The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1900-07-09

|
| sympathy. The loaves were the gifts
of selfshness. They satisfied the crav-
ings of hunger, but they did not set
the heart aglow with purer and stron-
ger emotions. The gift was destitute
of that magnetic thrill which causes
the recipient to forget the gift in an
absorbing admiration of the giver.
Much of the charity of today lacks
what John Ruskin used to call the
| touch faculty. When Jesus was
pressed by the throng and said, who
| touched Me- we know that there was
| something more meant by it than the
vulgar pressure of the crowd, the
touch faculty of body and soul was
| in motion.
1T was the magnetic influence of
this touch faculty that caused a flutter
in the homes of suffering and poverty
in every town through which Jesus
passed, and caused the residuum popu-
| lation of those towns to be in evil
| dence and clamorous fer the blessings
of sympathy.
SECRET OF 1T.
"The late Rev. f. w. Robertson says:
! Famine and pestilence are met by
abundant liberality; and the apparent
return for this is riot and sedition.
But the secret lies all in this. 1t is
not in channels such as these that the
hearts gratitude can flow. Love is not
bought by money, but by love. There
| has been all the machinery of a pub
lie distributions; but there has been no
exhibition of individual, personal inter-
est. Public donations have their value
| n nd hni hut tn, t1,A Of
eliciting gratitude all these fail. Man
has not been brought into contact
close enough with man for this. They
do not work by sympathy Christian
sympathy should bring us into touch
with the people whom we want to re-
form and save from sin and it's conse-
quent misery. c. H. Sjpurgeon praying
| by the bedside of q sick orphan and
| then placing a cage with a canary bird
| in it close by to cheer the dying mo-
ments of that fatherie9s boy, did much
to refine the feelings and develop the
| noble elements of character in the life
of many persons who had not been
in the habit of attending the house of
| God.
when the late w. f. Gladstone, the
great prime minister Of England, read
the Bible and made prayer with poor
| little crossing sweeper, whom he found
| in a lone garret in London, and then
supplied him with all the delicacies
needed in sick room, he exercised a
power for good down among the roots
of national life, greater than he ever
welded by his peerles oratory, or his
cOstliest gifts. One touch of true SYM
pathy will sometimes cause the broken
cords of life to vibrate again. Yes,
sympathetic contact with the aban-
doned and debased will go far to re-
kindle the lamp of hope, put into
operation new springs of thought and
| action, and paint the rainbow on a
| dark and frowning sky.
GREATLY CHEERED.
when John Cough, the temper
ance orator, was in greatest trouble
and was nearly sinking under
the weight of the calumnies which
people had heaped upon him, he
was greatly cheered by a letter of SYM
pathy from the secretary of the Lon
don Young Mems Christian associa-
| ton. His own statement is this:
Words of sympathy from your secre-
tary and through you, in days of dark
ness, in days of cloud, in days When
storms gathered round me, comforted
me, strengthened me, encouraged me;
and l shall never forget it. In the
midst of the turmoil produced \by
those who did not like my mode of ad-
YoCatng this question, and their feel
ings rose into absolute persecution,
felt this, young men, and l say 1t to-
night. l felt that l could lean upon
the confidence placed in me by the
Young Mems Christian association OF
London, and / grew strong under it,
For sympathy puts life into a man
like drops Of water upon a wilted
flower /?
"Oh, what a number of shipwrecks
might be prevented, and what an
guish and misery prevented, by the eX-
ercise of a little sympathy. 1t may
prevent men from falling into sin and
misery and 1t raises those who have
fallen and puts new life into them.
Let evry member of the Church of
Christ believe this, and act upon 1t,
and glorious results will follow.