even for a corruptible crown ? But ours is incorruptible. " Be not weary, then, in well-doing: for in due season ye shall reap, if ye faint not."]
Gal. vi. 2. Bear ye one another s burdens, and so fulfil the law
of Christ.
TO open and unfold the mystery of the Gospel, is doubtless an employment which, in point of utility to others, or of comfort to ourselves, may vie with any other, in which a human being can be engaged. But to inculcate the morality of the Gospel is also a most delightful office : and a minister of Christ, who feels averse to it, gives reason to fear that he has never yet entered into the spirit of the doctrine which he professes to teach. St. Paul manifestly de- lighted in this good work ; for, in the close of all his epistles, he paid the most marked attention to ita. Nor did he rest in general instruction, but descended to the most minute particulars ; omitting nothing that could tend to advance the honour of God, or the welfare of mankind.
That we may enter into the precept before us, we will consider,
I. The duty enjoined —
Burthens of some kind every man is called to sus- tain—
[Some may be comparatively freed from them; nor do they lie on any with the same weight and pressure at all times : but no child of man is altogether exempt from them. The body is subject to diseases, the mind to trials, and the outward estate to disasters, which no human foresight can prevent, no power on earth can avoid. They greatly mistake, who think that trouble is the exclusive portion of the poor. The rich, in their respective spheres, are as obnoxious to it as the poor ; and, for the most part, by reason of their keener sensibility, they feel it more acutely.]
a See Gal. v. 19—24. R 2