+I. The duty enjoined.+--1. It may apply to a weight of labour or
bodily toil. 2. To a weight of personal affliction. 3. To a weight of
providential losses and embarrassments. 4. To a weight of guilt.
5. Of temptation. 6. Of infirmities.
+II. The enforcing motive.+--1. The apostle's requirement is worthy
of the character of Christ, as it is a law of equity. 2. It is
congenial with the Spirit of Christ. 3. It is agreeable to the
example of Christ. 4. It is deducible from the precepts of Christ.
5. It has the approbation of Christ.--_Sketches._
_Bearing One Another's Burdens._--The metaphor is taken from
travellers who used to ease one another by carrying one another's
burdens, wholly or in part, so that they may more cheerfully and
speedily go on in their journey. As in architecture all stones are
not fit to be laid in every place of the building, but some below and
others above the wall, so that the whole building may be firm and
compact in itself; so, in the Church those who are strong must
support the weak. The Italians have a proverb--_Hard with hard never
makes a good wall,_ by which is signified that stones cobbled up one
upon another without mortar to combine them make but a tottering wall
that may be easily shaken; but if there be mortar betwixt them
yielding to the hardness of the stones, it makes the whole like a
solid continued body, strong and stable, able to endure the shock of
the ram or the shot of the cannon. So that society, where all are as
stiff as stones which will not yield a hair one to another, cannot be
firm and durable. But where men are of a yielding nature society is
compact, because one bears the infirmities of another. Therefore the
strong are to support the weak, and the weak the strong; as in the
arch of a building one stone bears mutually, though not equally, the
burden of the rest; or as harts swimming over a great water do ease
one another in laying their heads one upon the back of another--the
foremost, having none to support him, changing his place and resting
his head upon the hindermost. Thus in God's providence. Luther and
Melancthon were happily joined together. Melancthon tempered the heat
and zeal of Luther with his mildness, being as oil to his vinegar;
and Luther, on the other side, did warm his coldness, being as fire
to his frozenness.--_Ralph Cudworth._
_Association (A Benefit Club Sermon)._--1. This plan of bearing one
another's burdens is not only good in benefit clubs--it is good in
families, in parishes, in nations, in the Church of God. What is
there bearing on this matter of prudence that makes one of the
greatest differences between a man and a brute beast? Many beasts
have forethought: the sleep-mouse hoards up acorns against the
winter, the fox will hide the game he cannot eat. The difference
between man and beast is, that the beast has forethought only for
himself, but the man has forethought for others also. 2. Just the
same with nations. If the king and nobles give their whole minds to
making good laws, and seeing justice done to all, and workmen fairly
paid, and if the poor in their turn are loyal and ready to fight and
work for their king and their nobles, then will not that country be a
happy and a great country? 3. Just the same way with Christ's Church,
the company of true Christian men. If the people love and help each
other, and obey their ministers and pray for them, and if the
ministers labour earnestly after the souls and bodies of their
people, and Christ in heaven helps both minister and people with His
Spirit and His providence and protection, if all in the whole Church
bear each other's burdens, then Christ's Church will stand, and the
gates of hell will not prevail against it.--_Charles Kingsley._
_Burden-bearing._
+I. Different kinds of burdens.+--1. _Those that are necessary._
2. _Those that are superfluous._ 3. _Those that are imaginary._
+II. What shall we do with them?+--1. _Reduce their number to the
limits of necessity._ 2. _Some of these we are expected to carry
ourselves._ 3. _Some we may expect our friends to help us to carry._
4. _We may take them all to the Lord that He may either remove them
or sustain us under them._
+Lessons.+--1. _With grace burdens are removed or lightened._ 2. _In
what way can we best help others with their burdens?_ "Thou
lightenest thy load by lightening his." 3. _Let our burdens be
reduced to light running order._--_Homiletic Monthly._
_Practical Christian Sympathy._
+I. Consider the burdens you can bear for others.+--All have to bear
burdens. Some man can only bear for himself. Others he can be helped
to bear, such as the burden of carnal tendency, persecution, anxiety
over loved ones, affliction that is not punishment.
+II. Consider how we may bear the burdens of others.+--1. _We can
bear them on our hearts in prayer._ 2. _We can lighten the burden by
friendly help._ 3. _We can by the strength of our sympathies come
under the burdens of others._
+III. Bearing the burdens of others is the chief way by which we can
fulfil the law of Christ.+--Nothing will give us such a resemblance
to Him. He lives solely for others. He came voluntarily under the
burden of man's miseries, sacrificing Himself for the race.
+IV. Consider the importance of obeying this injunction.+--1. _For
our own sakes._ 2. _For the good of others._ 3. _For the prosperity
of the Church._--_The Lay Preacher._