"For every man shall bear his own burden."
_Galatians_, c. vi., v. 5.
"Brethren, every man has his burden. If God designed our lives to end at
the grave, may we not believe that he would have freed an existence so
brief from the cares and sorrows to which, since the beginning of the
world, mankind has been subjected? Suppose that I am a kind father, and
have a child whom I dearly love, but I know by a divine revelation that
he will die at the age of eight years, surely I should not vex his
infancy by needless preparations for the duties of life. If I am a rich
man, I should not send him from the caresses of his mother to the stern
discipline of school. If I am a poor man, I should not take him with me
to hedge and dig, to scorch in the sun, to freeze in the winter's cold:
why inflict hardships on his childhood, for the purpose of fitting him
for manhood, when I know that he is doomed not to grow into man? But if,
on the other hand, I believe my child is reserved for a more durable
existence, then should I not, out of the very love I bear to him,
prepare his childhood for the struggle of life, according to that
station in which he is born, giving many a toil, many a pain to the
infant, in order to rear and strengthen him for his duties as man? So is
it with our Father that is in heaven. Viewing this life as our infancy,
and the next as our spiritual maturity, where, 'in the ages to come, he
may show the exceeding riches of his grace,' it is in his tenderness, as
in his wisdom, to permit the toil and the pain which, in tasking the
powers and developing the virtues of the soul, prepare it for the
earnest of our inheritance, the 'redemption of the purchased
possession.' Hence it is that every man has his burden. Brethren, if you
believe that God is good, yea, but as tender as a human father, you will
know that your troubles in life are a proof that you are reared for an
eternity. But each man thinks his own burden the hardest to bear: the
poor man groans under his poverty, the rich man under the cares that
multiply with wealth. For, so far from wealth freeing us from trouble,
all the wise men who have written in all ages, have repeated with one
voice the words of the wisest, 'When goods increase, they are increased
that eat them; and what good is there to the owners thereof, saving the
beholding of them with their eyes?' And this is literally true, my
brethren; for, let a man be as rich as was the great King Solomon
himself, unless he lock up all his gold in a chest, it must go abroad to
be divided amongst others; yea, though, like Solomon, he make him great
works--though he build houses and plant vineyards, and make him gardens
and orchards--still the gold that he spends feeds but the mouths he
employs; and Solomon himself could not eat with a better relish than the
poorest mason who builded the house, or the humblest laborer who planted
the vineyard. Therefore, 'when goods increase, they are increased that
eat them.' And this, my brethren, may teach us toleration and compassion
for the rich. We share their riches whether they will or not; we do not
share their cares. The profane history of our own country tells us that
a princess, destined to be the greatest queen that ever sat on this
throne, envied the milk-maid singing; and a profane poet, whose wisdom
was only less than that of the inspired writers, represents the man who
by force and wit had risen to be a king, sighing for the sleep
vouchsafed to the meanest of his subjects--all bearing out the words of
the son of David--'The sleep of the laboring man is sweet, whether he
eat little or much; but the abundance of the rich will not suffer him to
sleep.'
"Amongst my brethren now present, there is doubtless some one who has
been poor, and by honest industry has made himself comparatively rich.
Let his heart answer me while I speak: are not the chief cares that now
disturb him to be found in the goods he hath acquired?--has he not both
vexations to his spirit and trials to his virtue, which he knew not when
he went forth to his labor, and took no heed of the morrow? But it is
right, my brethren, that to every station there should be its care--to
every man his burden; for if the poor did not sometimes so far feel
poverty to be a burden as to desire to better their condition, and (to
use the language of the world) 'seek to rise in life,' their most
valuable energies would never be aroused; and we should not witness that
spectacle, which is so common in the land we live in--namely, the
successful struggle of manly labor against adverse fortune--a struggle
in which the triumph of one gives hope to thousands. It is said that
necessity is the mother of invention; and the social blessings which are
now as common to us as air and sunshine, have come from that law of our
nature which makes us aspire towards indefinite improvement, enriches
each successive generation by the labors of the last, and, in free
countries, often lifts the child of the laborer to a place amongst the
rulers of the land. Nay, if necessity is the mother of invention,
poverty is the creator of the arts. If there had been no poverty, and no
sense of poverty, where would have been that which we call the wealth of
a country? Subtract from civilization all that has been produced by the
poor, and what remains?--the state of the savage. Where you now see
laborer and prince, you would see equality indeed--the equality of wild
men. No; not even equality there; for there, brute force becomes
lordship, and woe to the weak! Where you now see some in frieze, some in
purple, you would see nakedness in all. Where stand the palace and the
cot, you would behold but mud huts and caves. As far as the peasant
excels the king among savages, so far does the society exalted and
enriched by the struggles of labor excel the state in which Poverty
feels no disparity, and Toil sighs for no ease. On the other hand, if
the rich were perfectly contented with their wealth, their hearts would
become hardened in the sensual enjoyments it procures. It is that
feeling, by Divine Wisdom implanted in the soul, that there is vanity
and vexation of spirit in the things of Mammon, which still leaves the
rich man sensitive to the instincts of heaven, and teaches him to seek
for happiness in those elevated virtues to which wealth invites
him--namely, protection to the lowly and beneficence to the distressed.
