There is but one, abiding,
unchanging Sympathizer!

(John MacDuff, "The Sympathy of Jesus" 1874)

"For we do not have a high priest who is unable
 to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we
 have one who has been tempted in every way,
 just as we are." Hebrews 4:15

How varied were the methods by which Jesus,
when on earth, expressed His sympathetic love
and thoughtful compassion! He was the world's
good Samaritan, binding up the wounds of
aching humanity!

The sympathy of Christ is a comprehensive and
particular sympathy; embracing not only all His
Church, but every individual member of it.
It takes in the whole range of . . .
  human infirmities,
  outward troubles,
  inward perplexities,
  and unspoken griefs,
with which a stranger dare not meddle.

No trial,
no pang,
no tear,
escapes His eye.

With a microscopic power "He knows our frame;
He remembers that we are dust," as if we stood
alone in the world, and individually engrossed
all His solicitudes.

The world's sympathy is often short lived. It
cannot penetrate the depths and recesses of the
smitten heart. It cannot make allowances for
intense grief. It offers its tribute of condolence
at the moment; but if the heart wounds remain
unhealed, it has its own harsh verdict on
'inordinate sorrow'.

Sorrowful anniversaries come back, but they are all
unnoted, except by the bereft one, who has learned
to lock up these sacred griefs, and to weep alone.

There is but one, abiding, unchanging Sympathizer!
The Immutable Savior! The moss may gather over
the tombstone, and almost obliterate the lettering;
but no corroding hand of time or of years,
"Can ever efface us from His heart,
 Or make His love decay."

The sympathy of the dearest earthly friend may be
evanescent. Brother may be estranged from brother;
sister from sister; friend from friend. But "there is a
Friend that sticks closer than a brother." There is
but one, abiding, unchanging Sympathizer!