Serving and Following by J. F. Tolson

Pacific Press Publishing Association · Mountain View, California · May 26, 1914

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 41, No. 20.

Serving and Following

By J. F. Tolson

Yoke Up with Him and Find Rest

By J. F. TOLSON

“If any man serve Me, let him follow Me.” John 12: 26. “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.” Matt. 11: 28-30.

As the humble student turns the pages of the sacred writings, he is constantly struck with admiration at the beauty and appropriateness of the expressions found therein. One might naturally expect to read, “If any man will follow Me, let him serve Me.” Doubtless, were the Scriptures of human origin, those are the words that would have been used. It is human nature to expect service first. With Christ it is just the reverse. He expects us to follow Him closely before we can do acceptable service.

WHAT IT MEANS TO FOLLOW HIM

A study of the second text will give some idea of what the following of Christ means, as versus mere serving. How comprehensive is this passage! How beautiful! How comforting! “Take My yoke upon you.” Here we have our Lord’s invitation to yoke up with Him for service. What! Yoke up with the King of glory! What condescending grace on His part to take us to yoke up with Him!

But what is His yoke? I think we will get some intimation of what it is if we will study the context. In the preceding verses, He had been upbraiding the cities where most of His mighty works were done; where He had been doing good, and was called a devil; where He had been relieving men, and blamed as one who had fellowship with Satan; where He was scornfully rejected by men, and acquainted with griefs and sorrows. This was His yoke — rejection when acting in pure grace.

AN EASY YOKE

And, O my brother, is the yoke too hard to be borne? Is the yoke of Christ, the pitying Saviour, harder to be borne than the yoke of the cold, heartless world; the yoke of dishonoring God; the yoke of conformity to the world in its ever-changing fashions, its sneers, its smiles, and its frowns? Do you long for that rest “which passeth all understanding”? Then heed the invitation of the pitying Jesus: “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.”

A YOKE THAT GIVES REST

Only by taking up His yoke can we find rest, and thus only can we follow Him. “If any man will come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.” Do not deviate from the path He has already trod. It may be thorny; but He has been over the way, and every thorn that might prick us has pierced His tender feet.

“And learn of Me.” Here again, we have that all-comprehensive “Me.” Reader, do you know its power? I ask you to learn of “Me,” not of some distinguished saint. In “Me” you have a perfect pattern, an unerring leader. I do not ask you to learn of My servants, or My prophets, or even of My angels, though they excel in wisdom and strength; but “learn of Me,” the Perfect One, the Sinless One, the One in whom dwells all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

What a privilege for the child of God! What amazing grace! Come, O thou sin-sick soul, tossed about on the billowy world of sin and strife; come and sit at the Saviour’s feet, and “learn of Me, . . . and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”