neighbor, it commonly happened that some other neighbor came by-and-by and helped him in his turn; for there was no such thing as what we call independence in the whole Valley. Not one of all these travellers, however stout and strong, could move on comfortably without assistance, for so the Lord of the Valley, whose laws were all of them kind and good, had expressly ordained.

I stood still to watch the progress of these poor wayfaring people, who moved slowly on, like so many ticket porters, with burthens of various kinds on their backs; of which some were heavier, and some were lighter, but from a burden of one kind or other, not one traveller was entirely free.

A sorrowful widow, oppressed with the burthen of grief for the loss of an affectionate husband, would have been bowed down by her heavy load, had not the surviving children with great alacrity stepped forward and supported her. Their kindness, after a while, so much lightened the load, which threatened at first to be intolerable, that she even went on her way with cheerfulness.

I next saw a poor old man tottering under a burthen so heavy, that I expected him every moment to sink under it. I peeped into his pack, and saw it was made up of many sad articles; there was poverty, oppression, sickness, debt, and what made by far the heaviest part, undutiful children. I was wondering how it was that he got on even so well as he did, till I spied his wife, a kind, meek, Christian woman, who was doing her utmost to assist him. She quietly got behind, gently laid her shoulder to the burthen, and carried a much larger proportion of it than appeared to me when I was at a distance. She not only sustained him by her strength, but

2

cheered him by her counsels.

She told him that

through much tribulation we must enter into rest, that he that overcometh shall inherit all things. In short, she so supported his fainting spirit, that he was enabled to run with patience the race that was set before him.

An infirm blind woman was creeping forward with a very heavy burthen, in which were packed sickness and want, with numberless other of those raw materials, out of which human misery is worked up. She was so weak, that she could not have got on at all, had it not been for the kind assistance of another woman, almost as poor as herself; who, though she had no light burthen of her own, cheerfully lent an helping hand to a fellow-traveller who was still more heavily laden. This friend had indeed little or nothing to give, but the very voice of kindness is soothing to the weary. And I remarked in many other cases, that it was not so much the degree of the help afforded, as the manner of helping, that lightened the burthens. Some had a coarse, rough, clumsy way of assisting a neighbor, which, though in fact it might be of real use, yet seemed, by galling the travellers, to add to the load it was intended to lighten; while I observed in others, that so cheap a kindness as a mild word, or even an affectionate look, made a poor burthened wreteh move on cheerily. The bare feeling that some human being cared for him, seemed to lighten the load. But to return to this kind neighbor. She had a little old book in her hand, the covers of which were worn out by much use. When she saw the blind woman ready to faint, she would read her a few words out of this book, such as the following: blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.-Blessed

are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted.—I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, workclh out for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.

A pious Minister, sinking under the weight of a distressed parish, whose worldly wants he was totally unable to bear, was suddenly relieved by a good widow, who came up and took all the sick and hungry on her own shoulders. The burthen of the parish, thus divided, became tolerable. The minister, being no longer bowed down by the temporal distresses of his people, applied himself cheerfully to his own part of the weight. And it was pleasant to see how those two persons, neither of them very strong, or rich, or healthy, by thus kindly uniting together, were enabled to bear the weight of a whole parish; though singly, either of them must have sunk under the attempt. And I remember one great grief I felt during my whole journey was, that I did not see more of this union and concurring kindness by which all the burthens might have been so easily divided. It troubled me to observe, that of all the laws of the Valley, there was not one more frequently broken than the law of kindness.

I now spied a swarm of poor black men, women and children, a multitude which no man could number; these groaned and toiled, and sweated, and bled under far heavier loads than I had yet seen. But for a while no man helped them; at length a few white travellers were touched with the sorrowful sighing of those millions, and very heartily did they put their hands to the burthens; but their number was not quite equal to the work they had undertaken. I perceived, however, that they never lost sight of those poor heavy-laden wretches, and as

the number of these generous helpers increased I felt a comfortable hope, that before all the blacks got out of the Valley, the whites would fairly divide the burthen, and the loads would be effectually lightened.

Among the travellers, I had occasion to remark, that those who most kicked and struggled under their burthens, only made them so much the heavier; for their shoulders became extremely galled by those vain struggles. The load, if borne patiently, would in the end have turned even to the advantage of the bearers (for so the Lord of the Valley had kindly decreed) but as to these grumblers, they had all the smart, and none of the benefit. But the thing which made all these burthens seem so very heavy was, that in every one, without exception, there was a certain inner pacquet, which most of the travellers took pains to conceal, and carefully wrap up; and while they were forward enough to complain of the other part of their burthens, few said a word about this; though in truth it was the pressing weight of this secret pacquet which served to render the general burthen so intolerable. In spite of all their caution, I contrived to get a peep at it; I found in each, that this pacquet had the same label : the word SIN was written on all as a general title, and in ink so black, that they could not wash it out. I observed that most of them took no small pains to hide the writing; but I was surprised to see that they did not try to get rid of the load, but the label. If any kind friend, who assisted these people in bearing their burthens, did but so much as hint at the secret pacquet, or advise them to get rid of it, they took fire at once, and commonly denied they had any such article in their portmanteau; and it

was those whose secret pacquet swelled to the most enormous size, who most stoutly denied they had any.

I saw with pleasure, however, that some, who had long labored heartily to get rid of this inward pacquet, at length found it much diminished, and the more this pacquet shrunk in size, the lighter was the other part of their burthens also.

Then, methought, all at once, I heard a voice, as it had been the voice of an angel, crying out and saying, "Ye unhappy pilgrims, why are ye troubled about the burthen which ye are doomed to bear through this Valley of Tears? Know ye not that as soon as ye shall have escaped out of this Valley, the whole burthen shall drop off, provided ye neglect not to remove that inward weight of SIN which principally oppresses you? Study then the whole will of the Lord of this Valley. Learn from him how this heavy part of your burthens may now be lessened, and how, at last, it shall be removed for ever Be comforted. Faith and hope may cheer you even in this Valley. The passage, though it seems long to weary travellers, is comparatively short; for beyond it there is a land of everlasting rest, where ye shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; where ye shall be led by living fountains of waters, and all tears shall be wiped away from your eyes."