Jesus invites the weary to come to Him for rest: “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” (Matthew 11:28-30).

Many who hear this invitation sigh for rest, and yet press on the rugged path, hugging their burdens closer to their heart. Jesus loves them, and longs to bear their burdens and themselves also in His strong arms of love. He invites them to lay the heavy burdens on Him. Your fears and uncertainties, that rob you of peace and rest, He would remove; but you must come to Him, and tell Him the secret woes of your heart. He invites your confidence as the proof of your love for Him. Jesus would rather have the gift of the humble, trusting heart than all the wealth riches can bestow. He invites through His messengers the gift of yourselves. Only come to Him in the simplicity and confidence with which a child would come to its parents, and the divine touch from His hand will relieve you of your burdens.

Let us not forget that Christ is the way, the truth, and the life. The compassionate Saviour invites all to come to Him. Let us believe the words of our Lord, and not make the way to Him so hard. Let us not travel the precious road, cast up for the ransomed of the Lord to walk in, with murmuring, with doubts, with cloudy forebodings, groaning, as if forced to an unpleasant, exacting task. The ways of Christ are ways of pleasantness, and all His paths are peace. If we have made rough paths for our feet, and taken upon us heavy burdens of care in laying up for ourselves treasures upon the earth, let us now change, and follow the path Jesus has prepared for us.

We are not always willing to give our burdens to Jesus. We sometimes pour our troubles into human ears, and tell our afflictions to those who cannot help us, and neglect to confide all to Jesus, that He may change the sorrowful ways to paths of joy and peace. Self-denying, self-sacrificing love gives glory and victory to the cross. . . .

Jesus is attractive. He is full of love, mercy, and compassion. He proposes to be our friend, to walk with us through all the rough pathways of life. He says to you, I am the Lord thy God; walk with Me, and I will fill thy path with light. . . .

Christ’s invitation to us all is a call to a life of peace and rest - a life of liberty and love, and to a rich inheritance in the future immortal life. Why, then, should we resist His invitation and refuse His love? If we choose to live with Christ through the ceaseless ages of eternity, why not choose Him as our best and most honored and loved companion here? Christ calls us to walk with Him in this world in the path of humble, trustful obedience, which will secure a pure, holy, happy life. Which will we choose - liberty in Christ, or bondage and tyranny in the service of Satan? It is our privilege to have a calm, close, happy walk with Jesus every day we live.

We need not be alarmed if this path of liberty is laid through conflicts and sufferings. The liberty we shall enjoy will be the more valuable because we made sacrifices to obtain it. The peace which passeth knowledge will cost us battles with the powers of darkness, struggles severe against selfishness and inward sins. The victories gained daily through persevering, untiring effort in well-doing, will be precious through Christ who hath loved us, “who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works” (Titus 2:14). The excellence of Christ we should seek to obtain. In the face of temptation we should school ourselves to firm endurance, which will not provoke one murmuring thought, although we may be weary in toiling, and in fighting the good fight of faith.

Thank God that some have passed through afflictions with light undimmed. Their hope and faith are strong, because acquired by conflict and nurtured by suffering. If it were not for these heroes of faith, who have learned to endure, and to suffer and be strong, the outlook would be indeed discouraging. How could any of us know how to sympathize with the sorrowing, the burdened, the afflicted, and be to them the help they need, if we had never experienced similar trials ourselves? We cannot appreciate our Redeemer in the highest sense until we can see Him by the eye of faith reaching to the very depths of human wretchedness, taking upon Himself the nature of man, the capacity to suffer, and by suffering putting forth His divine power to save and lift sinners up to companionship with Himself. Oh, why have we so little sense of sin? Why so little penitence? It is because we do not come nearer the cross of Christ. Conscience becomes hardened through the deceitfulness of sin, because we remain away from Christ. Consider the Captain of our salvation. He suffered shame for us that we might not suffer everlasting shame and contempt. He suffered on the cross, that mercy might be granted to fallen man. God’s justice is preserved, and guilty man is pardoned. Jesus dies that the sinner might live. Shame is borne by the Son of the Highest for the sake of poor sinners, that they might be ransomed and crowned with eternal glory.

The cross of Calvary appeals in power, affording a reason why we should love Christ now, and why we should consider Him first, and best, and last, in everything. We should take our fitting place in humble penitence at the foot of the cross. We may learn the lessons of meekness and lowliness of mind as we go up to Mount Calvary, and, looking upon the cross, see our Saviour in agony, the Son of God dying, the just for the unjust. Behold Him who could summon legions of angels to His assistance with one word, a subject of jest and merriment, of reviling and hatred. He gives Himself a sacrifice for sin. When reviled, He threatened not; when falsely accused, He opened not His mouth. He prays on the cross for His murderers. He is dying for them. He is paying an infinite price for every one of them. He would not lose one whom He has purchased at so great cost. He gives Himself to be smitten, and scourged, without a murmur. And this uncomplaining victim is the Son of God. His throne is from everlasting, and His kingdom shall have no end.

Come, you who are seeking your own pleasures in forbidden joys and in sinful indulgences, you who are scattering from Christ. Look, O look upon the cross of Calvary; behold the royal victim suffering on your account, and be wise while you have opportunity, and seek now the fountain of life and true happiness. Come, you who complain and murmur at the little inconveniences and the few trials you must bear in this life. Look on Jesus, the author and finisher of your faith. He turns from His royal throne, His high command, and lays aside His royal robe, and clothes His divinity with humanity. For our sakes He became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich.

