Is it not humiliating to be told that we must come to Jesus! Think of the things we will not come to Jesus Christ about.

If you want to know how real you are, test yourself by these words - "Come unto Me." In every degree in which you are not real, you will dispute rather than come, you will quibble rather than come, you will go through sorrow rather than come, you will do anything rather than come the last lap of unutterable foolishness - "Just as I am."

As long as you have the tiniest bit of spiritual impertinence, it will always reveal itself in the fact that you are expecting God to tell you to do a big thing, and all He is telling you to do is to "come."

"Come unto Me." When you hear those words you will know that something must happen in you before you can come. The Holy Spirit will show you what you have to do, anything at all that will put the axe at the root of the thing which is preventing you from getting through. You will never get further until you are willing to do that one thing. The Holy Spirit will locate the one impregnable thing in you, but He cannot budge it unless you are willing to let Him.

How often have you come to God with your requests and gone away with the feeling - Oh, well, I have done it this time! And yet you go away with nothing, whilst all the time God has stood with outstretched hands not only to take you, but for you to take Him. Think of the invincible, unconquerable, unwearying patience of Jesus - "Come unto Me."

Where the sin and the sorrow cease, and the song and the saint commence. "Come unto Me." Matthew 11:28

Do I want to get there? I can now. The questions that matter in life are remarkably few, and they are all answered by the words - "Come unto Me." Not - Do this, or don't do that; but - "Come unto Me." If I will come to Jesus my actual life will be brought into accordance with my real desires; I will actually cease from sin, and actually find the song of the Lord begin.

Have you ever come to Jesus? Watch the stubbornness of your heart, you will do anything rather than the one simple childlike thing - "Come unto Me." If you want the actual experience of ceasing from sin, you must come to Jesus.

Jesus Christ makes Himself the touchstone. Watch how He used the word "Come." At the most unexpected moments there is the whisper of the Lord - "Come unto Me," and you are drawn immediately. Personal contact with Jesus alters everything. Be stupid enough to come and commit yourself to what He says. The attitude of coming is that the will resolutely lets go of everything and deliberately commits all to Him.

"... and I will give you rest," i.e., I will stay you. Not - I will put you to bed and hold your hand and sing you to sleep; but - I will get you out of bed, out of the languor and exhaustion, out of the state of being half dead while you are alive; I will imbue you with the spirit of life, and you will be stayed by the perfection of vital activity. We get pathetic and talk about "suffering the will of the Lord!" Where is the majestic vitality and might of the Son of God about that?

God means us to live a fully-orbed life in Christ Jesus, but there are times when that life is attacked from the outside, and we tumble into a way of introspection which we thought had gone.

Self-consciousness is the first thing that will upset the completeness of the life in God, and self-consciousness continually produces wrestling.

Self-consciousness is not sin; it may be produced by a nervous temperament or by a sudden dumping down into new circumstances.

It is never God's will that we should be anything less than absolutely complete in Him.

Anything that disturbs rest in Him must be cured at once, and it is not cured by being ignored, but by coming to Jesus Christ.

If we come to Him and ask Him to produce Christ-consciousness, He will always do it until we learn to abide in Him.

Never allow the dividing up of your life in Christ to remain without facing it.

Beware of leakage, of the dividing up of your life by the influence of friends or of circumstances; beware of anything that is going to split up your oneness with Him and make you see yourself separately.

Nothing is so important as to keep right spiritually.

The great solution is the simple one - "Come unto Me."

The depth of our reality, intellectually, morally and spiritually, is tested by these words.

In every degree in which we are not real, we will dispute rather than come.

Whenever anything begins to disintegrate your life with Jesus Christ, turn to Him at once and ask Him to establish rest.

Never allow anything to remain which is making the dis-peace. Take every element of disintegration as something to wrestle against, and not to suffer.

Say - Lord, prove Thy consciousness in me, and self-consciousness will go and He will be all in all.

Beware of allowing self-consciousness to continue because by slow degrees it will awaken self-pity, and self-pity is Satanic.

Well, I am not understood; this is a thing they ought to apologize for; that is a point I really must have cleared up.

