mpassion on the
multitude," we are told, and in His tongue was the law of kindness.

Therefore, among the virtues which we set ourselves to acquire during
Lent, let us set ourselves, with the help of God, and by the grace of
our Lord Jesus Christ, to see if we cannot acquire in our characters,
as part of them, this power of sympathy; and, as we test ourselves, one
by one, by the laws which ought to govern our lives during these six
weeks, let us test ourselves by that law which more than any other goes
to the root of our characters--the law of kindness.

We ought to obey this law, first, in our own home lives; secondly, in
our private charities; and, thirdly, in our public responsibilities.
And, first of all, have we got such a perpetual spring of sympathy in
our hearts ready for emergencies, ready for every sufferer, ready for
every sinner who comes to us? Have we such a perpetual spring within
us, ready and accessible for use in our home lives? It seems that the
one thing a Christian should never be without is this spring of
sympathy. "The water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of
water springing up to everlasting life." It is hard to see what good a
Christian is doing in the world at all if this primary function of his
Christianity is undischarged. If he fails in that, he is failing in
his primary duty. This, then, is the first question I would press upon
everyone, as I would press it upon myself: Have I at the disposal of
the brother who needs me the sympathy he wants, and if not, of what use
am I in the world? Think what some lives are in the home circle; all
the other members of the family have to devote themselves to keeping
some one in a good humour. The children are anxious lest the father or
perhaps the mother should be ill-tempered to-day. This so-called
Christian, with the primary duty of being loving, sympathetic,
considerate, is a creature of moods; father is ill-tempered to-day, and
the whole house is miserable; or mother, for some reason unexplained to
the children of the family, for days together allows herself to be
under a cloud of gloom. And you see in a family--who has not seen
it?--an amount of restless, anxious, watching, to try and prevent the
ill-temper creeping over this one whose temper is of such importance to
the whole family circle. And do we not constantly see that most unjust
tyranny which the ill-tempered or ill-controlled member of the family
has over the rest?