What must one work at? What is that which if duly learned will find
the soul of man in Rest? Christ answers without the least hesitation.
He specifies two things--Meekness and Lowliness. "Learn of me," He
says, "for I am _meek_ and _lowly_ in heart."
Now these two things are not chosen at random. To these
accomplishments, in a special way, Rest is attached. Learn these, in
short, and you have already found Rest. These as they stand are direct
causes of Rest; will produce it at once; cannot but produce it at
once. And if you think for a single moment, you will see how this is
necessarily so, for causes are never arbitrary, and the connection
between antecedent and consequent here and everywhere lies deep in the
nature of things.
What is the connection, then? I answer by a further question.
WHAT ARE THE CHIEF CAUSES OF UNREST?
If you know yourself, you will answer--Pride; Selfishness, Ambition.
As you look back upon the past years of your life, is it not true that
its unhappiness has chiefly come from the succession of personal
mortifications and almost trivial disappointments which the
intercourse of life has brought you? Great trials come at lengthened
intervals, and we rise to breast them; but it is the petty friction of
our every-day life with one another, the jar of business or of work,
the discord of the domestic circle, the collapse of our ambition, the
crossing of our will or the taking down of our conceit, which make
inward peace impossible.
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