"PRACTICAL SYMPATHY."

Auckland Star, Volume LXI, Issue 34, 10 February 1930, Page 19

"PRACTICAL SYMPATHY."

"Endeavour to cultivate the grace of sympathy, for there are many peopl'i who find life very difficult." said the I Rev. W. Walker, when preaching on "The Refreshing Springs of Life" in the I itt Street Methodist Church last evening. "Wherever practical sympathy is manifested it refreshes and invigorates the recipient. It is one of the richest streams which water life's desert places. It helps to smooth the rugged path, it softens the jarring things of life and heals the aching heart. When Mary anointed the feet of Jesus with precious ointment Judas pronounced it to he a wasteful act, but Jesus perceived the sympathy behind the deed nnd declared that she had wrought a pood work. By that act of sympathy He was encouraged to face the terrible ordeal of the Cross. "Divine worship is a refreshing spring. People to-day arc apt to forget the tremendous cost by which liberty of worship has been won. Men and women have hazarded their lives and suffered unspeakable tortures to obtain the right of worshipping according to the dictates of conscience. Worship is one of the most deeply-ingrained instincts of the human heart. It can never be eradicated or outgrown. For a while it may be ignored or suppressed, but no matter how much a man may strive against its pressure in the time of crisis it will break through the cracks of the soul and the heart will cry out to the God of the Universe. "It is a moral calamity when the pressure of life's activities are permitted to crowd out the meditative and worshipful spirit." Mr. Walker concluded an impressive discourse by reminding the congregation of God's eternal love expressed in Jesus, and urged his hearers to drink deeply at that spring and then to become channels of blessing to others. Miss L. George rendered the solo "In the Gai - den."