Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1903-12-16
KEEPING THE HEART TENDER.


and weep with them that weep.-Rom-
ans xii, 10.
The Christian is to be no hermit, no
recluse who draws his heart into his
shell, and goes self absorbed along the
way of nfe thinking only of his own
affairs. His heart is to be open to the
cries of joy as well as sorrow. He is
to have a tender heat, i..,sily reached
with the gladness or the sorrow OF his
neighbor Rejoice says Paul, with
them that do rejoice; weep with them
that weep"
The way this command is put robs it
of all possible selfishness. We are TO
rejoice with other people in their joy.
A great many selfish people envy the
Joy of others, and would, If they could,
rob them of it and leave them bare,
carrying all the joy away for them
selves. But the Christian idea is to
rejoice with the one who is glad and
thus reinforce and increase his glad
ness. And VS. all know how much
there is in hat. Every man who has
had a sudden gla0ness come upon him
has had the desire to tell it to some
one else The JOY of any great vision,
such as a splendid waterfall or
glimpse of great snow mountain VI
some scene of wild beauty in the for
est, is a small thing, if one has the
experience alone, compared to what
Il IS il you have a congenial soul with
which TO share it. Such sharing, in
stead of dividing and subtracting from
your own delight, multiplies it many
times And the same law holds good
in all other joys. We have desire TO
impart it, desire to talk about it with
others, and we often have the opportu-
nifty of greatly increasing the joy of
ano her by listening and putting our
selves into sympathetic touch with the
gladness which has come to his soul.
You know some lonely man or wom-
an who has few joys and few friends,
and when a letter or some little expe-
rience that seems trifling to you with
your many friends and your numerous
sources of happiness comes to that
man or that woman it is a real oppor-
tunity given of God to you to listen
with kindllng eye and appreciative
face and word while they talk to you
of their joy. Such a privilege to them
is a little foretaste of heaven, where
all selfishness will be banished and
every one will be seeking to give joy
to others.
There is no more regrettable mistake
for any Christian to make than to per-
NIT himself to become so self-absorbed,
no matter how great his work may be,
that he shall become kill-joy to weak
and ordinary people who look to him
for appreciation in the gladness which
, comes to their lives. Jesus Christ was
never so self-absorbed in his sublime
mission for the worlds salvation that
he could nct erIer with sympathetic
heart and tender appreciation into the
joys as we'll as the sorrows of others.
He cast no dark shadow at the wed
ding feast, but added to its gladness.
Surely we have no right to be above
our Lord and hold it beneath our dig
nifty to bestow our smiles on the whole
some gladness that has come to any
soul.
But we must not only keep our
hearts tender in appreciation of the
joys of others, but in sympathetic rela-
ticn to their sorrows as WELL We
should be so sensitive in our relation
to our fellow-men that it will be i'm
possible for us Is see sad look on
any face and our own heart not feel
something of the flow of it. How SEN
sitive Jesus was to the petition of the
blind. TO the lonely wall of the leper,
to the silent shame of the disgraced
woman, to the anxious appeal of the
father whose child was sick, to the
quiet tears of the poor widow follow
ing her only son 10 the grave! In
these and countless Other cases
Christ's heart mourned as though he
himself were blind, or leprous, or anx-
ious, or mourneT behind the bier. Ha
entered with perfect sympathy and fell
lowship into the sorrows of the people
with whom he lived. His heart was so
tender that every breath of human sad
ness swept his soul as though it had
OGch a AhiPs ~ VIC flhuSl hF1p Ouf
hearts tender.
Do you ask rue how we can do this?
The answer is simple; by putting our
selves constantly in helpful relations
to others. Do the kind deed on every
opportunity, and you may be sure that
the kind feeling will soon come to be
natural to you. The difficulty is that
we often curb our kind feelings and
restrain them We shut back the SYM
pathetic word that is on eur lips until
our tongues become dumb to that J md
of speech. Give your heart a chance
to show its kindness. Give your lips
the opportunity to speak the sympa-
thetic word. Give your hands and feet
free will to go on their missions of
kindness and cheer and you will soon
see that your heart is growing tender
and mellow, so that none rejoice and
you are not glad and none are sorrow
full and you are not stricken.
CHURCH HUMANITY'S HELPER.
BY Rev. n. 4. Bartlett.
When 1 read about men who attack
the beliefs of the church and call halt
on prayer, on the Bible and other
1bipos which hava boon held 90 cred I