Matthew 11:28

28. Come unto me Me, the very me to whom John has lately sent his message, Art thou He, or look we for another? Yet the very me who am the revealer (Matthew 11:27) of God to man. The very me who exists in ineffable unity with God the Father Almighty this person now stands as in the centre of a labouring, laden, oppressed world, and sends his piercing, mellow, tender voice to all the suffering sons of sorrow to escape all bondage by entering his bonds.

Labour and are heavy laden The poor peasantry and common people toil and sweat under the burdens of their masters, the middle classes. And these middle classes struggle beneath the pressure of a higher aristocracy. And the higher aristocracy are scorched by the intolerable rays of the emperor. And the emperor groans under the cares and weight of empire, and works as for his life that neither rebellion nor assassination may lay him low. High and low are alike labouring and heavy laden. For high or low there is no relief, no rest. Then says Jesus, “Come unto me I will give you rest.”

And I will give you rest I, a spiritual Redeemer, am the one to redeem you. For know, all ye labourers, from lowest to highest, the real burden that bears you down is the world and the flesh; and your true oppressor is the devil. Be delivered individually from these, and you are truly free. Be delivered in mass from these, and you will cease to oppress each other. Thus is the same redemption a relief alike from internal and external oppression. Rest No one can read the history of early Christianity without seeing that in its first Pentecostal power it was in the soul a fountain of peace and joy. Though the iron hand of despotism pressed heavy upon the world, and a fierce turbulence reigned among the tribes of the earth, yet the followers of Jesus rejoiced in a sweet resource within, which was a repose to the soul. When in the fulness of time its Pentecostal freshness shall return, and its abounding power be universally accepted; when those hapless sons of folly, “the wise and prudent,” shall become babes, then not only will the individual soul feel that Christ can give the true rest within, but the nations of the world will acknowledge that he alone, the Prince of Peace, is the giver of universal repose.