Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1917-12-12
BURDENS WE BEAR
How Each and All Carry the
Three Chief Burdens
of Life.

warfare may vary but the fight is one.
iBurdened people in apostolic days were
carrying just the same loads our bur-
'dened people are carrying through our
streets today. The burden may have
been done up differently, it may have
had an unfamiliar cover, but If we
stripped it of it's wrappings we should
find modern commonplace. If q hum
idred Romans Of the olden days and a
hundred Britons or Americans of our
own day could meet together like pill
grims at some friendly hostel along
life's way: and II they could just un-
wrap their burdens and display them,
they would look at one another in sur
prise, for their sense Of nationality
would be swallowed up in the profound
consciousness Of vital kinship.
:: And I will begin with the burden Of
sin. Sin is revolt against the holy
sovereignty Of God; it is enlistment
and allegiance on the side of the
enemy Of God. Sin Is essentially
change Of flags; 1t is deliberate de-
sertion from the flag Of the holy God
to the black flag Of mammon and
darkness. I need not elaborate this.
I would only repeat that at the root
of all sins we shall find the common
sin Of rebellion. Now, the revolt
against the holy flag Of God marks the
entrance into bondage. I know that
the bondage may be concealed, just as
we may intertwine flowers and green
cry through the links of q chain until
it looks more like garland than fet-
ter. But let any man try to escape
from the broad road and he will find
that the gay wreaths disclose them
selves as mighty chains. On the
broad way the present is tyranny
and the past debt. Such is the bur-
den Of sin. Well, how can we help to
bear one another's burdens? First of
all perhaps we had better say that we
cannot do it. No man can touch the
burden Of his brothers guilt. We can
not get back into his yesterdays and
make the crooked straight. We cannot
60 back and sweeten the fountain of
an evil from which guilt derives Its
bitterness. We can do nothing for
souls who are burdened with the guilt
of sin except to bring them to the
Savior, to the fountain that is open
for sin and uncleanness. But that Is
glorious sharing Of the awful load.
We can share it by counsel. We can
share it by gentle guidance. We can
share it by mighty intercession.
Let us now look at another burden
which was found everywhere in the
ancient world, and is equally common
place in our own time. I will call 1t
the burden of temperament. And this
is what mean: Even when man has
found the cross of Christ, and sin has
been forgiven, and the great act OF
renewal has taken place, he has still
to work out his own salvation. When
the seed of the regenerate life has
been impaired it has still to be nur-
tured and matured, and it has to be
matured amid the special constitutions
and conditions Of the individual life.
That is to say, conversion does not an
initiate differences of temperament,
and thereby make US all alike, reduc-
ing our warfare to one certain form OF
strife. Every regenerate man has to
fight the good fight of faith.
Now can we help brother to carry
the burden Of his own temperament!
Most assuredly we can. Take the
man who is like powder magazine
explosive, inflammatory, full Of dry
and touchy material, always ready to
60 off. What can we do with that
mans burden? Well, we can very
easily increase 1t or we ean relieve and.
tighten it. We can help him into lib
erty, or we can help to sink him into
seryitude. We can throw lighted
matches about his magazine, or we can
spray cooling influences about his life.
And the real meaning Of helping one
another is to consider one another
from the standpoint Of chlvalry and
love, and to determine that by our
conduct and demeanor we will help to
| fashion the knight In our brother ana
give him strength in the realms OF
grace with holiness.
There Is one more burden which
will name, and which can be found
everywhere-the burden of incomplete
ness. And what I mean Is this: No
man Is an integer. No man Is more
than fraction. The New Testament
teaches that no man Is the whole
body; he is only q limb. Humanity Is
the body, and the individual Is only q
member. One man Is an eye, another
is foot. And so I speak of the bur-
den Of incompleteness. God has made
as dependent upon one another. and
every man is designedly incomplete. 1t
is therefore the love design of our Goo
that we surrender ourselves to one an
other In order that we may bear one