p. 171 | Come Under

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Nov 11, 1873

“Come Under.”

LAST winter I noticed for the first time this call to the oxen when about to be yoked for their daily labor. From this homely farmer phrase may we not learn useful lessons? The ox, though sometimes reluctant, yet soon comes and bows his neck to the yoke. We, too, are often called in various ways to “come under” the yoke. Sometimes it is sickness, laid long and heavily upon us; sometimes loss of property; sometimes bereavement; and sometimes living troubles, worse than all. We each know our own grief—feel our own yokes. Do we “come under” cheerfully, and bear it patiently, feeling that our Heavenly Father will not lay upon us more than we are able to bear? Or do we fret and chafe beneath the yoke, and so make our burden heavier? Our trials, though hard to bear, are doubtless for our good. And for our encouragement we have a precious promise given along with Christ’s invitation in Matt. 11: 28, 29, and 30; “Come unto me, all ye that labor 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.”

Dr. Watts well expresses it:

“Blest is the man whose shoulders take My yoke, and bear it with delight; My yoke is easy to his neck, My grace shall make the burden light.”