that your dear Saviour heard-"I have glorified it, and will glorify it again." Then will you hear the voice of His Spirit showing you how the Father is glorified in your bearing gladly the heavy cross. You will hear many a word of love and sympathy, of comfort and strength, to your tried and tempted and struggling spirit, such as you never heard in the hours of murmuring unsubmission. The sweet peace of God will steal through your soul as a flowing current from the throne, and you will gladly clasp the sorrow, however great, for the sake of the joy it brings you. So said one, poor in this world's goods, who had experienced this. "I had long carried a heavy load on my soul; but journeying on I chanced to hear from the lips of one sent to proclaim glad tidings to the heavy laden sweet words. I left the room a new man. For miles I walked with a heavy pack on my back, but as I walked my joy grew greater and my pack grew lighter. I felt it not; and turned instinctively round to feel whether or not it was on my shoulders." So did holy Paul pray three times that the thorn in his flesh might be removed. But at the end of the third prayer came the voice from heaven, "My grace is sufficient for thee." The burden was not removed, but fresh strength was given to bear it. Then how different was the result! "Most gladly will I glory in mine infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me." He clasped the cross for the sake

of the joy it brought him. So thousands of Christians have found it. Their heavy burdens have so blended with their peace that they could not separate them. They have clasped the cross for the sake of the joy it has brought with it. Thus have they experienced the truth of our Lord's well remembered words, "Your sorrow shall be turned into joy," that is, not that it shall be removed, but that the very sorrow itself shall become the very joy of the soul. Thus it is that the Lord's sorrowing and heavy laden ones find rest. Thus it is that one by one is moulded into the likeness of Jesus. Thus it is that even here we become like Him in some measure, and shall hereafter be known by the angels as brothers and sisters of the Lord Jesus by our likeness to Him.

This is the meaning of "tribulation." A learned writer, speaking of this word, says it is derived from the Latin word "tribulum." The "tribulum was an agricultural implement of the Romans, used to bruise the wheat and to shake from it the chaff by which it was surrounded. From this we have derived our word "tribulation," imparting to it the same spiritual signification which naturally attached to it as an instrument of agriculture among our Roman forefathers. "In the world ye shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world."

Let me, before passing, notice two further points

in this invitation.

Let us observe that the invitation

is not to those who work, but to those who "labour." This is not without its significance. We have this distinction brought before us in the Psalms; "Man goeth forth unto his work and to his labour till the evening." Again in the book of Revelation we have it. "I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me: Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord, from henceforth: yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours, and their works do follow them." What is the distinction? Labour is work's toil, work's sweat, work's drudgery. All this comes from the fall. When we have done with sin we shall have done with labour. But work shall never end. Nay more; we shall never begin to work in earnest till we have done with the body of sin and are "present with the Lord." Then shall there be work without anything to hinder, and for evermore. 'They serve Him day and night in His temple." "His servants shall serve Him." They rest not day nor night." There shall be no need of sleep there to repair the strength which now our work takes from us. No toil there, no fatigue, no sweat of the brow, no "labour." Yet all shall be work, untiring service. Here, the rest and the peace and the joy are mingled with sorrow of heart and sweat of the brow. There, all shall be work and yet restrest in the very work itself without either the

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sinful body or the clogs of mortality, and this for

ever.

"For ever with the Lord,

Amen! so let it be,

Life from the dead is in that word,

'Tis immortality.

"My Father's house on high,

Home of my soul, how near
At times to faith's transporting eye
Thy golden gates appear.

"My thirsty spirit faints

To reach the land I love,

The bright inheritance of saints,
Jerusalem above."

Let us observe in the next place the divine and beautiful order of these verses. The "yoke" is the emblem of service. But before our Lord invites us to take this yoke, or in other words to serve Him, He bids us to receive His "rest." This is most instructive, and is ever the order in which the Spirit of God places the two things in His Word. You cannot serve Christ till you have first got Christ's rest. Christ never asks you to do so. Till you yourself are in Christ all your service is selfrighteousness. There is no motive underlying it to keep it going. At best it will only be by fits and have neither character nor warmth nor permanency. It is the labour of a soul still dead in trespasses and sins. It is the self-righteous,

starts. It will

though it may be sincere, working of a soul still out of Christ. The Lord asks you not for it. Come and get His peace, His rest. Then will you have

such a motive for work that the His service will be delightful.

veriest drudgery in

Come, reader, and

by a simple look at the finished work of Jesus, get that peace in your soul from which, and from which alone, all true service for Christ springs. Everything is vanity which springs from anything else.

This truth is directly and indirectly endorsed in many parts of God's Word. In the first chapter of the book of the prophet Isaiah God first calls the guilty people to wash and be clean before enjoining the works of godliness. We have the same truth shadowed forth in the cleansing of the leper in the Old Testament. The blood was first to be sprinkled on him and then, but not till then, was he to begin to cleanse himself (Leviticus xiv. 7-10). But more particularly is it seen in the further act of cleansing. The priest was to "put the blood on the tip of the right ear and upon the thumb of the right hand, and upon the great toe of his right foot." Mark, reader, before the hand or the foot was cleansed with blood, the ear was cleansed. The hand and the foot symbolise the acts and walk of the Christian, but the ear represents the inner man. This must first be right with God, or the hands and the feet never will. Therefore is there so much said of the ear in God's Word. It is the avenue by

B