Leave others alone and ask the Lord to give you Christ-consciousness, and He will poise you until the completeness is absolute.

The complete life is the life of a child.

When I am consciously conscious, there is something wrong.

It is the sick man who knows what health is.

The child of God is not conscious of the will of God because he is the will of God.

When there has been the slightest deviation from the will of God, we begin to ask - What is Thy will?

A child of God never prays to be conscious that God answers prayer, he is so restfully certain that God always does answer prayer.

If we try to overcome self-consciousness by any common-sense method, we will develop it tremendously.

Jesus says, "Come unto Me and I will give you rest," i.e., Christ-consciousness will take the place of self-consciousness.

Wherever Jesus comes He establishes rest, the rest of the perfection of activity that is never conscious of itself.

We are in danger of getting the barter spirit when we come to God, we want the witness before we have done what God tells us to do.

"Why does not God reveal Himself to me?" He cannot, it is not that He will not, but He cannot, because you are in the road as long as you won't abandon absolutely to Him.

Immediately you do, God witnesses to Himself, He cannot witness to you, but He witnesses instantly to His own nature in you. If you had the witness before the reality, it would end in sentimental emotion.

Immediately you transact on the Redemption, and stop the impertinence of debate, God gives on the witness. As soon as you abandon reasoning and argument, God witnesses to what He has done, and we are amazed at our impertinence in having kept Him waiting. If you are in debate as to whether God can deliver from sin, either let Him do it, or tell Him He cannot. Do not quote this and that person, try Matthew 11:28 - "Come unto Me." Come, if you are weary and heavy laden; ask, if you know you are evil (Luke 11:13).

The Spirit of God witnesses to the Redemption of Our Lord, He does not witness to anything else; He cannot witness to our reason. The simplicity that comes from our natural common-sense decisions is apt to be mistaken for the witness of the Spirit, but the Spirit witnesses only to His own nature, and to the work of Redemption, never to our reason. If we try to make Him witness to our reason, it is no wonder we are in darkness and perplexity. Fling it all overboard, trust in Him, and He will give the witness.

My heart needs Thee, O Lord, my heart needs Thee! No part of my being needs Thee like my heart. All else within me can be filled by Thy gifts. My hunger can be satisfied by daily bread. My thirst can be allayed by earthly waters. My cold can be removed by household fires. My weariness can be relieved by outward rest. But no outward thing can make my heart pure.

The calmest day will not calm my passions. The fairest scene will not beautify my soul. The richest music will not make harmony within. The breezes can cleanse the air, but no breeze can cleanse a spirit. This world has not provided for my heart. It has provided for my eye; it has provided for my ear; it has provided for my touch; it has provided for my taste; it has provided for my sense of beauty, but it has not provided for my heart.

Lift up your eyes unto the hills! Make haste to Calvary, “Calvary’s awful mountain-climb,” and on the way there visit the slopes of Mount Olivet, where grow the trees of Gethsemane. Contemplate there the agony of the Lord, where He already tasted the tremendous cup, which He drank to the dregs the next noontide on the Cross. There is the answer to your need.

Provide Thou for my heart, O Lord. It is the only unwinged bird in all creation. Give it wings! O Lord, give it wings! Earth has failed to give it wings; its very power of loving has often drawn it into the mire. Be Thou the strength of my heart. Be Thou its fortress in temptation, its shield in remorse, its covert in the storm, its star in the night, its voice in the solitude.

Guide it in its gloom; help it in its heat; direct it in its doubt; calm it in its conflict; fan it in its faintness; prompt it in its perplexity; lead it through its labyrinth; raise it from its ruins.

I cannot rule this heart of mine; keep it under the shadow of Thine own wings. GEORGE MATHESON

None other Lamb! none other name! None other hope in heaven, or earth, or sea! None other hiding-place for sin and shame! None beside Thee! My faith burns low; my hope burns low; Only my soul’s deep need comes out in me By the deep thunder of its want and woe, Calls out to Thee. Lord, Thou art life though I be dead! Love’s Flame art Thou, however cold I be! Nor heaven have I, nor place to lay my head, Nor home, but Thee. CHRISTINA ROSSETTI

“Come to me . . . and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28).

