The Burden-Bearers

“He gave wagons unto the sons of Merari; but unto the sons of Kohath he gave none, because the service of the sanctuary belonging unto them was that they should bear upon their shoulders.” — Numbers vii. 8, 9.

There are two sets of men in this world — the sons ot Merari and the sons of Kohath — the men who have wagons and the men who have none. It is very much the distinction between the labouring and the heavy-laden. The men who have wagons are the world’s active souls. They have their own share of griefs, but they have influences that can lift them. They have to go out to their daily work. They have to visit the exchange. They have to transact buying and selling. In a time of grief this necessity may be a pain, but it is also a cure. The rolling wheels of worldly labour carry away one-half the burden from the sons of Merari. But with

Q the sons of Kohath it is very different. These are the passive souls of life. They have no wagons, no influences to divert them from their grief; they carry it all on their own shoulders. They are incapacitated from outward work; they have to stay at home. And because they have to stay at home they are the victims of self-reflection; their sorrow turns in upon itself. The sons of Kohath seem the less heroic, but they are really the most to be pitied. They can do nothing to lift their burden, nothing to make it lighter to the household. They are themselves an additional burden to the household; the most that can be expected of them is to suffer and not cry.

Ye sons of Kohath, I have a message for you; I bring you good tidings of great joy! Have you ever marked these words: “The service of the sanctuary belonging to them was that they should bear upon their shoulders.” “The service beloftgmg unto them” — that is a grand thought, a thought that may well lift one-half of your burden! During these days of prostration you are not wasting your time, you are not wasting God’s time. You are finishing the actual work which your Father has given you to do. You have been always lamenting that your work has been postponed. You have been crying from morn to eve, “If some one would only lift this load from my shoulders, I would do my part in the world,” Nay, ye sons 01 Kohath, this is your part in the world, this is the service which belongs to you.’’ You have not been shunted from the line, God’s line. In the sanctuary of the Lord “they also serve who only stand and wait.” Nay, I will go further; I will say, “They also serve who only lie down and are waited upon.” Think you that the sick do no work for the healthy! They present the very food on which charity lives and breathes. The sons of Merari would be poor creatures without you sons of Kohath; their sympathies would starve, their pity die. Lift up your eyes, and behold your place in the universe of God! To you the heart owes its fountains of compassion. By you is stirred the pulse of human tenderness. In you is nourished that ministrant river whose streams make glad the city of God. Magnify your office, ye sons of Kohath!