The Birmingham age-herald., 1908-09-14
STRONG MUST BEAR BURDENS IF WEAK Rev. CIaybrook Breaches At St,
 Mafy'S on Highlands TAKES TEXT FROM ST. PAUL AItrGism Is Law of Spiritual Life and Distinguishes Man From the Lower
 AnimaIs-Bear One An
 others Burdens.
TAKES TEXT FROM ST. PAUL

we. then, that are strong ought to bear the infrmities of the weak. and not to please ourselves" was the text Claybroo5 at St. Mary s-on-the-H Highlands Episcopal church yesterday morning. MT. Claybrool1 has been called to the rector ship of this church, though the matter has not yet been definitely settled. The church has been without a rector for sev- eral months. and has been practically closed during the past few weeks, and o'clock drew forth a large assen1blage to hear MT. Claybrook.
 This text was taken from the first verse of the fifteenth chapter of St. Pauls epis- ties to the Romans, and the sermon was in part as follows:
 "St. Paul is here declaring the law of the spiritual life; that life which the fol- lowers of Jesus Christ are required to follow if they be true to Him-that they who are strong should bear the infirmi- ties of the weak. This is contrary to the law of nature, without which the life of anybody is incomplete.
 "In the vegetable world wherever we find vegetation which is vigorous, in good soil and advantageous conditions, we find that the law of it's life is that it feeds upon others It absorbs the strength of the soil and the weaker vegetables. So we find it in the grasses and the trees. Very often you find one large tree with all of the other trees around it stunted. This is the survival of the f1ttest.
 Tt seems by the law of the animal that the strong must feed upor tho weak. The survival of the Attest is everywhere among them, and it is not until we arrive at the highest types of animal life that we find it eliminated. We have seen birds defending their young, while we have also seen f1oclks of wild animals protecting an injured mate.
 That seems to be different from the rule of animal life. It is divine wherever we find it and we worship it. But it is not until we arrive at man that we find it put to any practical use. There we also find the survival of the Attest. but there is the higher law that the strong should help the weak.
 Until the coming of Jesus Christ the teachings of this law were limited. There was the parent who would sacrifice him. self for his child, but even with this there was limitation of the strong help- ing the weak Scientists assume now that the Lord has provided the human race with the very things necessary for the development of this self-sacrificing nature.
 s'But when Jesus Christ came into the world He brought a deeper conception of what this life of ours is. He said that We are the children of God, and that we are not to stop at our kith and kin for self-sacrihcing. He has declared that every person in the world Is our brother; that it is our duty as a child of our God for the strong to defend the weak, and that our life must be a fulfillment of the law. But at the same time the law teaches us that this other law holds good, for He says, Let every man bear his own burden, in order that he as an individual before the Lord may be developed to the highest; that we may reach this high development so that we may use it for the betterment of the world in which God has placed us. As the apostle said, We, then, ought to lay down our life for our brother that this as a life of service may be one of use- fitness.
 'aThe Lord has said that a man who cannot realize the fullness of life cannot enter the kingdom of heaven; he that is selfish shall lose, but he that spends his life for the highest shall reach it. The man that has the real conception of what it takes to be the child of God shall real ize the highest. Our lives must be filled with the Christ spirit
 1.-Two thousand years of civilization has brought many to profess to believe in Jesus Christ, and to full conception of the law There is not man among us who, if he saw helpless man in the street, would refusr to go to his aid. We call this humanity, but it is this spirit. Jesus did not come. to us and say that we must cease seeking pleasure, but He said the soul is higher than the body of man, and it Is precious in the sight of the Lord, and that the strong must bear the burdens of the weak.
 By this He means that we must re- spect the character of our fellow man. There are many of us who will feed the poor, yet will tear to pieces the charac- ter of his best friend, and such is the sentiment of the tiger and the bear in our system.
 He teaches that we must not kill out this animal in us; that desire for pleas ure should not be killed, but that we should subserve it. He teachers that we must uplift the nature of man.
 'If God has endowed you with spiritual power, let the light shine from your acts. Bear ye one another's burdens, and thus of us have said, That man ought not to be in the churchr' Yet Jesus Christ teaches that it is our first duty to go to the man who has fallen, throw our arms around him and lift him up; to sym pathize with him until he Is able to look up, and to be like the good Samaritan.
 But how many of us are like the Levite and the priest, ana pass on by? There is no duty on earth which comes before helping our fellow man. If we are true to Christ that duty is sometimes borne unconsciously.
 This Christian lot is of such a na- ture that we must obey the simple life; that we will so serve Him all Of the time and everywhere that men will recog- nize that we stand for something and that is God.
 You and are living a real life, and we are expected to have this highest love of God written in our hearts and reflected in not Arfu