EXPRESSING SYMPATHY IN SORROW.
By S. S. Times
A FATHER'S heart was wrung with anguish over the fatal illness of his only son. As he answered a question concerning that illness in a city street car, his words caught the ear of one of his neighbors with whom he had only a speaking acquaintance, and against whom he had long had a prejudice because of certain personal minor peculiarities. That neighbor at once inquired particularly as to the condition of the sick child, he not having known before this of his illness. In the early gray of the next morning, after a night of watching over the dying boy, the father saw that neighbor at his front door, and found he had come to inquire with tender interest after the state of the little sufferer. That proof of sympathy with the father in his sorrow transfigured that neighbor in the father's eyes; and now through the vista of years he is seen by that father in a loveliness all his own, as one who had sympathy in an hour of peculiar trial, and had no fear of intruding by giving it expression. Again that father was in sorrow, even more grievously than when he was mourning an only son. Another neighbor newly come into his part of the city, whose name was barely known to the mourner, sent in a simple card in assurance of his sorrowful sympathy, and its reception thrilled the sorrowing heart with its proof of a wish on that newcomer's part to show his interest in the grief of a stricken household. It was not what was done or said in either of these cases, but it was the evident desire to say or do something in proof of sympathy that brought comfort and gratitude to the heart of the sorrowing one; and the manifestation of such a desire will never be intrusive, or be thought so, in the hour of bitterest bereavement. There are words of sympathy spoken to those in sorrow which are precious for their own sake. The spirit of sympathy prompts to the soul's best utterances, and many a timely letter written to one in bereavement is treasured for years because of the help it has already given and the cheer that its truths may impart to yet others also. But, aside from this, there is a value in even the simplest expression of sympathy with the sorrowing; and no multiplication of such expressions to anyone who is bereaved can diminish the worth to him of another expression of this nature from another sympathizer in the hour of his trial. A new expression of sympathy in sorrow is a new help to those whose need is unceasing; and he who has the power of uttering it has the power of proving a blessing to one to whom God would have help given. Only he who has sorrowed most deeply can know the real worth of words of sympathy in sorrow; but the testimony of such souls ought to incite us all to the free expression of our sympathy with the sorrowing without any fear of intrusion thereby. Words of Christian sympathy are words of Christian cheer.—S. S. Times.