Some one of a practical turn says, “That sounds very nice, but is it not a bit fanciful?  The lobe of Jesus’ ear was not pierced through, was it?” No.  You are right.  The scar-mark of Jesus’ surrender was not in His ear, as with the old Hebrew slave.  You are quite right.  It was in His cheek, and brow, on His back, in His side and hands and feet.  The scar-marks of His surrender were—­are—­all over His face and form.  Everybody who surrenders bears some scar of it because of sin, his own or somebody’s else.  Referring to the suffering endured in service Paul tenderly reckons it as a mark of Jesus’ ownership—­“I bear the scars, the stigmata, of the Lord Jesus.”  Even of the Master Himself is this so.

And that scarred Jesus whose body told and tells of His surrender to His Father comes to us.  And with those hands eagerly outstretched, and eyes beaming with the earnestness of His great passion for men, He says, “Yoke up with Me, please.  Let Me have the control of all your splendid powers, in carrying out our Father’s will for a world.”

Full Power through Rhythm.

Then Jesus, with a sweep, gathers up all the results in a single sentence, “Ye shall find rest unto your souls.”  Some one may be thinking, “I do not feel the need of rest or peace so much.  I am hungry for power.”  Will you please notice that Jesus is going to the very root of the thing here.  There must be peace before there can be power. You shall find peace. Others shall find power.  You will be conscious of the sweet sense of peace within.  Others will be conscious of the fragrant power breathing out of your life, and service, and your very person.

These things, peace and power, are the same.  They are different movements of the same river of God.  The presence of God in fine harmony with you, that it is that brings the sweet peace.  And that too it is that brings the gracious power into the life.  The inward flow of the river is peace.  The outward flow of the same stream is power.  There cannot be power save as there is peace.  There is nothing that hinders and holds back power as does friction.  That is true in mechanics:  a bit of friction grit between the wheels will check the full working of the machinery.  A small nut fallen down out of place will completely stop the machine and bring all of its power to a standstill.

This is heart rest.  The heart is the center, the citadel of the life.  When the heart rests all is at rest.  If the citadel can be captured the outworks are included.  It is a found rest.  It comes quietly stealing its soft way in as you go about your regular round of life.  Just where you are, in the thick of the old circumstances and conditions, there comes breathing gently into your very being the great fragrant peace of God.  You find it coming in.  There is all the zest of finding.

It is rest in service.  To many folks those two words “yoke” and “rest” have seemed to jar, as though they did not get along well together.  But they do.  The jarring is not in them but in our misunderstanding of them.  A yoke, we have thought, means work.  Rest means quitting work; no more need of work.  But that is a bit of the hurt of sin that gets so many things wrong end to.