"And this, my brethren, leads me to another view of the vast subject
opened to us by the words of the apostle--'Every man shall bear his own
burden.' The worldly conditions of life are unequal. Why are they
unequal? O my brethren, do you not perceive? Think you that, if it had
been better for our spiritual probation that there should be neither
great nor lowly, rich nor poor, Providence would not so have ordered the
dispensations of the world, and so, by its mysterious but merciful
agencies, have influenced the framework and foundations of society? But
if, from the remotest period of human annals, and in all the numberless
experiments of government which the wit of man has devised, still this
inequality is ever found to exist, may we not suspect that there is
something in the very principles of our nature to which that inequality
is necessary and essential? Ask why this inequality! Why? as well ask
why life is the sphere of duty and the nursery of virtues. For if all
men were equal, if there were no suffering and no ease, no poverty and
no wealth, would you not sweep with one blow the half at least of human
virtues from the world? If there were no penury and no pain, what would
become of fortitude?--what of patience?--what of resignation? If there
were no greatness and no wealth, what would become of benevolence, of
charity, of the blessed human pity, of temperance in the midst of
luxury, of justice in the exercise of power? Carry the question further;
grant all conditions the same--no reverse, no rise and no fall--nothing
to hope for, nothing to fear--what a moral death you would at once
inflict upon all the energies of the soul, and what a link between the
heart of man and the Providence of God would be snapped asunder! If we
could annihilate evil, we should annihilate hope; and hope, my brethren,
is the avenue to faith. If there be 'a time to weep, and a time to
laugh,' it is that he who mourns may turn to eternity for comfort, and
he who rejoices may bless God for the happy hour. Ah! my brethren, were
it possible to annihilate the inequalities of human life, it would be
the banishment of our worthiest virtues, the torpor of our spiritual
natures, the palsy of our mental faculties. The moral world, like the
world without us, derives its health and its beauty from diversity and
contrast.
"'Every man shall bear his own burden.' True; but now turn to an earlier
verse in the same chapter. 'Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil
the law of Christ.' Yes; while Heaven ordains to each his peculiar
suffering, it connects the family of man into one household, by that
feeling which, more perhaps than any other, distinguishes us from the
brute creation--I mean the feeling to which we give the name of
_sympathy_--the feeling for each other! The herd of deer shun the stag
that is marked by the gunner; the flock heedeth not the sheep that
creeps into the shade to die; but man has sorrow and joy not in himself
alone, but in the joy and sorrow of those around him. He who feels only
for himself, abjures his very nature as man; for do we not say of one
who has no tenderness for mankind that he is _inhuman_? and do we not
call him who sorrows with the sorrowful, _humane_?
"Now, brethren, that which especially marked the divine mission of our
Lord, is the direct appeal to this sympathy which distinguishes us from
the brute. He seizes not upon some faculty of genius given but to few,
but upon that ready impulse of heart which is given to us all; and in
saying, 'Love one another,' 'Bear ye one another's burdens,' he elevates
the most delightful of our emotions into the most sacred of his laws.
The lawyer asks our Lord, 'who is my neighbor?' Our Lord replies by the
parable of the Good Samaritan. The priest and the Levite saw the wounded
man that fell among the thieves, and passed by on the other side. That
priest might have been austere in his doctrine, that Levite might have
been learned in the law; but neither to the learning of the Levite, nor
to the doctrine of the priest, does our Saviour even deign to allude. He
cites but the action of the Samaritan, and saith to the lawyer, 'Which
now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among
the thieves? And he said, He that showed mercy unto him. Then said Jesus
unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.'
"O shallowness of human judgments! It was enough to be born a Samaritan
in order to be rejected by the priest, and despised by the Levite. Yet
now, what to us the priest and the Levite, of God's chosen race though
they were? They passed from the hearts of men when they passed the
sufferer by the wayside; while this loathed Samaritan, half thrust from
the pale of the Hebrew, becomes of our family, of our kindred; a brother
amongst the brotherhood of Love, so long as Mercy and Affliction shall
meet in the common thoroughfare of Life!
