1. God takes our burdens upon Himself. — There are burdens that men can help us with, but the heaviest burdens are those they cannot touch. " The heart knoweth its own bitterness." The burden of a hidden grief, of a besetting sin, of a lifelong trial of disease or of sorrow through the wrong-doing of others — men may not help much here. But God can and does help. He enters into the very life of those whom He teaches to trust Him. It is not they themselves who do the good things and speak the kind words and think the holy thoughts that go to the upbuilding of their spiritual house. It is God. He " worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure." And so of the care that is cast upon Him. He bears it as Tie bears the sin. He is in the burdened soul, and so, though the outward and visible trial be unremoved, yet God bears it, for the Divine strength is in the
PSALM Lxviii. 19 189
heart. God infuses His' own power into the soul, until the down- ward pressure is no longer felt, and the burden is known to be effectually " cast upon the Lord."
^ The word redemption, all the past which it implies, all the future which it points to, has for me a wonderful charm. I cannot separate the idea of deliverance from the idea of God, or ever think of man as blessed except as he enters into God's re- deeming purpose, and labours to make others free. The bondage of circumstances, of the world, but chiefly of self, has at times seemed to me quite intolerable, the more because it takes away all one's energy to throw it off, and then the difficulty of escaping to God ! of asking to have the weight taken away ! Oh there is infinite comfort in the thought that He hears all our cries for rescue, and is Himself the Author and Finisher of it.^
2. God's help is continual. — He daily beareth our burden. He will not suffer us, if we are guided by His teaching and Spirit, to think of Him as simply transcending our life, living above it, and out of it, and looking on it as from a distance ; He assures us that He shares it, is in it, and through and over and under all ; in it always ; Himself bearing the burdens of it, not now and again, at far-separated intervals and in the special crises of our experience ; but " daily " — " Blessed be the Lord, who daily beareth our burden." It is the monotonous daily pressure of the same weight, in the same wearying way, that slays the hope in us and makes us sigh for the wings of a dove to bear us away to some place of freedom and rest ; and it is exactly that " daily " hour-by-hour burden God Himself carries for us, and with us, and so sustains us and trains us. Like some river that runs by the wayside and ever cheers the traveller on the dusty path with its music, and offers its waters to cool his thirsty lips, so, day by day, in the slow iteration of our lingering sorrows, and in the monotonous recur- rence of our habitual duties, there is with us the ever-present help of the Ancient of Days, who measures out daily strength for the daily load, and never sends the one without proffering the other.
^ In feudal times the peasantry used to build their little cottages beneath the shadow of their lord's castle-walls so that in time of need they could easily take refuge within the stronghold, and so that by their very proximity to their master's dwelling he might be reminded that they cast upon him the burden of their
* Life of Frederick Denison Maurice, i. 520.
I90 THE BURDEN-BEARING GOD
safe-keeping. So may we build the frail house of life beneath the shadow of the Almighty, that in the day of sore need we may surely find the way into the secret of His presence.
Never a battle with wrong for tlie right, Never a contest that He doth not fight, Lifting above us His banner so white ; Moment by moment we're kept in His sight.
Never a trial and He is not there,
Never a burden that He doth not bear.
Never a sorrow that He doth not share,
Moment by moment we're under His care.*
3. God hears our hurden by sharing it. — A physical burden is one thing, a spiritual another, and there is no such literal trans- ference in the moral realm as to make tlie spirit oblivious of the existence of such a thing as a burden at all. But in this they are alike, that those who help can help only on condition of them- selves undergoing the pressure from which they release others If you want to relieve any one of trouble, you must bear it your- self. Only so can spiritual release bo secured. You give blessing at the price of feeling pain. As has been well said, " There is no bearing of a moral burden without feeling it to be a burden." Aad if God bears our burdens, then the pressure and the pain of them become His. Our trouble becomes His trouble, and our sorrow His sorrow. " In all their afflictions he was afflicted."