Rensselaer Union, Volume 9, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 July 1877 — Who Carries your Burden? [ARTICLE]

Who Carries your Burden?

To many life is one constant burden. Cherished hopes have faded out of sight, and friendships that cheered in the morning hour have fallen from the path of life, and left the heart desolate. The way whioh for a while opened with prospect proved to be difficult indeed, and rewards came not as the fruit of earnest toil. There are thousands sinking down in despondency, who feel that to escape from the evil of the present would be a relief from a great burden. Sorrow is a heavy load. Temptations and trials, to manyfollowers of God, make a burden of severe weight. These come unbidden, but do not always depart at our pleasure. Sometimes they are interwoven with those things from which we are unwilling to separate ourselves. That, which seems to us to be essential to our peace and good, carries with it these trials which burden down the soul. The voice of grace and the suggestions of the Holy Spirit tell the heart to let go, and God will take away the trial; but fear and unbelief will not let the Savior come with His hand of help. Often when God takes hold of the burden, and the cause which brought it, and lifts it from the shoulder, the hands go up and catch it, and pull it down aeain. There are tnany souls to whom duty is a burden. The task itself may be delightful enough, but the heart trembles with anxiety in view of the results of toil. Good purposes and honest efforts have not always been attended with success. When the rose-bud should have opened in bloom, some evil hand broke it down. When the heart was touched and drawn by the Influence of a kind and tender admonition, and seemed to be yielding to the divine claims, some bitter power of Satan intercepted the act, and iniquity triumphed. Thus the heart of the Christian bears a burden of solicitude. Souls hang in the balances. Who shall carry these hardens? There is a weight of responsibility from which no one may ever be set free, for God has said that in this “ Every man shall bear his own burden." But there is a precious relief for every soul from these burdens which oppress most heavily “ Cast thy burden upon the Lord, and He shall sustain thee.” There is the comfort. Not only the burden may be cast on God, but the assurance is that the soul shall be sustained, comforted and strengthened. gladdened, carried, if it has not the power of self-support. “Casting all your care upon Him; for He careth for you.” It is by humble faith in God that the soul thrusts out from itself these burdens and leaves them resting on God. If there is not this faith they grow heavier as life runs on. As the heart in any place becomes weak and begins to break down, they get heavier then. Just as the spirit sinks down lower in any gloom, do these burdens jostle over and press heavier still in the lowest places of the heart. But why let it be so when God is at hand? He made, redeemed and saved us; then why not let Him govern us? The burdened soul should remember that just as the mountain supports the little blade of grass and the solitary floweret; just as the lofty rock sustains the sweet, blooming honeysuckle ; or as the sea bears up the little sea-bird that sits upon its crested wave, so Jesus bears up His humblest follower that trusts in Him, and carries gently in His bosom the burdened and sorrowing spirit. Who carries your burden I—Religious Tdeseope.