Lean on God, not on your Minister.
By J. Clarke
"For every man shall bear his own burden," Gal. vi, 7. Some years ago, Horace Greely, Ed. N. Y. Tribune, was in Paris, and while there, was suddenly and unexpectedly seized, and insultingly treated by the authorities, and was thrust into the debtor's prison, (Clichy,) for an unpaid claim against him as an officer of the Crystal Palace world's fair at New York. The claim was deemed an unjust one by Mr. Greely and his friends, and was finally set aside by a French court, and Mr. Greely was acquitted after a residence of some days in Clichy. Here is the moral. Just as Mr. Greely was arrested, Judge Platt, and other influential Americans, came forward and offered to bail Mr. Greely, and thus save him the mortification and hardships of imprisonment. This Mr. Greely magnanimously refused, lest his friends might suffer loss, as he well knew that the objects of his foes would thus be in a manner gained: so this noble man of the present world endured a disagreeable confinement in a French debtor's prison, rather than trouble his friends, and risk their interests by a surety for him; and had this course been taken, it is very probable that Mr. Greely would have lost his case, which he gained only by means of his unflinching intrepidity and perseverance. His foes were awed by his resolute, manly courage. Mr. Greely at the time wrote home a description of his imprisonment, in quite a playful style; but I never shall forget his instructive remarks, and his allusion to the passage above quoted, "Every man shall bear his own burden." It seems that prominent men of the world are often applied to for favors by those who could if they had the disposition, help themselves better than any one else could do for them, and Mr. Greely moralized beautifully to this class of individuals, and his Clichy experience was just in point, and it was a home thrust to those shiftless, irresolute ones who are always holding on to some one else, and cannot venture to go right forward and do for themselves trusting to God to bless the well-directed, vigorous effort. Let us who are children of the light not be outdone by the world. Let us learn wisdom by every means. Let us go right to God with our troubles and trials, and he will help us. Are we cold and lukewarm? let us cry mightily to God, then shall our light break forth speedily. What is the use of crying out, O, if Bro. Cornell, or Bro. White, or Bro. Waggoner, or Bro. Loughborough, or Bro. Holt, or some other preacher would come and preach to us, then how we would rise, surely. No, no, let these messengers go with the message to the millions who have not heard a lisp of it, to the benighted millions over whom the seven last plagues impend. Yes, go, go, and we the churches who have a flood of light, will walk in the light. We have more light now than we use. Go ye messengers of mercy to the cities and villages of our land, while the church in the light bears its own burdens. To the churches belongs the duty of sustaining a spirit of devotion. Yes, let the church encourage and inspirit its messengers, and bear them on. Let the church nourish its own young, strengthen the feeble, comfort its mourners, in short, bear its own burdens.