Travelers in India will probably be familiar with those stone erections often found by the way side, and called by the natives "Sumatanga." They consist of a couple of upright pillars driven into the ground, and supporting at the top a shelf of rough stone. They are said to have been put up by wealthy Hindus, and are intended as places of relief and rest for baggage-carriers, who, as a rule, carry their burdens on their heads. The bearer, toiling wearily over the hot, dusty plain, hails with delight the appearance of the Sumatanga, for to it he can easily transfer his load, and as readily replace it before resuming his journey. Hence the name, which in the original signifies, "A burden-bearer.”
Not long ago one of these native carriers became a convert to Christianity. He was poor and ignorant, his life one of ceaseless toil, yet his face shone with happiness and peace. A European officer, avowedly an unbeliever in the success of missionary work among the heathen, one day came upon Ranji carrying a heavy load upon his head.
"So," he said, "I am told you have joined the Christians. What have you got by that?”
"O, Sahib, me so happy!”
"Well, what have you got by it?”
"O Sahib, me so happy! Me got Jesus for Sumatanga. He take de load off me. Me lay it all on Him.”
Every human being born into this world is in the same position (in one point at least) as the poor Hindu Ranji—he is a "bearer." Every man, of whatsoever rank or degree, has a burden to carry as he treads this journey of life. It is a burden inherited from our first parents—a burden which falls upon us with the first breathings of our earthly existence—the burden of sin! "All have sinned." God has said it, and he makes no exceptions. Every child of Adam is a partaker in Adam's transgression, and "if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves." 1 John 1:88If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8).
Sin weighs us down with its intolerable load, and if there be none to take the burden from us, it will sink us at last to the depths of eternal death. Must we go on carrying it to the very end? Is there no relief? no escape?
Yes, thank God, for every poor, heavy-laden one who will turn aside and accept it, there is a burden-bearer—a Sumatanga set up beside this wilderness path—Jesus, the Son of God, "mighty to save," Jesus, "the Lamb of God which taketh away (marginal reading beareth) the sin of the world." John 1:2929The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. (John 1:29).
Nor is it a mere temporary respite from toil and weariness which God offers to the sin-laden soul. He who casts his burden on the Lord Jesus Christ has not by and by to take it up again and toil on again as before. The load is taken away forever: the rest which God provides is everlasting: one look by faith at the cross of Christ—one cry for mercy from the burdened and crushed heart, and there is eternal redemption; for God says this day to every burdened one, every fainting one, every seeking one, "I even I, am He that blotteth out thy transgressions for Mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins." Isa. 43:2525I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins. (Isaiah 43:25).
But it may be that you have come to Jesus and cast on Him the burden of your sins, that you have realized His power to take away your transgressions forever. Still you are carrying a burden: you are oppressed by some trouble or anxiety; you are perhaps weighted down by sickness, or poverty, or pain; you are crushed by business difficulties, or domestic cares. Will you go on trying to support such a load as this when there is a rest, a Sumatanga, on which you may cast it?