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 growth 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 practice 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 still be so little known?  The last thing most of us would have thought of would have been to associate Rest with Work.

What must one work at?  What is that which if duly learned will find the soul of man in Rest?  Christ answers without the least hesitation.  He specifies two things—­Meekness and Lowliness.  “Learn of me,” He says, “for I am meek and lowly in heart.”

Now these two things are not chosen at random.  To these accomplishments, in a special way, Rest is attached.  Learn these, in short, and you have already found Rest.  These as they stand are direct causes of Rest; will produce it at once; cannot but produce it at once.  And if you think for a single moment, you will see how this is necessarily so, for causes are never arbitrary, and the connection between antecedent and consequent here and everywhere lies deep in the nature of things.

What is the connection, then?  I answer by a further question.

          WHAT ARE THE CHIEF CAUSES OF UNREST?