The Bearing of Our Burden

“Put any burden upon me. only sustain me. Send me anywhere, only go with me. Sever any tie but the one that binds me To thy service and to thy heart.”

Fly-leaf, Miss Brighani’s Bible.

We all have our burdens. Of course they are not the same in all of us. Some are more evident than others. There are people whose burdens we all see. These get our compassion and our sympathy. We come up to them with love’s warmth and help. There are others, however, whose burdens are not visible or apparent. These seem to us to have no trouble, no struggle, no load to carry. We envy their lot. But probably if we knew all about their condition that the angels know, our .envy would change to sympathy. The burdens that the world cannot see are often the heaviest. The sorrows that wear no weeds of mourning, and close no shutters, and hang no crape on the door-bell, are ofttimes the bitterest and the hardest to endure.

It is not wise for us to think that our load is greater than our neighbor’s; perhaps his is greater than ours, although to us he seems to have none at all. We sometimes wish we might change places with some other persons we know. We imagine our life would be a great deal easier if we could do this, and that we could live more sweetly and beautifully than we do, or more usefully and helpfully. But most likely we are mistaken. If we could change places with any one, the one of all we know who seems to have the most favored lot; if we could take this person’s place, with all its conditions, its circumstances, its cares, its responsibilities, there is little doubt that we should quickly cry out to God to give us back our own old place and our own old burdens. It is because we do not know all, that we think our neighbor’s load lighter and more easily carried than our own. We all have our own burdens.

There are three Bible words about the bearing of burdens. One tells us that “every man shall bear his own burden.” There are burdens which no one can carry for us, not even Christ, and which no one can share with us; we must carry them ourselves alone. This is true in a very real sense of life itself, of duty, of personal responsibility. No one can live your life for you. Friends may help you by encouragement, by sympathy, by cheer, by affection’s warm inspirations, by counsel, by guidance; but after all, in the innermost meaning of your life, you must live it yourself. No one can make your choices for you; you must make them for yourself. No one can have faith in God for you. No one can believe in Christ for you. No one can meet the obligations of the moral law for you. No one but yourself can get your sins forgiven. No one can do your duty for you. No one can meet your responsibility for you. A thousand other people all about you may be faithful to their trust; but, if you fail in faithfulness, their faithfulness will not be of any avail for you. There is no vicariousness of this kind in life. You must live your own life.

No one can come up in loving interest and unselfishly take your load and carry it for you. A friend may be willing enough to do it, but it is simply impossible. David would have died for Absalom; he loved his erring son well enough to do it, but he could not do it. “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” Many a mother would willingly take her child’s burden of pain as she sees its anguish, but she cannot do it. There is a burden which every one must carry for himself.

Then there is a second Bible word which tells us that we should “bear one another’s burdens.” So there are burdens in the carrying of which others can help us. No one can suffer for us, but true human friendship can put strength into our hearts to make us better able to endure our own sufferings. No one can do our duty for us, but human sympathy can nerve us for greater faithfulness and heroism in duty. Sympathy does not take away the pain, nor remove the sorrow, nor give back our dead, nor lighten the load; but it gives companionship, puts another shoulder under the burden.

It is a great thing to have brotherly help in life. We all need each other. Not one of us could get on without others to share his loads. We do not begin to live truly until we begin to put of our own strength into the hearts of others. We should notice that “Bear ye one another’s burdens” is called “the law of Christ.” We begin to become like Christ only when we begin to be of use, when we begin to help others, to make life a little easier for them, to give them something of our own strength in their weakness, something of our joy in their sorrow. Even the smallest ministries of unselfish helpfulness redeem a life from utter earthliness. Says Emily Dickinson: —

“If I can stop one heart from breaking,

I shall not live in vain;
If I can ease one life the aching,

Or cool one pain,
Or help one fainting robin
Unto his nest again,
I shall not live in vain.”

The third Bible word about burdens is, “Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and he shall sustain thee.” There are burdens we must carry ourselves. There are others which our friends may help us to carry. Then there are those which we can cast only upon God.

This promise discloses special preciousness when we study it closely. In the margin of our Common Version we find the word “gift” as an alternative reading for “burden.” Then in the Revised Version the marginal reading is, “That he hath given thee.” “Cast that he hath given thee upon the Lord.”

“That he hath given thee.” It may be duty. Ofttimes the burden of duty is heavy. It is heavy with fathers, who must provide for their families, and hold and fill their places in the world’s busy life. It is heavy with mothers, who have the home-care in their hands, with the training of their children. It is heavy with those that have large business interests intrusted to them, which they must manage wisely and faithfully. It is heavy with the minister who watches for souls. Duty is always enough to fill heart and hand, and sometimes it seems a greater burden than can be borne.

But it is “that he hath given thee,” and therefore it may be cast upon God. He will help us in it, and then, we know it comes only for one little day at a time.

