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There are chastisements in life which cannot be classed amongst great afflictions. There are little checks, daily disappointments, irritations, defeats, and annoyances — shadows which cherquer what else would be a sunny way — things which themselves cannot be treated with dignity, yet they tease and wear the heart.

I. HUMAN LIFE IS ESTABLISHED UPON A DISCIPLINARY BASIS. There is a "yoke" everywhere — in sin, in repentance, in grace. No one can have everything just as he wants it. Man is made to feel that there is somebody in the world besides himself. We are made to feel that our very life is a vapour, and that every respiration is but a compromise with death. We should ask ourselves the meaning of these things. Discipline touches the whole scheme: boy at school, going from home, bodily affliction, oversights and miscalculations, losses, &c.

II. THE VALUE OF DISCIPLINE DEPENDS UPON ITS RIGHT ACCEPTANCE.

1. We may become desperate under it: "as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke." Men may mourn, complain, rebel; they start arguments against God; they justify themselves; they become lost in secondary, agencies and incomplete details.

2. Then there is a better way. "Ephraim bemoaned himself," repented before God, and said, "Turn Thou me, and I shall be turned." In this state of mind see —

(1)  Self-renunciation.

(2)  Devout and joyful confidence in God's sovereignty and graciousness.Application —

1. There is a yoke in sin. "The way of transgressors is hard."

2. There is a yoke in goodness. It is often difficult to be upright, noble, holy.

3. God helps the true yoke-bearer. We must bear a yoke; say, shall it be the bad yoke, or the yoke of Jesus Christ?

(J. Parker, D. D.)

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KJV: I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus; Thou hast chastised me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke: turn thou me, and I shall be turned; for thou art the LORD my God.

WEB: I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself [thus], You have chastised me, and I was chastised, as a calf unaccustomed [to the yoke]: turn me, and I shall be turned; for you are Yahweh my God.