Article September 27, 1930 Issue

Compassion

IDA RANDALL SIMONEAU

The measure of compassion entertained by one is commensurate with his comprehension of this Christly quality which Jesus so perfectly expressed in his contact with sinning, suffering, inharmonious humanity. No characteristic of the Master is more prominent than this wonderful connecting link between the divine and the human. If we were asked which of the varied qualities of divine Love will accomplish most, we might answer, Compassion. Sympathy is associated with compassion in the thought of mortals, but they are not interchangeable terms. In the history of the experience and ministry of Jesus the Christ, compassion is presented as the Godlike attribute to be exercised in humanity's behalf.

In our everyday dealings with our fellow men, whatever savors of compassion helps to harmonize these relationships. The requirements of divine Love in every situation include consideration for others. A beautiful sense of humility companions the quality of love designated compassion; and the gentle Nazarene exemplified this. In her Message to The Mother Church for 1902 (p. 18) Mrs. Eddy writes, "Jesus was compassionate, true, faithful to rebuke, ready to forgive," so showing that compassionate treatment withholds not the merited rebuke to error, but handles it to its exclusion; and this eventuates in complete forgiveness.

The compelling animus of Mind is shown in the healing of the two blind men who cried out from the wayside asking that they might receive their sight. First, Jesus "had compassion" on them; then he "touched their eyes: and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed him." The desire for wholeness on the part of the men to be healed was no small factor in this divinely natural restoration. The yearning for spiritual discernment of the real man, perfect and unlimited, "conformed to the image of his Son," is to-day satisfied by attaining the understanding of the Christ, Truth, through the teachings of Christian Science, wherein we see Principle and idea, God and man, as cause and effect.

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