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Reverence is the spirit of the Christian towards that which is above him, and sympathy is his spirit towards that which is about him. That which is above is summed up in God; that which is about us is summed up in man. We speak of sympathy as a feeling for others, where it is in the fullest sense of the phrase a feeling with others. Sympathy is not from without, not from above, as of one who looks afar off upon some object which moves his pity, but it is from within, and reaches to our whole being. He who really sympathises has in the true language of the heart entered into the feelings of another and made them his own. That which moves him belongs not to a stranger but to himself; he has mastered so far the secret of a true communion of life. And then, for the most part, and very naturally, we understand by sympathy a fellowship in suffering. We are most conscious of our need in moments of sorrow, and in such moments we can most recognise how much we owe to those who help us. But sympathy does not find scope in suffering only or even chiefly. It is co-extensive with human emotion and human experience. No doubt the service of sympathy costs us something. We must bear and feel the burden which we remove. The wonders of Christ's infinite compassion were indeed triumphs of human love rather than of Divine authority, and as we study them we dimly discern with something of trembling awe what is meant by "the power of His resurrection" and "the fellowship of His sufferings"; how it is through pain and seeming loss and death that we gain, in Him, for others and for ourselves, the blessings of life. The service of sympathy does cost us something, but it brings abundant compensation. St. Paul has told us the secret of his unmatched influence: "I became all things to all men." His influence flowed, that is, from his sympathy, and the transformation wrought in him by sympathy was a reality and not a superficial imitation. It is always so. Just as the great poet lives in the characters which he creates, so the great teacher makes himself the true fellow of his scholars; he regards things with their eyes, he reflects on them with their thoughts; he offers his lessons to them in the form which answers to their condition; he wins to them a larger knowledge because he enables them to see how the new grows from the old, guards their peculiar treasures, and makes these also tributary to the interpretation of his messages. As it is with the great teacher, so it is with the great leader. He who sways men must be one with them, however far removed by his personal gifts. For sympathy is not the communion of like with like, but the power of uniting things different in the embrace of a greater life. Sympathy, therefore, preserves these small differences answering to our individuality, on which the beauty of the whole order of things depends. It does not only give; it receives. He who enters into the feelings of others becomes partaker of their energy. It does not only offer; it claims. He who is seen to sacrifice himself freely for the service of another, can justly demand in return a service corresponding to his own. And both aspects of its working must be observed carefully. Till we have called out the response of action we have not attained the object of our efforts; till we have sunk ourselves in those we wish to help, we have not measured the full extent of our power, for all experience tends to show that self-surrender is the gauge of power. It cannot be otherwise, for self-surrender is the gauge of faith. It is the soul's answer to the voice which calls us to become fellow-workers with God. That voice too often is unheard, and "when we consider our worst failures and disappointments, we must confess that words which are constantly on our lips express most truly how they have been brought to pass. Even in our highest purposes "we have followed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts," we have pursued our ends in our own manner, we have fashioned them according to our own fancies, we have placed our own things and not the things of others in the forefront, we have not used the way of sympathy. So we have gained no entrance to the hearts of those whom we sought, and we have been cast down by the conviction of our weakness. Perhaps during that conviction we have recognised what we needed and found encouragement. For sympathy, which is the source of influence, is also the source of strength. In isolation there can be no experience of the highest human forces. It is through contact with our fellows that we feel the majesty of truth and righteousness. As we move among men, we see that our own best thoughts are shared by others, and we are invigorated by their silent support. Thus common testimony tells us that God is on our side. He has not left us desolate. He Himself works among us by His gifts, and they who have them are said to be ministers of His loving wisdom, trusting not to their own power but to His, confident not in their own foresight but in His sovereign will. So it is that as soon as we see this social destination of our several endowments, sympathy enriches us with the manifold resources of all through whom God is working. We draw strength from the very burdens which we have to bear.

(Bp. Westcott.)

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KJV: Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

WEB: Remember those who are in bonds, as bound with them; and those who are ill-treated, since you are also in the body.