+I. There is the burden of personal responsibility.+--This comes out
in the formation of character.
+II. There is the burden of toil.+--Among the steep precipitous
mountains of Thibet the traveller meets long processions of hungry,
ill-clad Chinamen, carrying enormous loads of tea. There they go,
climb, climbing day after day up the rough sides of the mountains,
each with his great burden on his back, eyes fixed on the ground, all
silent, stepping slowly, and leaning on great iron-pointed sticks,
till the leader of the gang gives the signal for a halt, and, after
standing for a few minutes, the heavy load again falls on the back
and head, the body is again bent towards the ground, and the caravan
is once more in motion. You do not wonder that, with a task so
monotonous, these poor drudges should acquire a dreary, stupid look,
little better than beasts of burden; and you feel sorry for those in
whose lives there is a large amount of the like irksome and
exhausting routine. Yet there are many who, in order to earn their
daily bread, must go through a similar task.
+III. There is the burden of sorrow.+--Sorrow dwells beneath a king's
robes as much as beneath a peasant's cloak; the star of the noble,
the warrior's corslet, the courtier's silken vesture, cannot shut it
out. That rural home is such a picture of peace we cannot believe
that care or tears are there. That noble castle amidst ancient trees
is surely lifted up in its calm grandeur above sighs and sadness.
Alas! it is not so. Man is the tenant of both, and wherever man
dwells sorrow is sure to be with him.
+IV. There is one burden which it is wrong to bear.+--It is a sin and
a shame to you if you are still plodding along under the burden of
unpardoned transgression. The load of guilt, the feeling that our sin
is too great for the blood of Christ to expiate, or the grace of God
to pardon--this burden it is wrong to bear.--_Dr. James Hamilton._
_Bearing our Burdens Alone._
+I. The loneliness of each one of us.+--One of the tendencies of
these bustling times it to make us forget that we are single beings,
detached souls. Each great star flung out like an atom of gold dust
into space may seem lost amid the hundreds of millions of mightier
worlds that surround; and yet no; it rolls on, grave in itself,
careering in its own orbit, while its sister-stars sweep round on
every side. We stand cut off from one another. We are to stave up
side by side our own destiny, we are to be alone with our burdens,
not lost in the forest of human lives.
+II. Look at some of the forms of this burden.+--1. _There is the
burden of being itself._ 2. _The burden of duty._ 3. _The burden of
imperfection and sin._ 4. _The burden of sorrow._ 5. _The burden of
dying alone._ 6. _If a man is lost, he is lost alone; if saved, he is
saved alone.--The Lay Preacher._
_Every Man has his Own Burden._
I. No man can pay a ransom for his brother, or redeem his soul from
death, or satisfy the justice of God for his sin, seeing that every
+man by the tenor of the law is to bear his own burden,+ and by the
Gospel none can be our surety but Christ.
II. +We see the nature of sin that is a burden to the soul.+--It is
heavier than the gravel of the earth and the sand of the sea.
III. We are not to wonder that +sin being so heavy a burden+ should
be made so light a matter by carnal men, for it is a spiritual burden.
IV. +The more a man fears the burden of his sins+ the greater measure
of grace and spiritual life he has, and the less he feels it the more
he is to suspect himself.
V. The greatest part of the world are dead in their sins in that
+they have no sense of feeling of this heavy burden.+
VI. We are to take heed of every sin, for +there is no sin so small
but hath its weight.+--Many small sins will as easily condemn as a
few great. Like as sands, though small in quantity, yet being many in
number, will as soon sink the ship as if it were laden with the
greatest burden.
VII. Feeling the weight and burden of our sins, +we are to labour to
be disburdened;+ and this is done by repentance towards God and faith
in our Lord Jesus Christ.--_Perkins._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6-10.
_Moral Sowing and Reaping._
+I. Beneficence by the taught towards the teacher is sowing good
seed.+--"Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that
teacheth in all good things" (ver. 6). The good things referred to,
though not confined to temporal good, do certainly mean that. While
every man must bear his own burden, he must also help to bear the
burden of his brother. Especially must the taught go shares with his
spiritual teacher in all things necessary. But beneficence shown
towards the minister in temporalities is the least, and with many the
easiest, part of the duty. Teacher and taught should mutually
co-operate with each other in Christian work, and share with each
other in spiritual blessings. The true minister of the Gospel is more
concerned in eliciting the co-operation and sympathy of the members
of his Church than in securing their temporal support. If he
faithfully ministers to them in spiritual things, they should be
eager to minister unto him of their worldly substance, and to aid him
in promoting the work of God. Every good deed, done in the spirit of
love and self-sacrifice, is sowing good seed.
+II. By the operation of unchanging Divine law the reaping will
correspond to the kind of seed sown and the nature of the soil into
which it is cast.+--"Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth
to his flesh," etc. (vers. 7, 8). Men may wrong each other, but they
cannot cheat God. To expect God to sow His bounties upon them, and
not to let Him reap their gratitude and service, is mockery. But it
is not God they deceive; they deceive themselves. For at last every
one shall reap as he sows. The use made of our seed-time determines
exactly, and with a moral certainty greater even than that which
rules in the natural field, what kind of fruitage our immortality
will render. Eternity for us will be the multiplied, consummate
outcome of the good or evil of the present life. Hell is just sin
ripe--rotten ripe. Heaven is the fruitage of righteousness. "He that
soweth to his own flesh reaps corruption"--the moral decay and
dissolution of the man's being. This is the natural retributive
effect of his carnality. The selfish man gravitates downward into the
sensual man; the sensual man downward into the bottomless pit. "He
that soweth to the Spirit reaps life everlasting." The sequence is
inevitable. Like breeds its like. Life springs of life, and death
eternal is the culmination of the soul's present death to God and
goodness. The future glory of the saints is at once a divine reward
and a necessary development of their present faithfulness (_Findlay,
passim_).
+III. Sowing the seed of good deeds should be prosecuted with
unwearied perseverance.+--1. _Because the harvest is sure to follow._
"Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap,
if we faint not" (ver. 9). Here is encouragement for the wearied,
baffled worker. We have all our moments of despondency and
disappointment and are apt to imagine our labours are futile and all
our painstaking useless. Not so. We are confounding the harvest with
the seed-time. "In due season"--in God's time, which is the best
time--"we shall reap, if we faint not." Our heavenly harvest lies in
every earnest and faithful deed, as the oak with its centuries of
growth and all its summer glory sleeps in the acorn-cup, as the
golden harvest slumbers in the seeds under their covering of wintry
snow.
2. _Because the opportunity of doing good is ever present._--"As we
have opportunity let us do good unto all men, especially unto them
who are of the household of faith" (ver. 10). The whole of life is
our opportunity, and every day brings its special work. Opportunity
is never to seek; it is ever present. There is not a moment without a
duty. While we are looking for a more convenient opportunity, we lose
the one that is nearest to us. As members of the household of faith
there is ever work enough to do--work that fits us to do good on a
wider scale--"unto all men." True zeal for the Church broadens rather
than narrows our charities. Household affection is the nursery, not
the rival, of love to our fatherland and to humanity.
+Lessons.+--1. _Our present life is the seed-time of an eternal
harvest._ 2. _The quality of the future harvest depends entirely on
the present sowing._ 3. _God Himself is the Lord of the moral
harvest._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._