But when He who was so strong, was wounded and crushed under the weight of the burdens--what will happen to me, then, when I shoulder the burdens of others? I cannot do so cheerfully and courageously and expect a satisfactory result. Rather I must flee timidly away from the burdens by recalling what happened to our Lord Jesus Christ. Yes, if that was all that may be said about Jesus that He was "wounded and bruised" when He, out of the depths of His love, shouldered our burdens, then no doubt you are right. Then there is no prospect that you will do better. But that isn't all. After having been wounded and bruised under the weight of the burdens, bent to the ground, indeed, bent in death, He arose with the mark of victory upon His brow, and with _peace_ and _healing_ for us. Yea, _peace and healing_! That was the last, the ultimate result. And it is the law in His church that wherever we shoulder one another's burdens, we shall find peace and healing. We may be wounded, indeed crushed, under the heavy pressure of those burdens. We may be bent down into the dust, but that is not the last, the ultimate result. It is peace and healing. Thus it is not only a _relief_ to bear one another's burdens; it is the highway to peace and healing. We can extract this blessed fruit from out of the burdens. How splendid to be able to bear the burdens of everyday life with and for one another and to gain peace and healing for those who are timid and bruised. _This is the last and final result of bearing one another's burden in the name of Jesus. BE STEADFAST IN PRAYER! 1. _A Gain and a Protection_ O PRAY for me! That is one of the cries that frequently come to us from the sick and the dying--sometimes because they have not themselves learned how to pray in the days that passed, but always with the consciousness that prayer is _needed_. _Pray!_ sayeth our Lord Jesus Christ, for it is _helpful_ to pray. And on the background of nearly two thousand years of actual experience His church responds: Indeed, it is helpful to pray! "Ask, and it shall be given you ... for everyone that asketh receiveth.... Or what man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?" (Mat. 7, 7, etc.) The prayer is a _gain_ to us since we have such a generous Father who will not refuse us anything good, and who has it in His power to give us all. But the prayer also is a _protection_. "Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation" (Mat. 26, 41). The ability to be absorbed in prayer is a protection against temptations, and in the prayer strength and fortitude are secured with which to resist the temptations. In complete realization of this the Apostles continuously implore us to pray.