Sympathy, Compassion and Mercy.
Sympathy is a feeling corresponding to that which is felt by another, a correspondence in kind if not in degree, and may be a feeling of either pleasure or pain. We may laugh or cry in sympathy, and this may be merely a physical operation. Compassion is that species of affection excited either by the distress of its object or by some impending calamity. It is the state of sympathizing with the sufferings, troubles or misfortune of another, and seems to be altogether a moral feeling. We may have sympathy for another who is in distress, therefore, without exercising any compassion. Compassion influences us to turn our thoughts towards giving relief. Mercy is that benevolence or kindness of disposition that induces one to treat an offender with that forbearance and clemency which he does not in the least deserve. What a blessing it is to poor, sinful rebels, that he with whom we have to do is not only possessed of sovereign authority, infinite power, and inflexible justice, but that he, having worn our nature, feels and exercises sympathy, compassion and mercy in the highest degree! When he became incarnet he stooped to mingle tears with mourners, and he wept over distresses which it was his purpose to relieve. Our lack of sympathy, compassion and mercy is to be attributed to the depravity, he possessed these attributes in their highest possible degree. Before his arm was extended to cure diseases and relieve sufferings his bowels of sympathy and compassion were moved, and his mercy, combined with these, induced him to say to the palsied man, "Son, be of good cheer; thy sins be forgiven thee;" and to say of the woman that washed his feet with her tears, "Her sins, which are many, are forgiven;" and to assure the dying thief that he should that day enter paradise with him.As he now sits at the right hand of Omnipotence as the High Priest of his people, he is still touched with the feelings of their infirmities. In a manner inconceivable to us, but perfectly consistent with his supreme dignity and perfection of happiness and glory, he still feels for his suffering people. Having atoned for their sins, he has the undisputed authority to forgive them all, which he does, not according to any thing done by them, but according to the riches of his grace. Having purchased them with his blood, and having brought them into vital union with himself by raising them from a state of death, he now regards them with a feeling of sympathy, compassion and mercy. When Saul persecuted the members of the body upon earth, the Head complained from heaven. The most tender mother would be more likely to sit insensible and inattentive to the cries and wants of her darling infant than would the Lord Jesus be likely to sit an unconcerned spectator of the sorrows of his children.
With the eye, ear, and heart of a friend, yea, the very best friend, he attends to their griefs, counts their sighs, and bottles their tears. When their spirits are overshadowed, and their hearts are overwhelmed within them, he knows it all, adjusts their trials, and provides everything that is necessary for their support and seasonable deliverance, displaying the same unerring wisdom that enabled him to weigh the mountains in scales, the hills in a balance, and mete out the heavens with a span. Their sorrows he knows as one who has been in their situation, having endured inexpressibly more for them when he was upon earth than he will ever lay upon them or allow them to bear. Poverty, hunger, sorrow, pain, disgrace, temptation, suffering and death have all been santified by his passing through them, and in whatever state his children are plunged they may by faith have fellowship with him in his sufferings, and he will, by sympathy and compassion, have fellowship with them in theirs. Oh! what a sympathetic, compassionate, and merciful High Priest he is! The very concerns of his entire family are written upon his heart, and their management, to the very hairs of their head, are under his providential care, and he even promises to be merciful to their sins and to remember them no more. He so delights in their prosperity that if there were not something in them that needs discipline and medicine he would never permit them to be in heaviness. Even those days which they call the darkest he enriches with such mercies and blessings that abundant proof is furnished that he does not willingly grieve them. When he sees a necessity for chastisement he does not withhold it because he loves them, for that is the very reason he inflicts it. He will neither allow them to suffer too much nor to suffer in vain, because he sits by the furnace in which his silver is tried to direct the process and secure the end he has in view.
It is so sweet to lie passive in the hand of this sympathetic, compassionate, merciful and loving Friend! Grief will necessarily attend afflictions and trials, but a certain moderation in this should be sought by us so that it may not be indulged and excessive. This world is filled with weeping. Sin has produced many thorns and briars, many crosses and calamities. In this great battle field many are falling around us continually and it is no wonder we are occasionally wounded. In fact it is more wonderful that we escape so well. We must bear our share of its afflictions, for that is our unavoidable lot. It is well to have our minds duly impressed with the voice that says, "Be still, and know that I am God."
No doubt if Moses had found Israel in prosperity in Egypt, as in the days of Joseph, they would have been very unwilling to remove to the land of Canaan, but their afflictions made his message to them welcome. Thus the Lord weaks our attachments to this world by breaking our cisterns and withering our gourds - by pains and disappointments. Many of God's promises are suited to a state of affliction, and we cannot well know their suitableness and power and sweetness unless we are brought into a state to which they refer. Take the promise, "Call upon me in the days of trouble, and I will deliver." How could we taste the sweetness of that promise and rejoice in its fulfillment if we were never in trouble? To one that is not in trouble that promise is like the City of Refuge to an Israelite who had not slain a man and was in no danger of the avenger of blood. But he who has been in deep trouble and experienced the fulfillment of that blessed promise can set his seal to its usefulness, as the man-slayer who has escaped the avenger's fury by the protection of the City of Refuge. Thus is the sympathy, compassion, mercy and loving kindness of Jesus displayed, and the honor and glory of his name declared.
J. R. D.
Copyright c. 2005. All rights reserved. The Primitive Baptist Library.
