings. For the most part their attainment is hopeless and the results
wretched. But I care not who the person is, or through what vale of
tears he has passed, or is about to pass, there is a new life for him