Character and Conduct – 3 May – Sympathy

THERE is nothing which seems to try men’s patience and good temper more than feebleness;  the timidity, the vacillation, the conventionality, the fretfulness, the prejudices of the weak;  the fact that people can be so well-meaning and so disappointing, – these things make many men impatient to a degree of which they are themselves ashamed.   But it is something far more than patience and good temper towards weakness that is demanded here.   It is that the strong, in whatsoever sphere their strength may lie, should try in silence and simplicity, escaping the observation of men, to take upon their own shoulders the burdens which the weak are bearing;  to submit themselves to the difficulties amidst which the weak are stumbling on;  to be, for their help’s sake, as they are;  to share the fear, the dim-ness, the anxiety, the trouble and heart-sinking through which they have to work their way;  to forego and lay aside the privilege of strength in order to understand the weak and backward and bewildered, in order to be with them, to enter into their thoughts, to wait on their advance; to be content, if they can only serve, so to speak, as a favourable circumstance for their growth towards that which God intended them to be.   It is the innermost reality of sympathy, it is the very heart and life of courtesy, that is touched here:   but like all that is best in moral beauty, it loses almost all its grace the moment it attracts attention.

The Spirit of Discipline, Bishop PAGET

Nothing but the Infinite pity is sufficient for the infinite pathos of human life.

J. SHORTHOUSE

oooOOOooo

These quotes are from ‘Character and Conduct’ A selection of helpful thoughts from various authors arranged for daily reading.

Collected by Constance M Whishaw and first published in 1905 as a follow up to her volume of Daily Readings for members of the Being and Doing Guild who asked for an additional volume

In her preface Whishaw writes:

‘This collection of noble thoughts expressed by men and women of past and present ages who have endeavoured to leave the world a little better than they found it.’

It is my hope in publishing the her readers may be inspired to imitate the example of the authors.