THE FAMILY ALTAR

September 5.

"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and

I will give you rest." Matt. 11:28.

In the vestibule of the Johns Hopkins Hospital at Baltimore

you can see a heroic figure of our Lord Jesus with outstretched

and appealing hands. It represents Him in the act of speaking

these blessed words of His : "Come unto Me, all ye that labor and

are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Thus our compassionate

Lord ought to stand always before us in the burdensome toil and

trials of this life. When men attain to wealth and social dis-

tinction, their acquaintance is eagerly sought after; but no one

cares for the poor, the sick, the lonely, the downtrodden, and for-

saken. They bring no advantage, no personal gain to their friends.

But it is just to these our Lord Jesus addresses His sweet invita-

tion: "Come unto Me." Rich and poor, high or low, all are

welcome ; but the hearts toiling and laboring at tasks they cannot

master, groaning under the heavy burden of unforgiven sin or

crushing grief and sorrow, they are His dearest brethren and sisters

after the flesh to whom He would give rest, that is, whom He would

revive and refresh. We know how He so kindly refreshes them

with the blessed assurances of His pardon, and help, and mercy

in His precious, holy Gospel, which is always the power of God

unto salvation to every one that belie veth. Do we always in our

troubles follow this kind invitation of our gracious Master which

He has addressed also to us so often, or are we like the foolish

peddler who continued to hold his heavy pack on his weary shoul-

ders while riding with the kind-hearted farmer who had picked

him up on the road and was carrying him and his burden to town ?

If we can trust the Lord Jesus to take care of our immortal souls,

we can surely trust Him also with the far lighter burdens of this

fleeting life. No matter what these burdens are — sickness, sorrow,

poverty, sin, grief over departed friends and relatives, fear of the

future or of death, — all, all we can bring with us to our com-

passionate Savior; for His invitation is clearly to all laboring and

grieving hearts: "Come unto Me." "Whosoever cometh to Me,"

He says, "I will in no wise cast out."