tion we may meet with; all such brooding is unwholesome and
weak. Many of our minor sufferings we do best to keep to ourselves and
say nothing about them. Let us strive to show sympathy, and we shall
feel less the pain of not having it. To a large extent every one must be
alone in life--forming his own views of things, working out his own idea
of life, conquering his own sins, and schooling his own heart. And every
one is more or less misunderstood even by his most intimate friends. He
finds himself congratulated on occurrences which are no joy to him,
applauded for successes he is ashamed of; the very kindnesses of his
friends reveal to him how little they understand his nature. But all
this will not deeply affect a healthy-minded man, who recognises that he
is in the world to do good, and who is not always craving applause and
recognition.

But there are occasional times in which the want of sympathy is
crushingly felt. Some of the most painful and enduring sorrows of the
human heart are of a kind which forbid that they be breathed to the
nearest friend. Even if others know that they have fallen upon us they
cannot allude to them; and very often they are not even known. And there
are times even more trying, when we have not only to bear a sorrow or an
anxiety all our own, but when we have to adopt a line of conduct which
exposes us to misunderstanding, and to act continuously in a manner
which shuts us off from the sympathy of our friends. Our friends
remonstrate and advise, and we feel that their advice is erroneous: we
are compelled to go our own way and bear the charge of obstinacy and
even of cruelty; for sometimes, like Abraham offering Isaac, we cannot
satisfy conscience without seeming to injure or actually injuring those
we love.

It is in times like these that our faith is tested. We gain a firmer
hold of God than ever before when we in actual life prefer His
countenance and fellowship to the approbation and good-will of our
friends. When in order to keep conscience clean we dare to risk the
good-will of those we depend upon for affection and for support, our
faith becomes a reality and rapidly matures. For a time we may seem to
have rendered ourselves useless, and to have thrown ourselves out of all
profitable relations to our fellow-men: we may be shunned, and our
opinions and conduct may be condemned, and the object we had in view may
seem to be further off than ever; but such was the experience of Christ