"'Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ!' Think
not, O my brethren, that this applies only to almsgiving--to that relief
of distress which is commonly called charity--to the obvious duty of
devoting, from our superfluities, something that we scarcely miss, to
the wants of a starving brother. No. I appeal to the poorest amongst ye,
if the worst burdens are those of the body--if the kind word and the
tender thought have not often lightened your hearts more than bread
bestowed with a grudge, and charity that humbles you by a frown.
Sympathy is a beneficence at the command of us all,--yea, of the pauper
as of the king; and sympathy is Christ's wealth. Sympathy is
brotherhood. The rich are told to have charity for the poor, and the
poor are enjoined to respect their superiors. Good: I say not to the
contrary. But I say also to the poor, '_In your turn have charity for
the rich_;' and I say to the rich, '_In your turn respect the poor_.'
"'Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.' Thou,
O poor man, envy not nor grudge thy brother his larger portion of
worldly goods. Believe that he hath his sorrows and crosses like
thyself, and perhaps, as more delicately nurtured, he feels them more;
nay, hath he not temptations so great that our Lord hath exclaimed--'How
hardly they that have riches enter into the kingdom of heaven?' And what
are temptations but trials?--what are trials but perils and sorrows?
Think not that you cannot bestow your charity on the rich man, even
while you take your sustenance from his hands. A heathen writer, often
cited by the earliest preachers of the gospel, hath truly
said--'Wherever there is room for a man, there is place for a benefit.'
"And I ask any rich brother amongst you when he hath gone forth to
survey his barns and his granaries, his gardens and orchards, if
suddenly, in the vain pride of his heart, he sees the scowl on the brow
of the laborer--if he deems himself hated in the midst of his wealth--if
he feels that his least faults are treasured up against him with the
hardness of malice, and his plainest benefits received with the
ingratitude of envy--I ask, I say, any rich man, whether straightway all
pleasure in his worldly possessions does not fade from his heart, and
whether he does not feel what a wealth of gladness it is in the power of
the poor man to bestow! For all these things of Mammon pass away; but
there is in the smile of him whom we have served, a something that we
may take with us into heaven. If, then, ye bear one another's burdens,
they who are poor will have mercy on the errors, and compassion for the
griefs of the rich. To all men it was said--yes, to the Lazarus as to
the Dives--'Judge not, that ye be not judged.' But think not, O rich
man, that we preach only to the poor. If it be their duty not to grudge
thee thy substance, it is thine to do all that may sweeten their labor.
Remember, that when our Lord said, 'How hardly shall they that have
riches enter into the kingdom of heaven,' he replied also to them who
asked, 'Who then shall be saved?' 'The things which are impossible with
men are possible with God:' that is, man left to his own temptations
would fail; but strengthened by God, he shall be saved. If thy riches
are the tests of thy trial, so may they also be the instruments of thy
virtues. Prove by thy riches that thou art compassionate and tender,
temperate and benign; and thy riches themselves may become the evidence
at once of thy faith and of thy works.
"We have constantly on our lips the simple precept, 'Do unto others as
ye would be done by.' Why do we fail so often in the practice? Because
we neglect to cultivate that SYMPATHY which nature implants as an
instinct, and the Saviour exalts as a command. If thou wouldst do unto
thy neighbor as thou wouldst be done by, ponder well how thy neighbor
will regard the action thou art about to do to him. Put thyself into his
place. If thou art strong, and he is weak, descend from thy strength,
and enter into his weakness; lay aside thy burden for the while, and
buckle on his own; let thy sight see as through his eyes--thy heart beat
as in his bosom. Do this, and thou wilt often confess that what had
seemed just to thy power will seem harsh to his weakness. For 'as a
zealous man hath not done his duty, when he calls his brother drunkard
and beast,'[29] even so an administrator of the law mistakes his object
if he writes on the grand column of society, only warnings that irritate
the bold, and terrify the timid: and a man will be no more in love with
law than with virtue, 'if he be forced to it with rudeness and
incivilities.' If, then, ye would bear the burden of the lowly, O ye
great--feel not only _for_ them, but _with!_ Watch that your pride does
not chafe them--your power does not wantonly gall. Your worldly inferior
is of the class from which the apostles were chosen--amidst which the
Lord of Creation descended from a throne above the seraphs."
