Article November 9, 1946 Issue

"What burden?"

HERBERT E. RIEKE

One day a student of Christian Science found himself with several problems that did not seem to yield readily to the truth. The harder he worked, the farther away from the solution he seemed. He felt like a modern Atlas weighed down with the burdens of the world. In self-righteousness he justified this burdened sense of things with the thought that possibly this was the cross that he must bear. Then he turned to his Bible and prayed that divine Mind would show him the way. His attention was arrested by two verses he did not remember having read before (Jer. 23:33, 36): "And when this people, or the prophet, or a priest, shall ask thee, saying, What is the burden of the Lord? thou shalt then say unto them, What burden?... And the burden of the Lord shall ye mention no more: for every man's word shall be his burden."

The Scientist saw now where his error had been. He had been thinking in terms of "the burden of the Lord," for he had been regarding Life, which is God, as a burden. Now he saw that Life is that sustaining divine force which forever upholds its ideas. He realized that man does not bear up under Life, but rather that divine Life bears man up upon its wings of inspiration and power. He saw that instead of taking on a sense of grave responsibilities, he must recognize that "the government shall be upon his shoulder" (Isa. 9:6). God has no burdens; and man, His image and likeness, cannot assume any. To assume a burden is to accept an illusion, for God never creates or permits a burden. "For every man's word shall be his burden." It is only in false concepts of God and man that a burdened sense of things is found.

The Scientist resolved that he would not mention any more "the burden of the Lord." Little by little his thought yielded to the unburdened sense of Life and reality. Then his vision cleared, and he could easily see the solution of his problems. And in the solution he found a new sense of joy, happiness, and bliss. He glimpsed something of what Mary Baker Eddy meant by her words on page. 192 of "The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany": "Boast not thyself, thou ransomed of divine Love, but press on unto the possession of unburdened bliss." This unburdened bliss is the heritage, the God-given possession, of man; and Christian Science is showing mankind how to claim, receive, and retain the true sense of being.

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