Sympathy | AdventAI

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Dec 14, 1882

Sympathy.

The whole world is yearning for sympathy. The human heart cries out for it. How quick the child detects the presence of it in one who seeks his love and confidence.

Wisdom and knowledge are not enough for one who would "raise the fallen and cheer the faint." The successful teacher must reach the heart of the learner. His head may be as clear as the mountain atmosphere, but if his heart be cold he will drive humanity from him.

The Christian worker must not only have sympathy, but he must be able to express it; it must not be seen to be the profession of that which is not felt, but the manifestation of sympathy which convinces another.

There is a story of an old Scotchman who loved his excellent wife dearly, but never used the word until she had passed away, and he erected the stone, which said to the passer-by: "Here lies my dear wife." We need to have proper sympathy with others, for our own good as well as theirs. There are those who need it on every hand; they long for it, hunger for it, and we need to deepen the well-spring by drawing much from it.

Of this out-go of sympathy was it written, "There is that which scattereth and yet increaseth." Were the followers of Jesus full to overflowing with sympathy, they would be more like him.—Church Guide.