THE SYMPATHY NEEDED by John Henry Jowett

Pacific Press Publishing Company · MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA · Jan 9, 1907

THE SYMPATHY NEEDED.

By John Henry Jowett

O, FOR the exquisite sympathy which feels the sorrow that never hangs out a flag of distress, the pain that never gets into speech, the headache that never eases itself in an audible sigh, the secret disappointment, hiding away like a broken and bleeding bird, the inward shame which never clothes itself in an outward blush, the despair which crushes the heart like lead, but which lights a theatrical smile on the face, the biting remorse, eating away like a cancer, but filling the mouth with forced and foolish laughter, the bereavement in which there is no solace because there is no promise of dawn! The Duke of Wellington was once asked what was the supreme essential in the equipment of a great general, and his reply was this: “To imagine what was going on behind a stone wall.” O, for a sympathy that discerns! Christ knew what was in man, and His church must share the marvelous perception.—J. H. Jowett.