23. Sympathy
Sympathy "Touched with the feeling of our infirmities.."—Hebrews 4:15.
"The king also himself passed over the brook Kidron."—2 Samuel 15:23.
"The Queen and Mr. Bright.—Yesterday Her Majesty the Queen sent from Windsor Castle a telegraphic message to Rochdale, expressing her deep sympathy with Mr. John Bright in the irreparable bereavement he is now sustaining. Mr. Bright acknowledged Her Majesty's kind consideration."—Daily News, May 15.
It is thought to be a great honour to receive royal sympathy; how much greater to enjoy continually the sympathy of the King of kings! Our Lord whose diadem was made of thorns has secret ways of communing with his tried servants, and assuring them that in all their afflictions he is afflicted. A mysterious telegraph works between the courts above and the mourner here below, and the message is quietly sent—"When thou passest through the waters I will be with thee." No doubt the fact that the Queen herself has experienced a never-to-be-forgotten bereavement has made her heart tender towards those who suffer in like manner; she understands the sadness of a lonely heart through having lost the well-beloved partner of her life. We all of us learn sympathy by being made familiar with suffering. The same truth holds good in the higher sphere of the perfect human nature of our Lord Jesus Christ. He was in this respect made perfect through suffering, and consequently he hastens to send by his Spirit assurances of sympathy to all his afflicted people, assurances which shall be a sacred balm for their sorrows, and cause them to find a honeyed sweetness in their cups of gall.
"There is no heart like the heart of Jesus, Filled with a tender lore: Not a throb or throe our hearts can know, But he suffered before."
How greatly these kindly deeds of her Majesty tend to secure the loyalty of her subjects and to set her on high in the estimation of her people. Thoughtful people are not fascinated by the pomp of royalty, they look to the character of the monarch, and are far more charmed by generous acts than by diamonds and gold. Our own Lord and King above is exceeding glorious, but his conquering glory lies in his superlative love and matchless tenderness. He hath remembered our souls in adversity, and therefore is he very glorious in our eyes; we praise him without ceasing because he abounds towards us in lovingkindness, and his mercy endureth for ever.
"Let his dear love our hearts inflame, That perfect love which faileth never; And sweet Hosannas to His name Through Heaven's vast dome go up for ever!