FOURTEENTH DAY.

Fellowship in Suffering.

THEN they that feared the Lord spake often one to another: and the Lord hearkened, and heard it, and a book of remembrance was written before him for them that feared the Lord, and that thought upon his name. And they shall be mine, saith the Lord of hosts, in that day when I make up my jewels; and I will spare them, as a man spareth his own son that serveth him. Then shall ye return, and discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not. Mal. iii. 16, 17, 18.

Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God. For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ. And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in

the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation. And our hope of you is steadfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation. For we would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble which came to us in Asia, that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life: but we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead: who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us; ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.

2 Cor. i. 3-11.

For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptised into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where

were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary : and those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

1 Cor. xii. 12-27.

E. M. SEWELL.

F we, like Christ, would truly and rightly sympathize ; if we would in our degree bear the griefs and carry the sorrows of our fellow-creatures, we must view those sorrows as Christ viewed them, and soothe them in His spirit. Let us remember that such sympathy is pain. It is not true sympathy unless it is pain. When we feel with and for another, we must in a measure suffer; and, looking at the sad amount of wretchedness in this fallen world, we may perhaps be pardoned if, at first

As He

sight, we deem it better to be without sympathy-neither to require it for ourselves, nor to offer it to others. The loss on the one side may, we may well think, be counterbalanced by the gain on the other. In thus acting, we should do what Christ would have done if, dwelling in His own untroubled bliss, He had encircled Himself with the sinless angels, and left the cry of a ruined world to echo through the universe unheeded; because, if heeded, it would awaken a pang so great that to escape it the blessed God of heaven must vouchsafe to become a sorrowing child of earth. endured the trial of sympathy, so must we. matter of choice: in following Christ we are called upon, like Him, to exhibit God's perfection in our own lives, 'Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.' We may not, therefore, neglect the culture of sympathy, still less look upon it with suspicion; our only care must be that it shall be true, and measured by the rule of God's law. To train ourselves to be sympathetic is, in fact, in the power of us all, though, if we would carry on such self-education properly, we must fairly count the cost.

It is no

Sympathy, if real, must necessarily be allied with benevolence. The sympathy of Christ brought Him from a heaven of angels to dwell in a world of sinners; yet more, not only to dwell among them, but to suffer with them. Never let us forget that if He created beings endowed with free will, while fully foreknowing their consequent misery, so also He created them fully

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foreknowing His own; and that what He, for wise though inscrutable purposes, permitted for others, He shared Himself. When we kneel to Him in our misery, we kneel to One who Himself has known misery. When we cry to Him in our temptation, we cry to One who was Himself tempted. When we mourn for the ignorance and wilfulness of our fellow-creatures, we are heard by One who has Himself felt grieved for the hardness of men's hearts. When, crushed by the loss of those we love, we sorrow in our desolate homes, we are watched over by One who wept at the grave of His friend. When in loneliness and fear we look around for human sympathy, the yearning of our hearts is understood by One who, in the garden of Gethsemane, entreated of His disciples to tarry with Him while He prayed in agony. And when in the moment of pain and weakness God's loving presence is for a while hidden from us, and in the hour of doubt we seem to stand alone in the dark universe, we are strengthened by One who Himself felt that most awful of desolations as He uttered His dying appeal to His heavenly Father, 'My God, my God! why hast Thou forsaken me ?’

And if we would sympathize like Him, we must, in our degree, resemble Him. We may not, indeed, be called upon to take up our abode amongst the poor, but we must visit them, hear of, and inquire about them. We must seek out grief when it is hidden, as well as rouse ourselves to comprehend it when it is brought before us. We must practise sympathy in our