The Parson here paused a moment, and his eye glanced towards the pew
near the pulpit, where sat the magnate of Hazeldean. The Squire was
leaning his chin thoughtfully on his hand, his brow inclined downwards,
and the natural glow of his complexion much heightened.
"But"--resumed the Parson softly, without turning to his book, and
rather as if prompted by the suggestion of the moment--"But he who has
cultivated sympathy commits not these errors, or, if committing them,
hastens to retract. So natural is sympathy to the good man, that he
obeys it mechanically when he suffers his heart to be the monitor of his
conscience. In this sympathy behold the bond between rich and poor! By
this sympathy, whatever our varying worldly lots, they become what they
were meant to be--exercises for the virtues more peculiar to each; and
thus, if in the body each man bear his own burden, yet in the fellowship
of the soul all have common relief in bearing the burdens of each other.
This is the law of Christ--fulfil it, O my flock!"
Here the Parson closed his sermon, and the congregation bowed their
heads.
FOOTNOTES:
[28] By the pounds Milanese, Giacomo means the Milanese lira.
Gleanings from the Journals.
Dr. TURNBULL says in the _Medical Gazette_, "It has struck me that, if
we could discover any substance which could be so applied as to contract
the _iris_, one cause of the effect of shortsightedness would be
remedied. The result, I am happy to say, has been most satisfactory. In
the first instance I applied the extract of ginger, which was rubbed
five or ten times over the whole forehead, with the view of acting upon
the fifth pair of nerves. Afterwards I substituted a concentrated
tincture, of the strength of one part of ginger to two parts of spirits
of wine, decolorated by animal charcoal. In numerous cases this
application has almost doubled the vision."
* * * * *
Mr. GEORGE CRUIKSHANK has presided over a temperance meeting at Bristol.
He maintained in his address that if Shakspeare were alive now, he would
be of their society! "In 'Othello,' there was the character of a bad
man, one Iago, who, setting himself to work the ruin of another, begins
by making him drunk, and when it is first offered to him the answer is,
'Not to-night, good Iago. I have very poor and unhappy brains for
drinking. I could well wish courtesy would invent some other custom of
entertainment.' They would re-echo that wish, he was sure; courtesy
might invent a better custom of entertainment than that of
drinking"--(applause). We observe that the meeting gave three cheers for
"The Bottle." A stranger to modern engravings would no doubt consider
this in the last degree inconsistent.
* * * * *
We find in the London papers accounts of a Copying Electric Telegraph,
invented by a Mr. Bakewell, who had given lectures upon it at the
Russell Institution. Its object is the transmission of the _handwriting_
of correspondents. Its advantages are, freedom from error, as the
messages transmitted are fac-similes of the originals: authentication of
the communications by the transmission of copies of the handwriting;
increased rapidity, to such an extent that a single wire may be as
effective as ten with the needle telegraph, and consequent economy in
the construction of telegraphic lines of communication. The secrecy of
correspondence would also be maintained in a greater degree by the
copying telegraph, as it would afford peculiar facility for transmitting
messages in cipher, and the telegraph clerks, instead of being compelled
by their duties to read all the messages transmitted, might be forbidden
from perusing any portion but the address. As an additional means of
secrecy, the messages may be transmitted invisibly, by moistening the
paper with diluted muriatic acid alone, the writing being rendered
legible by a solution of prussiate of potass.
* * * * *
The "original Mrs. Partington" was a respectable old lady (says _Notes
and Queries_), living at Sidmouth, in Devonshire. Her cottage was on the
beach, and during an awful storm (November, 1824, when some fifty or
sixty ships were wrecked at Plymouth) the sea rose to such a height as
every now and then to invade the old lady's place of domicile; in fact,
almost every wave dashed in at the door. Mrs. Partington, with such help
as she could command, with mops and brooms, as fast as the water entered
the house, mopped it out again; until at length the waves had the
mastery, and the dame was compelled to retire to an upper story of the
house. The first allusion to the circumstance was made by Lord Brougham
in his celebrated speech in the House of Commons on the Reform Bill, in
which he compared the Conservative opposition to the bill to be like the
opposition of "Dame Partington, who endeavored to mop out the waves of
the Atlantic."
* * * * *
It is stated that the Neapolitan Government has granted a sum of twenty
thousand ducats for continuing the excavations at Pompeii.
FOOTNOTES:
[29] JEREMY TAYLOR--_Of Christian Prudence_.
Ladies' Fashions for January.
[Illustration]
The evening costumes of the present season are characterized by profuse
trimming. The skirts of the newest dresses, excepting those composed of
very rich materials, are all very fully trimmed. Corsages, whether high
or low, are ornamented in some way or other. Flounces, employed to trim
the skirts of ball dresses, are made somewhat fuller than heretofore.
