1862.
By the same Author.
Just published, cloth, 5s., by post, 5s. 4d.
Plain Sermons. Third Series. Containing a Course for Advent, for Lent; also Epiphany, Easter, and Miscellaneous Sermons.
Also, just out, price 1d., FOR DISTRIBUTION, or 6s. per 100, A Few Words to all on the Present Distress of our Brethren in Lancashire. II. Cor., viii, 14.
A PLAIN SERMON.
Galatians, vi., 2.
“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”
There are certain burdens which every man must bear for himself, which none can bear for him. Such are the burdens brought upon him by sin—fear, remorse, punishment. Such again are the burdens of responsibility which belong to his gifts and opportunities from God. Of these it is not the Divine will that he should be relieved by others. Rightly is he made to eat the fruit of his own wilful doings; rightly is he accountable to God for all that has been lent to him, for all that he has been commanded to do. It is true indeed that the co-operation or opposition of other men may, in some measure, affect the bearing of these burdens; but still mainly, if not entirely, is it a question between him and his God—with which a stranger intermeddleth not—what he shall suffer, what reckoning shall be made with him: “The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father;” “Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own work;” “Every one of us shall give an account of himself to God.”
These burdens may be considered appropriate and peculiar to the individual or class of individuals upon whom they are laid: so that you may anticipate, almost with certainty, the judgment which imposes them; may observe without wonder or questioning who have to bear them; may trace back the effect to its cause, the duty to its obligation, and justify and approve the law of their imposition.
But there are other burdens which seem to light “hap-hazard” upon their bearers, incurred by no special misconduct, corresponding with no particular powers and opportunities. There is no reason that can be discerned why these men should have them, and those be free from them. Nay, there seems every reason why it should be otherwise: the back is weak upon which the heavy weight is laid; the understanding is simple which has perplexities to unravel; the life is upright which has been afflicted; the hand is willing which has no work to do. These are the burdens, the “heavy things,” the grievances of which the text speaks, burdens from beneath which the bearers may naturally cry, “Why am I thus?” burdens the beholding whereof from afar should prompt the humble, adoring exclamation, “Why am I not thus?”