Article October 15, 1910 Issue

SYMPATHY

MAY BELCHER.

Lack of sympathy is a charge frequently brought against students of Christian Science by those antagonistic to its teachings. What mortals generally understand by sympathy is often little more than mere emotionalism and the manifestation and expression of error. It sometimes seems difficult to explain to those outside of Christian Science how this false view of sympathy, which merely adds to our brother's burden instead of helping him, must give place to the true sympathy, which lifts him out of his sense of grief and discord and shows him that health and happiness are man's rightful heritage as God's spiritual child. When cases of sorrow and suffering were brought to our Master to be healed, he showed his true sympathy in proving to the sufferer the unreality of all his troubles by destroying and healing them. In Matthew's Gospel we read: "And Jesus went forth, and saw a great multitude, and he was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick."

While striving to put into practice our understanding of Christian Science, we must not forget that true sympathy is the reflection of divine Love, and also that divine Love is full of compassion, mercy, and patience. The truly sympathetic man or woman is one who has a quick insight into the needs of others, and such a one would never make the fatal mistake of saying to some timid inquirer into Christian Science, one who is, to mortal sense, full of pain and sorrow, "You have nothing the matter with you; all your suffering is a lie." He would first prove to the patient the nothingness of error by demonstrating to him the allness of God, good, in the healing of his sense of pain and discord. Then the patient, when he had gained that practical proof of the power of infinite Love, would be ready to see and understand how all belief in evil is an unreality, a false state of consciousness. We who are students of Christian Science need to be very much on the alert to guard our consciousness against the entrance of any error in the shape of impatience with a brother's seeming slowness in apprehending the truth. Doubts and difficulties out of which through God's help we have worked, are still very real to him, and we need to be very compassionate and gentle, and lead him step by step over the rough places with words of cheer and encouragement, until at last he too is able to rejoice in the "glorious liberty of the children of God." In Science and Health (p. 514) we read, "Tenderness accompanies all the might imparted by Spirit." The strongest thought is therefore the one which manifests the most tenderness and compassion.

All through our Leader's writings she impresses on us the necessity for wide sympathies and the human affection which alone can enable us to understand and meet the needs of others. She tells us that "the physician who lacks sympathy for his fellow-being is deficient in human affection, and we have the apostolic warrant for asking: 'He that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen' " (Ibid., p. 366). We must be willing to see things from our brother's standpoint as well as from our own. Wholesale condemnation of his cherished opinions and beliefs will never help him out of them. Courtesy is an essential part of sympathy, and we must be careful not to hurt a brother's feelings by any scornful or slighting allusions to the faith which he has hitherto held.

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