“Charge not thyself with the weight of a year, Child of the Master, faithful and dear — Choose not the cross for the coming week; For that is more than He bids thee seek.

Bend not thine arms for to-morrow’s load; Thou may’st leave that to thy gracious God.

* Daily,’ only, he saith to thee,

* Take up thy cross and follow me.”

It may be struggle. Life is not easy for any of us. Every day is a prolonged conflict. We desire to live right; but there is an old law in our members, a law of sin, which contests every holy advance. We want to live lovingly, but the natural heart’s bitterness keeps breaking out in us continually, in bad tempers, in ugly dispositions, in envies, jealousies, selfishnesses, and all hateful things. We wish to live purely; but the dark streams of lust ever well up out of the deep, black fountains of our being, staining the white flowers that Christ has planted in our life’s garden. Thus the days are full of struggle and conflict, and sometimes we feel that there is no use trying to be good. Yet this burden is “that he hath given thee,” and therefore we may cast it upon God.

Or sorrow may be the burden. God has no children without sorrow, and in many cases the load seems too heavy to be borne; but again it is “that he hath given thee,” and we may lay the burden on him who is mighty.

Or your lot in life may be your burden. It is uncongenial. The circumstances are unkindly. It seems to you impossible to live lovingly, to grow up into beauty, and to ripen into Christlikeness in your environment. But again it is “that he hath given thee.” God planted you just where you are, and when he did it he knew it was the place in which you could grow best into noble character. He gives you this burden of environment, and you may cast it again upon him. Says Mr. Longfellow: “The every-day cares and duties, which men call drudgery, are the weights and counterpoises of the clock of time, giving its pendulum a true vibration and its hands a regular motion; and when they cease to hang from the wheels, the pendulum no longer swings, the hands no longer move, the clock stands still.”

Our burden, whatever it is, is God’s “gift,” and has a divine blessing in it for us, if we take it up in faith, in love. “That he hath given” we may always bring to him again, seeking his help in bearing it for him.

“Thy burden is God’s gift, And it will make the bearer calm and strong; Yet, lest it press too heavily and long,

He says, * Cast it on me,

And it shall easy be.’

And those who heed his voice, And seek to give it back in trustful prayer, Have quiet hearts that never can despair,

And hope lights up the way

Upon the darkest day.

It is the lonely load

That crushes out the light and life of heaven;

But borne with him, the soul restored, forgiven, Sings out through all the days Her joy and God’s high praise.”

We need to notice also the precise form of the promise. It is not that the burden shall be lifted away from our shoulder, or that it shall be borne for us, but that we shall be sustained in carrying it ourselves. If it is God’s gift, it is his will that we should keep it, at least for the time. There is some blessing in it for us, and it would not be kindness to us for God to take it away, even at our earnest pleading. It is part of our life, and is essential to our best growth. This is true of duty; however hard it is, to relieve us of it would be to rob us of the opportunity for reaching larger usefulness. It is true of struggle; all nobleness and strength of character come out of conflict. It is true of suffering; it is God’s cleansing fire, and to miss it would be a sore loss to us.

Human love, in its short-sightedness, often seeks to lift away the burdens that seem heavy; but this is not God’s way. He bids us keep our load, and then he gives us grace to bear it. He does not, every time we groan under a burden, run up to us and lift it away. This is often our way, but it is never God’s.

Parents ofttimes think they are showing deep and true affection for their children when they make their tasks and duties seem easy for them; but really they may be doing them irreparable harm, dwarfing their life and marring their future. So all tender friendship is in danger of overhelping in the lifting away of loads, taking hindrances out of the way, when it would help far more wisely by letting God’s arrangement of burdens alone. That is not the greatest kindness to us which seeks to make life easy as possible to us, but that which inspires us to do our best, and so to make something of us. Not a good time, but a Godlike character, is the only true aim for a life. Hence, while God never fails us in need, he loves us too well to relieve us of weights which are essential to our best growth and to the largest fruitfulness of our life. He does not take the load from our shoulder, but instead he puts strength in us to enable us to carry the burden and thus grow strong.

This is the secret of the peace of many a sick-room, where one sees always a smile on the face of the weary sufferer. The pain is not taken away, but the power of Christ is given, and the suffering is endured with patience. It is the secret of the deep, quiet joy we see ofttimes in the home of sorrow. The grief is crushing; but God’s blessed comfort comes in gentle whispers, and the mourner rejoices. The grief is not taken away. The dead is not restored. But the divine love comes into the heart, making it strong to accept the sorrow and say, “Thy will be done.”

“Nothing that hour was altered;

I had still the weight of care;
But I bore it now with gladness

That comes from answered prayer.
Not a grief the soul can fetter,

Nor cloud its vision when
The dear Lord gives the spirit

To breathe to his will, Amen.”