Laziness is often a harder taskmaster than industry, and sin is always a harder taskmaster than righteousness. Each life will, in the course of its passage through the world, exert itself to just about the same degree, whether it works or plays. Nature and life are sure to lay upon it some burdens to bear, and it must bear them whether it is willing or not. Whether the life takes its mission seriously or frivolously, the amount of energy expended will be about the same. However, the life has its choice between finding that expenditure difficult or easy, useful or useless. For, early in its days, the Yoke Giver comes to it and offers His yoke as a means of bearing its burden more easily and usefully. It is pitiable how often the offer is misconstrued as an attempt to increase the burden when it really amounts to an offer to help in carrying it. The Crowded Inn (1916) If I were to try to paint a picture of that night in Bethlehem, there is one thing I would be sure not to omit. I would paint the rifted sky, opened to release the mingled praise of angels. I would depict the shepherds, listening in their wonder. I would hang the wondrous star in its place in the sky—heaven’s sign of hope to a broken world. The peaceful village, the lowly manger, the quiet cattle in their stalls—all these should have a place. But somewhere in the distance I would set the inn with its lighted windows, its gayety within, and its crowded space—a house with a closed door, a place with room for all except the family of an artisan who was to be trusted with the rearing of a King. Through the centuries this has been a most tragic story. It has been the most tragic because it has represented the most widespread condition. It has been the saddest because it has been the least realized. Some have tried to drive the King from the world with violence, but no violence has even been able to match the strong, sweet, silent influence which pervaded His life and which He set adrift in the world, and which, in spite of opposition, grows from more to more. The violence which sought His annihilation only aided Him in the fulfillment of His mission. There need be no fear of those who go out with swords and staves against Him. There have been those, too, who have tried to banish Him from the world by persecution. They, too, have failed. Faith was never stronger nor did ever more immovable convictions burn in the hearts of His people than when they fled from the hand of persecution or perished for the faith before the eyes of scoffers. From the Israelite down, the people of God have thrived on persecution. The real problems of Christianity arose after, and not before, the Roman state became its ally. Better far had been the bread of bitterness which they had eaten than the reduction to a system and a tool which they then suffered. The persecutor only speeds the day of the King’s dominion.