Watertown leader. [volume] (Watertown, Jefferson County, Wis.) 1909-1911, 1909-06-18

favor of the world, the burden of life
quickly becomes heavier, and it's diff
cuIties are multiplied.
In every century Satan and his
agents have been busy inventing un.
necessary burdens for the backs of
falIible Christians When the devil
cannot tempt a good man outright
into sin he does what from his stand
point is the next best thing-makes
him foolish or fanatical. and so loads
him down with distracting doubts or
imaginary duties as practically to par
alyze his power for good in human
society. For the over-burdened man
cannot in the fullest degree be the
efficient man. The soldier cannot fight
at his best when oyerweighted with
knapsack and blanket. So the Chris
tian foeman must proceed to the fray
in light marching order, laying aside
every weight and the sin that doth
so easily beset him, If he is to do his
best work as a spiritual combatant.
The unnecessary burden takes many
forms. Sin itself is the first illustra-
IlOn CldL SUSSColo lIScll VI ILLS hIHu
of needless burdening. God does not
mean that any repenting man should
struggle along under the load of I'M
forgiven sin. Rather, the glad testi-
mony of every child of God should be,
cat the Cross the burden of my sin
has rolled away" The straight gate is
too narrow to allow of heavenbound
pilgrims carrying through it great
pack of unforgiven tniquity, nor can
even the sin of yesterday be borne as
a load through to-day. The pilgrim
must confess and forsake each days
sin, and so be delivered from its drag,
as he goes along.
Legalism is a burden which from
the days of the apostles has been i'm
posed upon many unnecessarily. The
Galatians of old were caught in yoke
To them the Jewish law became a
kind of relentlessly prosecuting Phar-
aoh pursuing them even as they sought
to reach the Christian Canaan They
were still, though professed Chris
tians, entangled in the mesh of rites
and rules and rabbinic refinements of
a man-made tradition. To them cir
cumcision was more than Christ, and
a single letter in one word of the Law
as weighty as the whole Sermon on
the Mount. From this enslavement to
legalism even an apostle Paul with
difficulty delivered the foolish Gala
tians."
Many people through lack of faith
carry an unnecessary burden of care
and worry. There is no right-rninded
man who is or would wish to be
wholly careless in this necessitous
world, but many of the cares which
people assume (and seek to transport
about with them like so much extra
baggage) are artificial, that is, they
are not caused by the very nature of
things but arise from the worrying
tempers of the people in question.
but that none should worry. The real
and unacceptable burdens of life are
heavy enough without laying upon
ones own shoulders or on those of
others needless burdens of anxiety
and distress of mind which a little
more faith, and a closer walk with
God, would dispel as the rising of the
sun scatters the brooding mists of the
morning.
Consider whether in your life you
are not carrying some unnecessary
burdens which neither the Lord nor
onncf1oc
you. The essentials of Christianity
are important and imposing enough
to keep everybody sufficiently busy and
occupied who concerns himself with
them without superadding upon that
load of admitted responsibility a va.
riety Of little weights and appendages
which fritter away the strength of the
Christian and perhaps eventually, by
weighing down his endurance to the
breaking point, involve him in posi-.
tive sin. The apostle Paul-what a
wise, practical man Paul was,-once
expressed concern lest some of his
contemporaries should be swallowed
up Of overmuch sorrow. There are
people who in these days are in dan
ger of being swallowed up of over
much care-who are rapidly becom.
ing the slaves either of wearying
worry or of equally wearying pleasure
seeking. 1t is this "overmuch" of de-
sire or doing that creates a condition
of moral danger for the Christian. Do
then the necessary duty, but decline
the unnecessary burden. Be all thai
God wants you to be, but do not essay
the thankless task of trying to be too