No Weights.
"Let us lay aside every weight."--Heb. xii. 1.
If you were going to run a race, you would first put down all the parcels
you might have been carrying. And if you had a heavy little parcel in your
pocket, you would take that out, and lay it down too, because it would
hinder you in running. You would know better than to say, "I will put down
the parcels which I have in my hands, but nobody can see the one in my
pocket, so that one won't matter!" You would "lay aside _every_ weight."
You have a race to run to-day, a little piece of the great race that is
set before you. God has set a splendid prize before you, "the prize of
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus," a crown that is incorruptible.
Now what are you going to do about the weights, the things that hinder you
from running this race? You know some things do seem to hinder you; will
you keep them or lay them aside? Will you only lay aside something that
every one can see is hindering you, so that you will get a little credit
for putting it down, and keep something that your own little conscience
knows is a real hindrance, though no one else knows anything at all about
it? Oh, take St. Paul's wise and holy advice, and make up your mind to lay
aside _every_ weight.
Different persons have different weights; we must find out what ours are,
and give them up. One finds that if she does not get up directly she is
called, the time slips by, and there is not enough left for quiet prayer
and Bible-reading. Then here is a little weight that must be laid aside.
Another is at school, and finds that he gets no good, but a little harm,
when he goes much with a certain boy. Then he must lay that weight aside.
Another takes a story-book up to bed, and reads it while nurse is brushing
her hair, and up to the last minute, and then her head is so full of the
story that she only _says words_ when she kneels down, and can not really
_pray_ at all. Can she doubt that this is a weight which must be laid
aside?
It may seem hard to lay our pet weight down; but oh, if you only knew how
light we feel when it is laid down, and how much easier it is to run the
race which God has set before us!