Even lace flounces, which used to be set on plain, are now gathered up
in slight fulness. To add still more to the appearance of amplitude in
dresses trimmed with lace, some dressmakers edge the skirts with a
fontange of ribbon. With ball dresses of transparent textures, trimmed
with flounces of the same, this fontange of ribbon is frequently placed
at the edge of the slip worn under the dress. Tulle dresses are now
fashionable for ball costume. Some pretty organdy muslins, intended for
very young ladies, have just been introduced. These dresses should be
made with two jupes, simply edged with a broad hem.
Cloth is adopted for morning walking dresses, _redingote_ form, open
down the front, and embroidered in arabesque pattern, in silk braid and
other trimming; the sleeves are worked at bottom, and open, to admit
underneath cambric or muslin sleeves tight at the wrist; the body is
embroidered to match the skirts. With this _redingote_ is worn a
_pardessus_ of the same cloth, embroidered in front and at bottom with
braiding of from two to two and a half inches wide.
[Illustration]
The more showy dresses, and a little _decolletees_, are square in front
(Louis XV. style), the body pointed, the skirt plain, and but few
flounces. The colors are sombre and plain; the materials are velvet,
satin, damask, watered, _antique_, and some plaids, for the theatres and
for half dress. These dresses are always worn with open sleeves, trimmed
with _engageantes_.
Short velvet cloaks, richly embroidered either in satin stitch, silk
braid, or gimp, are in vogue, the preferred colors being burnt-bread and
black. Short velvet cloaks, of the paletot shape, half tight, trimmed
with lace, embroidered entirely in satin stitch, and with narrow
braiding, are also worn.
On mantelets of silk, entirely embroidered velvet ribbon is worn; or
stamped velvet flowers, upon the stuff, produce a very pleasing effect.
The braid used for the arabesque pattern is commonly plain, or has only
a thick cord, and is from half to three quarters of an inch wide.
Walking boots, entirely of leather, are the most fashionable.
In the _Illustrations_ which we give this month:
I. Is a Cap of Alencon lace, with flat bows of ribbon, and lappets of
the same.
II. A Bonnet of pink satin, covered with cut black velvet. A trimming of
black lace encircles the crown. The bonnet may be lined either with pink
satin or with black velvet; and the under trimming consists of small
pink flowers. Strings of pink satin ribbon.
III. _Engageantes_ of India muslin, with two rows of Mechlin lace, one
above the other.
IV. Velvet mantelet, with arabesque in silk braiding, a quarter of an
inch wide, and satin stitch, slightly fitting to the waist; wide
sleeves, and entirely embroidered.
V. (See the group of figures upon the following page.)
(I.) _Evening Costume for a Bride, back view._--The headdress a wreath
of white roses, mingled with orange-blossom. Back hair arranged in
twists, in the style called _noeud d' Apollon_. Across the forehead
may be worn a narrow bandeau of pearls or diamonds. Dress of white crape
over white satin; front of the skirt with bouquets of the same flowers
as those in the wreath. The corsage has a berthe of folds of white
tulle. The sleeves slightly full, and ornamented on the shoulder with
epaulettes of tulle. Necklace, a single row of pearls. (II.) _Costume
for an Evening Party._--Dress of brocade, the ground a dark violet
color, with large bouquets of flowers in a variety of hues.
[Illustration]
A _sortie de bal_ of cerulean blue satin, edged with a broad band of
velvet of the same color, on which a braid is disposed in a zigzag
pattern. The headdress of loops of narrow blue velvet ribbon fixed on
each side of the head. (III.) _Bride's dress suited to the Nuptial
Ceremony._--Robe of white satin; the skirt ornamented with side
trimmings, consisting each of a row of lace, headed by a fronce of white
satin ribbon. This trimming is set on spirally up each side of the
skirt, and is attached at intervals by small bows of white satin ribbon.
The corsage is half high at the back, and is sloped somewhat lower in
front. The front of the corsage is trimmed with rows of lace set on
horizontally. On the neck is worn a chemisette of lace. The sleeves are
finished at the ends with a full trimming of white satin ribbon. The
under-sleeves are loose at the ends, and are edged with two rows of
lace. On each arm a bracelet of gold, one of the serpent pattern, and
the other fastened by a cameo snap. Bridal wreath of orange-blossom and
jasmin. A very large veil of tulle illusion is fixed under the wreath
instead of being thrown over it, as is sometimes customary.