OUR BURDEN-BEARER.
Oh, I love to think of Him as the bearer of our burdens as well as our sin-bearer. He carries our sins, although they are more numerous than the hairs of our heads. Great and terrible as these burdens are, God has laid them all on Jesus.
“O Christ, what burdens bowed Thy head!
Our load was laid on Thee.”
That aspect of His burden-bearing we have already looked at in His work as Saviour and Redeemer. I wish now to take up the sweet thought, which has been a great comfort to me.
“Surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows.” Glorious, is it not, to know we have such a Saviour? Can you feel that He has lifted your burden off your shoulders on to His own shoulder? Then you will feel light in heart.
A LIGHT HEART.
On one occasion, after I had been talking this way, a woman came forward, and said, “Oh, Mr. Moody, it’s all very well for you to talk like that, about a light heart. But you are a young man, and if you had a heavy burden like me you would talk differently. I could not talk in that way, my burden is too great.” I replied, “But it’s not too great for Jesus.” “Oh,” she said, “I cannot cast it on Him.” “Why not? surely it is not too great for Him. It is not that He is feeble. But it is because you will not leave it to Him. You’re like many others. They will not leave it with Him. They go about hugging their burden, and yet crying out against it. What the Lord wants is, you to leave it with Him, to let Him carry it for you. Then you will have a light heart, sorrow will flee away, and there will be no more sighing. What is your burden, my friend, that you cannot leave with Christ?” She replied, “I have a son who is a wanderer on the face of the earth. None but God knows where he is.” “Cannot Christ find him, and bring him back?” “I suppose He can.” “Then go and tell Jesus, and ask Him to forgive you for doubting His power and willingness; you have no right to mistrust Him.” She went away much comforted, and I believe she ultimately had her wandering boy restored to her!
A MOTHER’S PRAYER ANSWERED.
This circumstance reminds me of a pious father and mother in our country, whose eldest son had gone to Chicago to a situation. A neighbour of theirs was in the city on some business, and he met the young man reeling along the streets drunk. He thought, “How am I to tell his parents?” When he returned to his village, he went and called out the father, and told him. It was a terrible blow to that father, but he said nothing to the mother till the little ones had all gone to rest; the servants had retired, and all was quiet in that little farm on the Western prairies. They drew up their chairs to the little drawing-room table, and then he told her the sad news. “Our boy has been seen drunk on the streets of Chicago—drunk.” Ah, that mother was sorely hurt; they did not sleep much that night, but spent the hours in fervent prayers for their boy. About daybreak the mother felt an inward conviction that all would be well. She told the father “she had cast it on the Lord, had left her son with Jesus, and she felt He would save him.” One week from that time the young man left Chicago, took a journey of three hundred miles into the country; and when he reached his home, he walked in, and said, “Mother, I’ve come home to ask you to pray for me.” Ah, her prayer had reached heaven; she had cast her burden on Jesus, and He had borne it for her. He took the burden, presented her prayer sprinkled with the atoning blood, and got it answered. In two days that young man returned to Chicago rejoicing in the Saviour. What a wonderful thing it is to have Christ as our burden-bearer! How easy, how light do our cares become when cast upon Him!