Christian Sympathy

Come, sit, and enjoy a cup of tea or coffee in the comfort of the Lord:  "Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice."  Ephesians  4:31

                                   " . . . weep with them that weep."   Romans  12:15

     Christ was at the wedding in Cana and added to the joy of the occasion; but He also went to be with the sisters of Lazarus and wept at the grave of His friend.  Jesus did this because He was full of compassion.  As His followers, we too should lovingly participate in both the joy and the distress of others.  If we truly love the Lord we cannot help but sympathize with those who are in the agonies of sorrow.  It is a consolation to those who weep to see the sympathetic tear in the eye of a friend and to feel his warm handclasp.  Love does not need many words to express its feelings.  When one member of the Body of Christ suffers, even as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, so all the members should "suffer with it."

     D. L. Moody tells how he became accustomed to attending the funerals of a great many children because of his large Bible class.  "I became hardened to it like a doctor,"  he said,  "and could go to them without sympathy.  One day one of my little Sunday school scholars was drowned, and the word was sent by the mother that she wanted to see me.  I went.  The father was a drunkard, and was then under the influence of liquor.  I had my little girl with me.  She was about four years old.  When we got outside she asked, 'Suppose we were poor, Papa, and I had to go down to the river for sticks, but should fall in and get drowned, and you had no money to bury me, would you be sorry, Papa?'  And then she looked up into my eyes with an expression that I had never before seen, and asked,  'Did you feel bad for that mother?'  I clasped her to my heart,"  said Moody,  "and kissed her; my true sympathy was aroused."

     Do you in Christ-like kindness and affection sympathize with those who are passing through the "valley of weeping"?  If in the desert of sorrow you can produce an oasis of heavenly comfort and consolidation by your spiritual admonitions, the benediction of Psalm 84 will rest upon you:  "Blessed is that man . . . Who passing through the valley of Baca (maketh) it a well"!

"Bread For Each Day"