I wonder why the easiest thing in the Christian life is the most difficult? I wonder why I work by a guttering candle when there is an electric light switch within easy reach of my hand? The answer, of course, is that I don’t.

I am not so foolish—except in one direction, and that is Godward. In our spiritual life many of us seem to be content struggling along with all the poor primitive resources of a weak, human nature, while all the infinite power of the Godhead is at our disposal. There is no condition of human nature, no circumstance of human life, that is not completely provided for in the all-embracing love of our Father God; yet the vast majority of His children struggle along life’s road, bearing burdens that He is eager to carry, and has urged them to entrust to Him. I wonder why?

It should be an easy thing, an alluring thing, a thrilling thing to talk to God, to hold converse with Christ. Yet, strange to relate, prayer is the most neglected of all the Christian ministries. The most perfunctory, abbreviated and ofttimes omitted exercise of many a Christian’s life is the prayer-time. I wonder why?

Perhaps the difficulty lies in its very ease, its utter simplicity. Just to kneel at your bedside, and with the old abandon of childhood and the same unquestioning faith, leave all burdens and cares and needs with the Father!

How childlike, but how difficult! How hard to relax; to spare an hour or even half that time out of our busy, rushing, worried lives, and go quietly to our room, shut the door and be still in His presence! How hard to divest ourselves of our sophistication, of our self-consciousness and self-centeredness, and ever-present feeling that I have to face and meet and shoulder all these cares and responsibilities! How hard just to be a child again, and with a great, happy sigh, settle down carefree at His feet, perfectly assured that He careth; that the government is upon His shoulder.

We who are saved find rest in Jesus. Those who are not saved will receive rest if they come to Him, for here He promises to "give" it. Nothing can be freer than a gift; let us gladly accept what He gladly gives. You are not to buy it, nor to borrow it, but to receive it as a gift. You labor under the lash of ambition, covetousness, lust, or anxiety: He will set you free from this iron bondage and give you rest.

You are "laden," yes, "heavy laden" with sin, fear, care, remorse, fear of death; but if you come to Him He will unload you. He carried the crushing mass of our sin that we might no longer carry it. He made Himself the great Burden-bearer, that every laden one might cease from bowing down under the enormous pressure.

Jesus gives rest. It is so. Will you believe it? Will you put it to the test? Will you do so at once? Come to Jesus by quitting every other hope, by thinking of Him, believing God's testimony about Him, and trusting everything with Him. If you thus come to Him the rest which He will give you will be deep, safe, holy, and everlasting. He gives a rest which develops into heaven, and He gives it this day to all who come to Him.

Take, my brethren, the prophets, who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction, and of patience.

Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

Shall we receive good at the hand of God, and shall we not receive evil? In all this did not Job sin with his lips.

Aaron held his peace.

It is the Lord; let him do what seemeth him good.

Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.

Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.

Come unto me, all ye that labour 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.

They weary themselves to commit iniquity.—I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.—Being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

He that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works.—Not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith.—This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest; and this is the refreshing.

The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest. There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.—Rest in the Lord .—He that is entered into his rest, he also hath ceased from his own works.

Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace.—That . . . we be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; but speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.

I sat down under his shadow with great delight, and his fruit was sweet to my taste. He brought me to the banqueting house, and his banner over me was love.

There remaineth . . . a rest to the people of God.—My people shall dwell in a peaceable habitation, and in sure dwellings, and in quiet resting places.—There the wicked cease from troubling; and there the weary be at rest.—They . . . rest from their labours.

The forerunner is for us entered, even Jesus, made an high priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec.

Come unto me, all ye that labour 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.—In returning and rest shall ye be saved; in quietness and in confidence shall be your strength.

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.

When Ahithophel saw that his counsel was not followed, he saddled his ass, and arose, and gat him home to his house, to his city, and put his household in order, and hanged himself, and died.—A wounded spirit who can bear?

Is there no balm in Gilead? is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered?—The Lord hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek: he hath sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to comfort all that mourn; to appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.—Come unto me, all ye that labour 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.

Philip preached unto him Jesus.—He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds.