Lightening Others' Burdens
T. L. Cuyler, D. D. Galatians 6:2 Bear you one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ. The application of this law are manifold. Yonder is a poor woman who has more children than she can feed. Take one of them to your own house. Give employment to another of them in your store. That will lift up the load from her, and it will send you to your family altar with a new cause for thanksgiving and praise. Do you not know that in life, sometimes, the breadth of one inch in a railway truck determines whether the cars shall go over the embankment or on the straight track — just the pull of a switch one inch. I know some large-hearted, godly men, who stand by young men when they come to London or New York, and give them the helping hand of sympathy and prayerful support; and that act just pulls the switch one inch, and puts them on the road to success, to happiness, and to God's blessing. We have in America our William E. Dodges who are the Lord's switch-tenders. I am thankful that in London you have your Samuel Morley, and other faithful servants of the Lord, who rejoice to be God's switch-tenders, to turn the needy, and the tempted, and the young into paths of sobriety, prosperity, and blessing. Do you not know that sometimes a very small lift is very timely? A word, an old familiar word — it is like a medicine. A kind word to your neighbour in trouble, an inquiry at the door when crape hangs there, the pressure of the hand: there is not a man in England so high that he is above the reach of the need of sympathy. One of our noblest women, Fidelia Fisk, tells us that when she was in Syria one day, preaching to the native women, she found herself very tired. Here are her own words — "I had worked hard all day, and I had a prayer-meeting yet to attend that night, and I felt very weary. I longed for a little rest. Just then, as I was sitting on the floor, one of the native Christian women took hold of me, and pulled me over against her and said, 'Are you tired? Just lean against me; and if you love me, lean hard — lean hard.' I did lean against her, and I found myself wonderfully rested. I attended the women's prayer-meeting, and I went home that night scarcely tired at all; and oh, how often the words of that woman came to me, 'If you love me, lean hard — lean hard.' And then I thought how the Blessed Saviour says, 'If you love Me, lean hard.'" And mothers, mothers, do you not remember how, when you carried that burden of the dying child, pale, feeble, and the breath almost gone, you felt, "Oh, if it loves me, let it lean hard." You man, remember you not the time when, night after night, you took up your beloved wife and carried her to her couch, sad at the thought that the load was becoming lighter every moment, and you were ready to say to her, "My darling, if you love me, lean hard and close." Oh, blessed Jesus, teach us how to rest our weakness on Thee, and lean hard on the burden-bearer of our sorrows and our weaknesses! (T. L. Cuyler, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ. WEB: Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.