MacDonald recommended himself to me because he was very much at odds with the severe Calvinism and predestination which was a part of his heritage. The copied section below, though, is hardly controversial, just a minor reference to the "eternally creating, eternally saving God".
The best of the good wine remains; I have kept it to the
last. A friend pointed out to me that the Master does not mean we must take on
us a yoke like his; we must take on us the very yoke he is carrying.
Dante, describing how, on the first terrace of Purgatory, he
walked stooping, to be on a level with Oderisi, who went bowed to the ground by
the ponderous burden of the pride he had cherished on earth, says--'I went
walking with this heavy-laden soul, just as oxen walk in the yoke': this
picture almost always comes to me with the words of the Lord, 'Take my yoke
upon you, and learn of me.' Their intent is, 'Take the other end of my yoke,
doing as I do, being as I am.' Think of it a moment:--to walk in the same yoke
with the Son of Man, doing the same labour with him, and having the same
feeling common to him and us! This, and nothing else, is offered the man who
would have rest to his soul; is required of the man who would know the Father;
is by the Lord pressed upon him to whom he would give the same peace which pervades
and sustains his own eternal heart.
But a yoke is for drawing withal: what load is it the Lord
is drawing? Wherewith is the cart laden which he would have us help him draw?
With what but the will of the eternal, the perfect Father? How should the
Father honour the Son, but by giving him his will to embody in deed, by making
him hand to his father's heart!--and hardest of all, in bringing home his
children! Specially in drawing this load
must his yoke-fellow share. How to draw it, he must learn of him who draws by
his side.
Whoever, in the commonest duties that fall to him, does as
the Father would have him do, bears His yoke along with Jesus; and the Father
takes his help for the redemption of the world--for the deliverance of men from
the slavery of their own rubbish-laden waggons, into the liberty of God's husbandmen. Bearing the same yoke with Jesus,
the man learns to walk step for step with him, drawing, drawing the cart laden
with the will of the father of both, and rejoicing with the joy of Jesus. The
glory of existence is to take up its burden, and exist for Existence eternal
and supreme--for the Father who does his divine and perfect best to impart his
glad life to us, making us sharers of that nature which is bliss, and that
labour which is peace. He lives for us; we must live for him. The little ones
must take their full share in the great Father's work: his work is the business
of the family.
Starts thy soul, trembles thy brain at the thought of such a
burden as the will of the eternally creating, eternally saving God? 'How shall mortal man walk in such a yoke,'
sayest thou, 'even with the Son of God bearing it also?'
Why, brother, sister, it is the only burden bearable--the
only burden that can be borne of mortal! Under any other, the lightest, he must
at last sink outworn, his very soul gray with sickness! He on whom lay the other half of the burden
of God, the weight of his creation to redeem, says, 'The yoke I bear is easy;
the burden I draw is light'; and this he said, knowing the death he was to die.
The yoke did not gall his neck, the burden did not overstrain his sinews,
neither did the goal on Calvary fright him from the straight way thither. He
had the will of the Father to work out, and that will was his strength as well
as his joy. He had the same will as his father. To him the one thing worth
living for, was the share the love of his father gave him in his work. He loved
his father even to the death of the cross, and eternally beyond it.
When we give ourselves up to the Father as the Son gave
himself, we shall not only find our yoke easy and our burden light, but that they
communicate ease and lightness; not only will they not make us weary, but they
will give us rest from all other weariness. Let us not waste a moment in asking
how this can be; the only way to know that, is to take the yoke on us. That
rest is a secret for every heart to know, for never a tongue to tell. Only by
having it can we know it. If it seem impossible to take the yoke on us, let us attempt
the impossible; let us lay hold of the yoke, and bow our heads, and try to get
our necks under it. Giving our Father the opportunity, he will help and not
fail us. He is helping us every moment, when least we think we need his help;
when most we think we do, then may we most boldly, as most earnestly we must,
cry for it. What or how much his
creatures can do or bear, God only understands; but when most it seems
impossible to do or bear, we must be most confident that he will neither demand
too much, nor fail with the vital creator-help. That help will be there when wanted--that
is, the moment it can be help. To be able beforehand to imagine ourselves doing
or bearing, we have neither claim nor need.
It is vain to think that any weariness, however caused, any burden,
however slight, may be got rid of otherwise than by bowing the neck to the yoke
of the Father's will. There can be no other rest for heart and soul that he has
created. From every burden, from every anxiety, from all dread of shame or
loss, even loss of love itself, that yoke will set us free. – George MacDonald, from The Hope of the Gospel, pp. 72-74
No comments:
Post a Comment