SUNDAY COLUMN.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXXV, Issue 57, 8 March 1913, Page 8

SUNDAY COLUMN.

(By Dr. J. H. Jowctt.)

THE PASSING OF THE EUR DEN.

‘•Cast thy burden upon tJio Lord, and Ho shall sustain thee. Tie shall never suiter die righteous to he moved.” Psalm 55: ‘22.

This is a stormy psalm, abounding in threat, indignation, fear and pain. Tho tempest ranges right up to tae coniines of my text. Here, in the text, there is a temporary lull in the violence of thought and feeling. Ihe driven, terrified pilgrim is becoming possessed by the recovering light ol assurance, and the trembling heart is quietened into momentary peace, in tho earlier outburst the Psalmist is meditating relief from his burden by tho way of flight. “Oh, had 1 the wings of a dove, then would I fly away.’ Wo have all known tho inclination. We all know tho critical moment when we are seeking relief by leaving our tasks. “I will just leave tho whole thing ; I will get away from it.” Such flight is usually fruitless. Wo carry our burden with us. On the furtheV shore it sits upon us still. And yet there are some types of burden in which tho refuge of flight w .11 lie found to be a rare and splendid defence. “Flee youthful lusts.” la these matters flight is the only method of salvation. There are some atmospheres in which evil desire inevitably becomes irritated and inflamed. Our only refuge is to get away from them. If you are inclined to be feverish, passionate, voluptuous, flee from tho inflammatory material on which the temper is fed. Get away from “inflammatory bocks and companionships Seek refuge by flight. “Fled iron idolatry.” Do not take part for i moment in the temple worship of ai alien god. Do not sit in tho temph of Mammon. Do not think there is security in partial worldliness, in a moderate compromise. We do not need to wear tho entire dress of a smallpox victim in order to acquire tho disease. A bit of ribbon will do it. And if wo presumably turn our back upon tbo world and tho worship of Mammon, and yet retain and hug one worldly expiency or practice, we shall bo accounted the followers of an alien god.

But the majority of burdens cannot be disposed of by the method of flight. Wo have no resources but to cast them on God. What becomes of them when we take them to the Lord ? There are some burdens which pass away even while they are being iecounted. They evaporate in the telling. To talk about them to God is to lose them! If you take a dimmed steamed mirror into a dry sunny room, the obscuring veil passes away, and the mirror becomes clear. And there are some burdens which perplex the spirit and hinder its outlook, which, when wo take them to the Lord, pass away like mist in the sunny light of the morning. Let me mention two or three: (1) There is the burden of tearfulness. Vt hat is this burden but the lack of assurance? The depression is born of uncertainty. The soul moves in fear because it does not feel the presence of God. The lack of assurance breeds the restless offspring of anxiety, fretfulness and care. Now this is one of the burdens which evaporate in the telling. The Master has told us in this very significant sentence that fearfulness is always the companion of little faith. “Why are ye fearful, O ye of little faith?” The largeness of the one term is always proportioned to the smallness of the other. If wo have little faith, we must have large fearfulness. If we have triumphant faith, fearfulness ps absorbed. While wo are talking to our Father the sweet genius of asaivance returns. Our faith awakens. Our love revives. The heart grows ♦ calm in spiritual fellowship. “Cast they burden on tlio Lord,’ ’and while thoi art telling it, the burden will ulsappear. (2) There is the burden of perplexity. Hero again is a burden which frequently disappears ->hile we are describing it. It is a beautil.d experience in the lives of rho saints, that, when they take their burden to God they frequently find the cruo even while they are bowed in prayer. T lie atmosphere of devotion is favourable to revelations, and visions are multiplied when souls are upon their neos. “When I thought how I might know tin’s, it was ti o oa iul for me—until I went into the san unary of God.” He took bis perplexity into Hie presence of God and eon-adored it, in the atmosphere of the sanctuary, and the pain and the burden k it were gone. .“In Thy light shall we see light.” (3) There is the burden cf guilt. No man can reverently and penitently take this burden to ilie Lord without losing it. “Father, 1 am no more worthy to bo called i'by son. “Make—bring forth the best robe.” The confession of ignoble sonship had not been fully uttered before the father called for tlio robes of le-

stored salvation. “So I saw my dream, that just as Christian comes up to the cross, his burden loosed from off bis shoulder, and fell from oh' his I' back.” Cast they burden on the Lord! And yet there are some burdens which are not removed even when wo take thorn to the Lord. They do not disappear in the telling. Is there I some other gracious ministry cf the loving Lord? Yes, if tho burden remain, the bearer of it will be strengthened. “There was given to me a thorn in the flesh. Concerning this j thing J besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me and he hath said to me, my grace is sufficient for

three.” The Apostle cast his burden on tho Lord. He asked that it might be removed. The burden remained, hue the Apostle was strengthened. “Most gladly therefore I glory in my weakness.” This is the way of tho Lord. Some burdens are permitted to remain. Perhaps tho burden is an unwelcome and unpleasant duty, or a piiysical infirmity. Perhaps it is prolonged labour in a wayless and most exhausting sphere. What then will God do with us? “Ho shall sustain thee” This word “sustain” is a line wealthy word, of most nourishing content. There is in it a suggestion oi the ministry of a nurse. Ho will deal with ns as though we wore infants. Ho will bo to us tho great motberGod. There is also in the word the ■suggestion of food. He will giVo'iis tho bread of life. He will increase onr vitality. Ho will make our powers more alive, more wakeful, more exuberant. And tho word also suggests support. He will carry mo if need he. “Hold thou mo up!” cries one of the Psalmists. We have seen the strong older son taking tho arm of his weakly mother, and. holding her up. Tho kindly service is illustrative of tho helpful fellowship of God.

“That from which man requires to be redeemed, is not the penalty of An hut tho liability to sin. It is tho sin, and not the suffering, which is his bane. The suffering is but the remedial agent. And from the liability to sin. and consequently to snfV fering, he can he redeemed only by being lifted into a condition in which sin is impassible to him.”