softly and remind you of this. Surrender is the law of the highest form of
life known to us men. I mean wedded life. Where the surrender is not by
one to the other, but by each to the other. Two wills, always two wills
where there is strong life, yet in effect but one. Two persons but only
one purpose.

And so you see, Jesus, the Master, the greatest of earth's teachers and
philosophers, is striking the keynote of life when here He asks us to
surrender freely and wholly to Himself as the autocrat of our lives. He
asks us to bend our strong wills to His, to yield our lives, our plans,
our ambitions, our friendships, our gold, absolutely to His control.



Free Surrender.


And if you still do not like the sound of that word surrender. It has a
harsh sound that grates upon your nerves. Will you please notice the first
word of that little sentence--"Take." Jesus does not say in sharp, hard
tones, "Come here; bend down; I'll _put_ this yoke on you." Never that. If
you will, of your own glad accord, freely, winsomely _take_ the yoke upon
you--that is what He asks. In military usage surrender is _forced_. Here
it must be _free_. Nothing else would be acceptable to Jesus.

When our commissioners went a few years ago to Paris to treat with the
Spaniards, the latter are said to have desired certain changes in the
language of the protocol. With the polished suavity for which they are
noted the Spaniards urged that there be made slight changes in the
_words_: no real change in the meaning, they said, simply in the verbiage.