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. Wounded vanity, then, disappointed
hopes, unsatisfied selfishness--these are the old, vulgar, universal
sources of man's unrest.
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