In Jesu8 Christ and in bia eervioe is: 1, EnlargefMld. 2, 1h.th. and diaillu■ion, ~- The oalm of conscientiousness and a well-grounded hope. 4. ~hO!i founded ,,n a wise and holy trustfulness. 6. Spiritw:ilfreedom. "Whom the Son makes free, they a.re free indeed;" " Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is llberty."-0. ,1, I ,l.TA Ver. •l:-Common burdtn~Mring. The figure of oalamity given in ve11. Us that of f'lnptyinf?-a vessel by turning it upside down. Jn uation&l calamities 111.-1 oltl.SB~s shard iliike. There is indiscriminate ruin. No distinction is made between the different ranks mid conditions of life, though the idle poor are always the first to suffer.. Jllus- trations ma-y -.be ta.ken frum the great Lane&Shire cotton famine; or from times of trade ,leprl'Sl!ion which; 6s yea-rafter year passes on, reaches every ola-ss'and section of society,; ·• It ·is-in a speoiai -manlier true of the destroying,judgn\ents whicli God :sometin:iee hrings ttpon 'sinful nations; wh!ll'l be J>leases he oan make them \tnlversa1 1,so that non& ,!,nil escape them or be exempt from them; whether men have little or much, they shall lose it all. Those of the meaner sort smart first• by famine; but those of the higher rank go first into captivity, while the poor of the land are left. Let not those that are adrnnced in the world set their inferiors at too great a distance, beca.use they know not how soon they may be put upon a level with them" (Matthew Henry). '!'he Apostle Paul advises tha.t we accept the fact of burdens being common, and strive to turn the bearinii; of them into Christian virtue. " Bear ye ,aiie. another's burdens.'1 " Every man sba.J.l bear his own burden." It is as if he had said, "Bear ye one another's bnrdens, by kindly sympathy and ready help, as far as ever you can, partly because you have a very heavy burden of your own to bear, so you know ·what burden-bearing means, and partly because, come near to help one ·another how you may, you know from yoim;elves how true it is that every man must bear his own burden; the really heavy weight of it can rest on no shoulders but his own." , I. 'l'HE BURDE~S THAT PRESS ON EACH ONE. The text suggests such as a.re special to times of ca.lamity and distress, but we may. treat our -topic in a· comprehensive way,J so aB to get direct practical applications. Each one of us Ii.as burdens as directly related to his sins and sinfulness as the woes of Jerusalem were to the national transgressions, The histories of cities and nations do but picture in the large the story of indiv.idua:.Is; The cnrsory reader of the 'Pilgrim's Progress' will. tell you that the pilgrim lost his burden from his shoulders when he gazed so trustfully upon the cross. But the more care£ul reader, who notes Christian's infirmities, and frailties, and stumblings, and falls, will tell you that the pilgrim bore his burdens right through to the end, and· that they weighed him down even when crossing the stream. We have our burdens iii our frail bodies--frail in the nerves, the head, the bones, the lungs, or yet. more secret' organs. Each one has a real "thorn in the flesh," which has influences far wider and mor,i serious than he thinks. We have our burdens in our dispositions and characters- burdens of despondency, or of impulsiveness, or of carnality, or of masterfulness, ·or of vanity, giving a bad appearance to all our work and relationship. And the problem of our life is just this: "How trne, how beautiful can we become, with that burden, under the pressures and hindrances of that burden?" There is divinely arranged a great variety e.nd wide distribution of burdens and disabilities, both in the sense of infirmities o.nd calamities, so that we might come very near to one another, and really help one another. As we meet and feel "I am a man with a burden," we look into the face of our fellows, and he is a poor face-reader who does not Eay, " And my brother, too, is evidently a man with a burden." Perhaps a suspicion even crosses our mind that our brother's burden is heavier than our own. Burdens, when rightly bome, never separate men from eoch other. The sanctified bearing of our own makes us so simple, so gentle, so tender-hearted, that we can bear the burdens of others, in the spirit of our meekness and sympathy, and so fulfil the law of Christ. II. THE BU11DENS THAT WE MAY BEAR WITH OTHERS. '!'here are common burdens in the~ life; common burdens in the business life; common burdens in the social life; and common burdens in the national life; and we properly think ill things of the individuals or the classes that isolate themselves, and refuse to share the oommon burden. But it will be well to •ask how practically we can take, up the common burden so as to really help our brethren who are in the common trouble? Our great power is uur power uf sympathy. We can come so near to our brother in his weakness, hia cu. xxiv. 1-23.) 'I1HE BOOK OF THE P1iOPHE1' ISAIAH. 39'5
dial\bilHyJeven·ln his sin, that he shall ftjeJ a11 if another shoulder were put under his butden, o.nd It felt to him II little lighter. We all yearn for sympathy; we all want some othor human heart to feel in our trouble-times·; "Oh what a joy on earth to find A mirror in an answering mind I " But we can'often enter, as a relieving power, into the circumstances that make the burden. The doctor takes the sufferer into his interest and care, and deals helpfull_v with the .:ircumstances that make the burilen. And every one of us can be a doct"r for the moral difficulties and distresses of life. We have all more power over the ci1·- cumstances that make trouble than we think; we can "lift up bands that h:rng down, and strengthen feeble knees." Beautiful in time of national calamity is the help which the poor give to the poor. Beautiful ought to be the help which each gives to each, and ~II to all, in the ordi~ary burden-bearing of family and social life.-R. T.