The Capacity for Sympathy

“Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.” — Pat. ii, 4.

PAROCHIAL vision is never true, If my eyes are confined within the circle of my own things I shall misread the values of life, and I shall become the victim of sore delusion. It is in the petty self-circle that evil prejudices are born, and cruel asperities, and these always constitute a spiritual fog which destroys the accuracy of all our judgments. And just here we come upon a very subtle irony in the law of life. A man who steadily refuses to look sympathetically upon “the things of others” can never really see his own. He may think that he does, but that is only one aspect of his delusion. We can only get our true vision by exercising our sight in the welfare of our brother. That is to say, a vital part of our moral equipment is buried in our neighbour’s field. We refine and purify our lenses in another man’s affairs. Selfishness never gets beyond fragments; sympathy makes us whole. A selfish man sees nothing truly; he has not found his eyes.

Now the larger life is not gained in a day. We cannot leap into a healthful and helpful regard for the things of others. True sympathy is a very delicate and exquisite spiritual ministry. We may so easily bruise where we intend to serve. We can be brusque in our interest, and awkward and clumsy in our attention. Nothing demands so tender, and therefore so firm and sure, a touch as the fingering of a soul, and if we are to do it helpfully we require powers of the rarest refinement. For instance, we need a well-schooled and disciplined imagination. We need to know what is going on behind stone walls. We need to be able to pierce forced laughter and find behind it a well of tears, to get at the back of seeming frivolity and find a weary, breaking heart.

And then, too — we need disciplined emotions — healthy, tender, responsive. For we are to weep with them that weep, and to rejoice with them that do rejoice, and no shallow and conventional sentiment will suffice. We are to be able to thrill to the shy, awaking mood of the soul which is just falling in love with Christ; and we are to feel the gathering chill of a love that is growing old and cold in the years. Where can we get these needed powers with which to look upon the things of others? We can get them in reverent and purposeful prayer to Him who has promised to give.