p. 19 | The Mercenary Versus the Father by John L. Cowan

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Sep 30, 1909

The Mercenary Versus the Father

By John L. Cowan

The Cushite, who bore to David the news of Absalom's death, was a hired soldier, and could not for an instant interpret the fine feelings of the father. He was speaking to a king who had been opposed and driven into exile. He thought his speech would please, and he would get a reward for his run.

How fine and lovely a thing sympathy is! how delicate an instrument it is in dealing with human nature! Here was a man blurting out words for which he expected to be paid so much a word. That was as far as his concern went, except for a certain savage satisfaction that the king was avenged in so bloody a way. He had not the slightest conception of the fine-nerved instrument upon which he was playing—the strings of a father's heart, and the exquisite joy or the unutterable agony that his words might elicit from the heart of the tensely keyed instrument.

How that is like some of our perfunctory, mechanical Christian work! A coarse-grained evangelist preaches damnation with a sort of gusto, little recking that he may be turning sensitive souls into rebellion against the loving, pitiful Christ. The teacher angrily rebukes the boy for his thoughtlessness, telling him that he will never amount to anything, but must come to something bad. The child reddens, and becomes sullen and hardened. O ministers, teachers, parents, what delicate instruments are these human hearts! Shall we play them with the rough Cushite touch, or try to get the sympathetic fingering of the Master?—John L. Cowan.