The Son of God was rejected and despised for our sakes. Can you, in full view of the cross, beholding by the eye of faith the sufferings of Christ, tell your tale of woe, your trials? Can you nurse revenge of your enemies in your heart while the prayer of Christ comes from His pale and quivering lips for His revilers, His murderers - “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do?” (Luke 23:34).

A work is before us to subdue pride and vanity, that seek a place in our hearts, and through penitence and faith to bring ourselves into familiar and holy converse with Jesus Christ. We must not shrink from the depths of humiliation to which the Son of God submitted in order to raise us from the degradation and bondage of sin to a seat at His right hand. We must deny self, and fight continually against pride. We must hide self in Jesus Christ, and let Him appear in our conversation and character as the One altogether lovely, and the chief among ten thousand. Our lives, our deportment, will testify how highly we prize Christ, and the salvation He has wrought out for us at such a cost to Himself. While we look constantly to Him whom our sins have pierced, and our sorrows have burdened, we shall acquire strength to be like Him. We shall bind ourselves in willing, happy captivity to Jesus Christ. It is high time we devoted the few remaining precious hours of our probation to washing our robes of character, and making them white in the blood of the Lamb, that we may be of that white-robed company who shall stand about the great white throne.1

Are you one that makes mistakes? Go to Jesus, and ask Him to forgive you, and then believe that He does. “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Ask the Lord to pardon your errors. Then rejoice in Him.

It will not help you in the least to keep mourning over your defects. Say, “Lord, I cast my helpless soul on Thee, and Thee alone. I will not worry, because Thou hast said, ‘Ask, and ye shall receive’ (John 16:24).” Believe that you do receive. Believe that your Saviour is full of compassion, full of tender pity and love. Let not little mishaps trouble you. Small mistakes may be ordered by the Lord to save you from making larger mistakes.

Act your part in helping yourself, as all must do who would be blessed. Believe that Christ helps you. Refuse to speak a word of unbelief. When the enemy tells you that the Lord has forsaken you, tell him that you know He has not, for He declares, “I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:13).2

My brother, my sister, yield your whole mind and soul and body to the Lord. Rest in the arms of your compassionate Saviour. You need not rush hither and thither to obtain relief from human agencies. . . .

You have a battle to fight, and so have we all. We can make this battle very much more severe by turning away from Christ and from wearing the yoke that He asks every one of us to wear. Does He not tell us the truth when He says, “My yoke is easy”? If we manufacture yokes for ourselves, as many are doing, we shall find them extremely galling; but if we take the yoke that Christ has prepared for us, and become meek and lowly in heart, self will be hid with Christ in God. This is the correct position for us to occupy.

A follower of Jesus refrains from gathering up burdens and responsibilities that he is unable to bear - burdens that crush the life forces, and that give no relief. Christ has not given us any such work to do. We must receive Him, believe in Him, and reveal His character, showing by our religious experience that we have been born of God. Then we shall have healthy heartbeats, born again, “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:13). The power comes to us through receiving Jesus Christ.3

Feelings are not a safe criterion. We are not to look within for evidence of our acceptance with God. We shall find there nothing but that which will discourage us. Our only hope is in “looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2). There is everything in Him to inspire with hope, with faith, and with courage. He is our righteousness, our consolation and rejoicing.

Those who look within for comfort will become weary and disappointed. A sense of our weakness and unworthiness should lead us with humility of heart to plead the atoning sacrifice of Christ. As we rely upon His merits we shall find rest and peace and joy. He saves to the uttermost all who come unto God by Him.

We need to trust in Jesus daily, hourly. He has promised that as our day is, our strength shall be. By His grace we may bear all the burdens of the present and perform its duties. . . .

We must today seek God and be determined that we will not rest satisfied without His presence. We should watch and work and pray as though this were the last day that would be granted us.4

When we were disloyal to the commandments of God, He did not leave us without hope, and shun us in our weakness and degradation. It is only human beings who do this - those whose hearts are untouched and unsoftened by the love of God.5

We are in a world of sin and temptation; all around us are souls perishing out of Christ, and God wants us to labor for them in every way possible. . . .

The very ones who need help the most will at times try our patience sorely. “Take heed that ye despise not one of these little ones,” Christ says, “for I say unto you, That in heaven their angels do always behold the face of My Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 18:10). And to those who minister to these souls, the Saviour declares: “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these My brethren, ye have done it unto Me” (Matthew 25:40).

The brows of those who do this work will wear the crown of sacrifice. But they will receive their reward. In heaven we shall see . . . [those] whom we helped, those whom we invited to our homes, whom we led from temptation. We shall see their faces reflecting the radiance of the glory of God. “They shall see His face; and His name shall be in their foreheads” (Revelation 22:4).6

Let us begin now to make the history of each [day] as it passes such as we shall not tremble to meet in the Judgment. Let us fill each one full of loving, helpful work for others. Let us develop all our powers, and make of ourselves all that God designed we should.

In the keeping of God’s commandments there is great reward. A reward awaits the overcomer in the great day, when he shall hear from the lips of our Lord the gracious words, “Well done, good and faithful servant;” and there is also a present reward in the peace and happiness that flow from a conscience at rest, from the sweet assurance that we enjoy the favor of God.7